Amalfi Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Character Card Setup
  • (1) Basic way
  • (2) Advanced way ①
  • (3) Advanced way ②
• Player Board
• Additional Player Board
• Acquiring Cards
• How to Play
• I Action Phase
  • Main Actions
  • a. Place a Ship piece
  • b. Acquire Chart/Contract card
  • c. Shipbuilding
  • d. Play a Character card
  • e. Tap an Action Character card
  • f. Pass
  • Free Actions
    • a. Discard Character card(s) and gain Food.
    • b. Move a Ship piece and gain the Food of corresponding Thaler.
    • c. Claim a Milestone card.
• II Food Phase
• III Settlement/Preparation phase
• Game End
• FAQ
• Solo Rules
• Icon Description
• Credits

Components

• 1 main board
• 4 player boards
• 4 additional player boards
• 48 Character cards: 22 (Permanent), 6 (Action), 12 (Immediate), 8 (Ending)
• 21 paints
• 21 books
• 21 buildings
• 29 Charts
• 5 Settlement cards
• 9 Milestone cards
• 68 Ship pieces (17 x 4 colors)
• 24 Colony tokens
• 4 Food tokens
• 1 Start player marker

Setup

1. The person who has been on board ship most recently is the start player. Otherwise, choose the start player in whatever way you like. The start player takes the start player marker and places it nearby his/her player board.
2. 1- or 2-player game: Place the unused color Ship pieces on (3 Food → 2 Grain) and (3 Food → 3 Spice). You will not use these spaces in the game. 3-players game: Place the unused color Ship piece on (3 Food → 3 Spice). You will not use this space. 4-player game: You will use all the spaces.
3. Shuffle all Charts and make a face down pile on the left of the main board. Draw 5 Charts and place them face up in the central space.
4. Shuffle all Contract cards and make a face down pile on the left of the main board. Draw 6 contract cards and place them face up on the central space.
5. Choose 3 Milestone cards at random and place them face up next to the main board. Return the remaining 6 Milestone cards face down to the box.
6. Choose 4 Settlement cards at random and place them face up on the space. Return the remaining 1 Settlement card face down to the box.
7. The players each place 1 Ship piece nearby "1" on the VP track.
8. The players each place 1 Ship piece on the "0" space (of 0, 50, 100, and 150) at the bottom right of the main board.
9. Shuffle all Character cards excluding the 8 Ending Character cards and make a face down pile to the left of the main board. Shuffle the 8 Ending Character cards and make another face down pile next to the first pile.
10. Player Board
    • Place 6 Ship pieces in the Sea space.
    • Place 6 Ship pieces on "3" to "8" in the Shipyard.
11. Additional Player Board
    • If you are 1st/2nd/3rd/4th player, place 1 Food token on the space "3"/"4"/"5"/"6" respectively.
    • Place 6 Colony tokens on the spaces "7" to "12".
12. The players receive the Character cards in one of 3 ways described on the next page. After that, draw 4 Character cards from the deck and place them face up in line on the main board.

Character Card Setup

(1) Basic way

Some Character cards each have the icon [1], [2], [3], or [4] on the bottom right corner. There are 8 cards with each icon. 4-player game: A set of cards with the icon [1] is given to the 1st player, a set of icon [2] cards for the 2nd player, and so on. The set of icon [4] cards will not be used in a 3-player game. The sets of icon [3] and [4] cards will not be used in a 2-player game. Return the remaining Ending Character cards to the box. Collect all the Non-Ending Character cards. Shuffle them and make a face down pile on the left (9) of the main board. Draw 4 cards and place them face up on the card space below the board.

(2) Advanced way ①

If all of you have played Amalfi, this way is recommended.

1. Divide the Character cards into 8 Ending Character cards and other 40 Character cards.
2. Deal 2 Ending Character cards and 8 Non-Ending Character cards to each player. The remaining Character cards will not be used in the game. Return them to the box without revealing them.
3. The players each choose 1 card from the 2 Ending Character cards and choose 1 card from the 8 Non-Ending Character cards as their hand. They then hand over the remaining 1 Ending Character card and 7 Non-Ending Character cards to the left player at the same time. Add to your hand the 1 Ending Character card handed to you.
4. Choose 1 card from 7 cards and hand over the remaining 6 to the left player.

