Maracaibo

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Details

Sourced from: https://jmo.name/games

Player Aid Author: Jarrod Moore

Description

Seafarers journey to obtain wealth and fame in the 17th century Caribbean.

Expansions in Use

  • The Uprising

  • Place card 78 on game board in its space
  • Shuffle the combat tokens and put them in two stacks on the board
  • Prepare quest tiles:
    • Place a quest tile onto each space on the explorer track
    • Place a random quest tile on space 19
    • 4P: Place a quest tile on space 9 as well
  • Prepare legacy tiles:
    • Place the following tiles:
      • L1
      • L30
      • L40
    • Draw 3 project cards from the project deck:
      • Place legacy tile based on good icon shown on cards:
      Resource1st Card2nd Card3rd CardHerbL2L7L4BookL5L8L18MapL6L9L34TelescopeL33L36L31 + L32
      • Return cards to bottom of deck
  • 2P: Cover Maracaibo with the Maracaibo city tile for 2-player
  • Prepare city tiles:
    • Collect all city tiles corresponding to player count
    • Take two tiles marked with a ship wheel and then randomly choose two more
    • Randomly place them on the following places:
      • Space 4
      • Space 5
      • Space 13
      • Space 14
  • Prepare project card deck and display:
    • Shuffle Decks A and B:
      • Deck A: Dark brown ropes
      • Deck B: Light brown ropes
    • Deal each player 8 cards from deck A
    • Shuffle cards 90-106 into deck B
    • Shuffle 40 cards from deck B with remaining cards from deck A
    • Reveal the top 4 cards from the produced project deck to form the project card display
  • Prepare prestige buildings:
    • Place 4 randomly in spaces along top of the board
    • Turn the leftmost one face up
  • Place ownership markers onto the spaces at the top of the board:
    • 2P: Immediately place ownership markers on the following locations:
      • San Juan (No. 6): red marker
      • St. Kitts (No. 7): white marker
      • Martinique (No. 8): blue marker

  • Each player receives:
    • 1 player board
    • 1 overview card
    • 2 figures of their colour on their board:
      • Rest of figures form their figure supply
    • 2 career cards
    • 3 random home port tiles:
      • Do not place on player board yet
    • 1 combat action tile:
      • Place on board with side with green hand icons on it face down
    • 1 resistance tile:
      • Place on board with 5 doubloons action face down
  • Place the following markers:
    • Victory point marker on space 0 of the victory point track
    • Ship on Havana
    • Explorer on start space of explorer track
    • An influence marker on space 0 of each nation's influence track
    • One marker on space 1 of combat track on the player board
    • One marker on space 8 of the doubloon track
    • One marker on space 0 of the victory point income track
  • Select a start player (Official method: person most recently on a ship)
  • Give money based on starting turn order:
    • 1st player: 8 doubloons
    • 2nd player: 9 doubloons
    • 3rd player: 10 doubloons
    • 4th player: 11 doubloons
  • Each player then does the following with the 8 project cards they were dealt:
    • Keep 4 cards
    • Discard 3 cards
    • Place one of the cards on a planning space on the player board
  • Choose one of your career cards to keep:
    • Return the other to the box
    • Place 3 figures from your supply on the spaces on your card
  • Choose one of your home port tiles to keep:
    • Return the others to the box
    • Place chosen tile in space on player board
  • Place 2 discs onto each indicated gold circular space on your player board

Maracaibo is played over 4 rounds, each ending when one player reaches the end of the sailing route

Each player's turn will consist of 3 phases

Scoring Unused Assistants

You will score 2 victory points for each of your assistants that is on a space that is unused in the following 3 ways:

  • If you move past a location with the assistant on it
  • If you move to a location with the assistant on it but do not use that assistant
  • If you are made to place your ship on Havana and, as a result, do not use an assistant that round

Synergy Tokens

Throughout the game you may buy cards with synergy tokens printed on them

  • When you buy a card with one of these tokens on them, receive that token from the supply and put it next to your player board
  • You may only have one of each type of synergy token

Prestige Buildings

When you would buy a project card, you may instead choose to invest into a prestige building

  • All players are able to invest in all prestige buildings, even if another player has invested in it before
  • You are only allowed to invest in each prestige building once
  • Prestige buildings never come into your hand, they stay at the top of the board in the display
  • Prestige buildings are worth victory points at the end of the game

To invest in a prestige building:

  • Pay the indicated cost in doubloons
  • Put one of your figures from your supply and place it on the prestige building
  • Take the crown synergy tile if you don't already have it
  • Score 2 victory points if you are the first player to invest in that prestige building

Home Ports

When unlocked, the home port tile provides an immediate benefit in the beige space, which allows you to pay doubloons for victory points or influence, and an ongoing effect which is only available to you. The immediate effect part of the tile unlock can only be activated when it is unlocked

Resistance Tile

Whenever you liberate a location on the board, rather than remove a ownership marker on the location from the game entirely, you may place the removed ownership marker onto one of the four spaces on your player board and receive the benefit. The icon for liberating a location is an ownership cube with a green hand on it.

  • Move your ship forward between 1 and 7 spaces forward (following arrows)
  • Spaces with a scroll on them are cities, spaces without a scroll are villages
  • Multiple ships can be on the same space
  • If you land on a space with a red hand on it, you must stop on that space

  • Perform your main action and any number of free actions according to the location you stopped at
    • You can place a card from your hand into a vacant planning space on your player board
    • You can complete one of your career goals
  • You can only perform one main action, even if more than one option is available
    • If your ship is at a city, you may first deliver a good and then perform the indicated city action
    • If your ship is at a village, you may perform village action(s)
    • If there is a quest at the location, you can fulfill it
    • If your ship is at a location with one or more of your assistants on it, you can perform their special assistant actions
  • When receiving a benefit, the colour of the background denotes how you receive it:
    • Beige: an effect that is received one time only
    • Red: a permanent increase or bonus that you receive for the rest of the game
    • Blue: an action that can be performed when your ship is in the same location as an assistant on this card
    • Green: an effect that increases the income received during interim and final scoring

  • A city action always consists of two parts, and both parts are optional
    • Deliver a good to the market:
      • Note: You can only do this action if there is an empty space in the city's market and you have at least one card with a matching good symbol. You cannot deliver more than once during your turn
      • Discard a card from your hand with the matching good symbol
      • Remove a disc of your choice from your player board and place it on the empty market space
    • Perform the action indicated on the city
      • Follow the instructions shown on the city's scrolls

  • Reveal a combat token
    • If no combat tokens are left, all nations have a combat value of 3
  • Choose which of the 3 nations is engaging in combat:
    • If you choose to fight for the chosen nation:
      • Evaluate the condition at the top of the token:
        • If the token has a condition in its top row and it is met:
          • The nation who meets that condition gains a modifier to its combat value
          • If multiple nations are tied for this check, no nations receive the modifier
    • If you choose to fight against the chosen nation:
      • Any condition in the top row of the token is ignored
  • Optionally, you can increase the combat value for this turn by spending the following:
    • Combat points from your player board
      • You can only save a maximum of 8 combat points on your board
    • Returning figure markers to your supply
  • You can then use this combat value as points to spend towards performing combat actions

Note: When fighting for a nation, if an action removes an ownership marker from the board it cannot be placed on your resistance tile

  • You can only do this combat action once per turn
  • Pay the cost and immediately receive the corresponding benefit:
    • Spend 2 combat points to gain 1 influence with the fighting nation
    • Spend 5 combat points to gain 2 influence with the fighting nation

  • Note: You can only do this action if the fighting nation does not already have their ownership marker on the location
  • Choose a flag on the game board
  • You can only choose to do this combat action once per turn
  • Pay the cost of the action:
    • If there is no ownership marker on it, this action costs 4 action points
    • If an ownership marker is already on it, this action costs 6 action points
      • Remove the ownership marker on the flag from the game completely (not putting it back on the board)
  • Gain 1 influence with the fighting nation
  • Take one of the fighting nation's leftmost ownership markers from the game board and place it on the flag's location
  • Gain the bonus on the flag immediately

  • Note: You must have unlocked this action on your player board to perform it
  • Choose a village on the board
  • Pay the cost of the action:
    • If there is no ownership marker on the village, this action costs 2 action points
    • If an ownership marker is already on the village, this action costs 5 action points
      • Remove the ownership marker on the flag from the game completely (not putting it back on the board)
  • Gain 1 influence with the fighting nation
  • Take one of the fighting nation's leftmost ownership markers from the game board and place it on the location
  • Take 3 doubloons for each of your assistants that are on this location
  • Take 1 doubloon for each assistant belonging to another player on this location

  • Reduce combat value by 6
  • Take 3 doubloons
  • Score 1 victory point for each city with any nation marker
  • Remove one ownership marker of the nation you are fighting against from a city
  • Place it on one of the spaces on your resistance tile, if possible, and receive the corresponding reward

  • Reduce combat value by 4
  • Score 3 victory points for each neighbouring village with any nation marker:
    • Neighbouring means connected by a single arrow
  • Remove one ownership marker of the nation you are fighting against from a village
  • Place it on one of the spaces on your resistance tile, if possible, and receive the corresponding reward

  • You must always go forwards and never backwards on the explorer track
  • No space can have more than one explorer on it
    • Spaces with other player's explorers on them are skipped as if they weren't there
  • You do not have to use all of your movement points on a turn, but you must move at least one space
  • Some spaces allow you to choose which path to take
  • You only receive the reward for the space you finish on, not ones you move past
  • If you end on a space with a quest on it, you may also fulfill the quest
    • Do not replace the quest tile after it is fulfilled
    • If a quest has been fulfilled, from now on all explorers skip this space as if it wasn't there
  • There are 3 coloured barriers on the track, and you gain a benefit when you pass through them:
    • Red barrier: receive 3 influence with a nation of your choice
    • Blue barrier:
      • First player to cross: receive 4 victory points
      • 2nd, 3rd or 4th player to cross: receive 2 victory points
    • Green barrier:
      • First player to cross: receive 4 victory points
      • 2nd, 3rd or 4th player to cross: receive 2 victory points
  • When your explorer reaches the end of the explorer track, it stays there for the rest of the game
    • Immediately perform a village action when you get there
    • More than one explorer may be on the last space of the track
    • Receive victory points:
      • 1st player to reach this space: 10 victory points
      • 2nd player to reach this space: 8 victory points
      • 3rd player to reach this space: 6 victory points
      • 4th player to reach this space: 4 victory points
    • If you are at the end of the track and you receive explorer movement points, they are lost

  • The number of actions you can do depends on how many spaces you moved in the movement phase
    • The default number of actions you can do is:
      • 1-3 spaces: 1 village action
      • 4-6 spaces: 2 village actions
      • 7 spaces: 3 village actions
    • This can be upgraded on your player board to:
      • 1 space: 1 village action
      • 2-4 spaces: 2 village actions
      • 5-7 spaces: 3 village actions
  • When you are able to do multiple actions, you can choose to do the same action twice and they can be done in any order
  • The actions are:
    • Discard all cards in your hand and receive 2 doubloons
    • Receive 1 doubloon
    • Buy one of the cards in your hand or in the planning area of your board
      • You can then take the effects of the card immediately
    • Gain 1 combat point and receive 1 doubloon
      • This must be unlocked on your player board
    • Discard 3 identical goods and receive 2 doubloons and score 2 victory points
      • This must be unlocked on your player board
        • You must have unlocked the above action first before you can unlock this one
    • Take a marker from the nation of your choice and place it in the village you are currently on and gain 1 influence with that nation and take 1 doubloon
      • This must be unlocked on your player board
        • You can only unlock this action if you have unlocked at least 4 other upgrades on your board
      • You can only do this action if the village you are on does not currently have an ownership marker on it

  • Pay the cost shown at the top on the quest tile
  • Receive the reward shown on the quest tile
    • Part of the reward depends on how many compass symbols you have on your purchased cards and your player board
      • You start with one on your player board
  • Move the quest tile to your player board face down
  • You gain 3 victory points immediately for completing your 4th quest
  • You gain 2 victory points immediately for every quest you complete after your 4th
  • You do not replenish a quest tile when it has been fulfilled

  • Note: this action can only be performed when your ship is on a location with at least one of your assistants on it
  • You can only perform one assistant action on a location, even if you have more than one assistant on it
  • Perform the action as shown on the card, following the instructions in the blue area of the corresponding card

When a red hand it printed on a space, your movement for this turn must stop at that space. The last few spaces on the path have red hands printed on them, and which spaces are used depends on which round you are currently in

Rounds 1-3

  • Space 20: Choose one of the following:
    • Perform a combat action
    • Move your explorer up to 2 spaces forward
  • Space 21a:
    • Score 3 victory points
    • Place a disc from your player board on your coloured space:
      • This can only be done once per game per player
    • Perform an interim scoring

Round 4

  • Space 20: Choose one of the following:
    • Perform a combat action
    • Move your explorer up to 2 spaces forward
  • Space 21b:
    • Score 3 victory points
  • 21b:
    • Score 5 victory points
    • Proceed to final scoring

  • Draw project cards back up to your hand limit
    • This starts at 4 and can be upgraded to 6
    • You may draw project cards in any order from either:
      • The face-down project card deck
      • The face-up project cards in the display
        • Pay 1 doubloon for each card acquired this way
          • An upgrade on your board removes this cost
    • After drawing up to your hand limit, refill the display

At the end of rounds 1, 2 and 3, an interim scoring will take place. At the end of round 4, final scoring will commence

  • Starting with the player that triggered the round to finish, choose to either:
    • Gain two victory points
    • Buy 1 card (and then refill if appropriate)
  • Receive income from doubloon and victory point income tracks
  • Remove all discs on cities on the game board:
    • Do not remove discs from legacy tile 30
  • Reset the project card display with 4 new project cards
  • Reveal the next prestige building
  • Add new quest tiles depending on player count
  • Return all ships to Havana

Place quest tiles on the board according to player count and desired difficulty level

  • Space 15
  • 4P:
    • Space 8

  • Space 18
  • 3-4P:
    • Space 6

  • Space 12
  • 4P:
    • Space 10

  • Starting with the player that triggered the round to finish, choose to either:
    • Gain two victory points
    • Buy 1 card (and then refill if appropriate)
  • Receive income from doubloon and victory point income tracks
  • Score all cards in your display and prestige building investments
  • The player with the highest influence in each nation games 3 victory points
    • No VPs are scored if there is no movement on an influence track
  • To calculate the nation multiplier for each nation:
    • Sum the total number of VP symbols exposed
    • Add 2 to the total VP for the nation with the most markers on the board
    • Add 1 to the total VP for the nation with the second most markers on the board
      • If two nations are tied, they both receive +2 and 3rd place gets no bonus
      • If all three are tied, they all get +2
  • To calculate your nation VP bonus:
    • Multiply the most recent noble rank you have passed by the nation multiplier you just calculated for that nation

The player with the most victory points wins. In case of ties, the victory is shared

Thumbnail courtesy of BoardGameGeek and the respective publisher.