Continue this move until you have 6 Non-Ending Characters cards in addition to the 2 Ending Character cards in your hand. Return the remaining 2 cards to the box without revealing them.

Each player has 2 Ending Character cards and 6 Non-Ending Character cards as their hand.

Shuffle the Non-Ending Character cards not dealt to the players and make a face down pile to the left of the main board. Draw 4 cards from that pile and place them face up on the card space below the board.

(3) Advanced way ②

1. Divide the Character cards into 8 Ending Character cards and other 40 Character cards.
2. Deal 2 Ending Character cards and 8 Non-Ending Character cards to each player. The remaining Character cards will not be used in the game. Return them to the box without revealing them.
3. The players each discard 2 of the 10 cards they have received and keep the remaining 8 cards as their hand. (Both Ending and Non-Ending Character cards can be discarded.) Return the remaining 2 cards to the box; no one can check them.

Shuffle the Non-Ending Character cards not dealt to the players and make a face down pile to the left of the main board.

Draw 4 cards from that pile and place them face up on the card space below the board.

Player Board

There are 5 Resource spaces in the upper section, Sea space in the center, Homeland space in the bottom left section, and Shipyard in the bottom right section. In this game, to acquire a resource, move one of your Ship piece in the Sea space to the corresponding Resource space. If you do not have any Ship piece in the Sea space, you cannot acquire any resource.

• Resource spaces (Wheat, Wine, Gem, and Textile): By moving 1 Ship piece from one of these spaces to the Sea space, you gain 3 Thaler, which can be used to pay for card acquisition.
• Spice space: By moving 1 Ship piece from the Spice to Sea space, you gain 2 Thaler, which can be used for card acquisition.
• Sea Space: By moving 1 Ship piece from the Sea to Homeland space, you gain 3 Thaler, which can be used for any payment. Gaining 3 Thaler in this way is called "Emergency Procurement".

Tip: Emergency Procurement is an inefficient action. If there is nothing else you can do, for example at the end of the round, you might as well do it. Otherwise, it is better to avoid Emergency Procurement and gain money through other means.

• Homeland space: The Ship pieces moved to the Homeland space cannot be used until the next round. They will be available again in the Preparation phase of the next round.
• Shipyard: At the start of the game, there are 6 Ship pieces that can be used if you build them. Each time you build a ship, move 1 Ship piece from the Shipyard to the Homeland space.

Additional Player Board

The placement of the Food token indicates how much food you currently have. When you receive Food, move the token to the right. When you pay Food, move the token to the left. The Food token cannot be placed on a cell where a Colony token is placed. At the start of the game, you cannot have more than 6 Food. Each time you get a Colony token during the game, move the leftmost Colony token on the additional player board one space to the right.

Gaining a Colony token has the following benefits:

• Increase your food cap (6 at the start, 12 at max)
• Get Food for the number of Colonies during the Food phase
• At the end of the game, get victory points (VP) according to the number of Colonies you have. (1/2/3/4/5/6 tokens → 1/2/4/6/9/12 VP)

Acquiring Cards

You can acquire a Chart or Contract card on the main board. The cost of a card is printed in the top left corner of the card in Thaler and required resource. Any resource (except for Food) can be used to pay the cost of a card with the multicolor icon. If additional costs are written on the board, these additional costs must be paid. (Unpurchased cards will slide to the right and become cheaper.)

Ex: (Red/Blue "8" Building card) — To get this Building card costs 7 + 1 (additional cost) = 8 Thaler. You can pay by Wine, Textile and/or Emergency Procurement. The resources used for payment can be in any combination, and the surplus in payment will be directly converted to 1 Food per Thaler.

After payment: If a Contract card is acquired, there may be a bonus printed in the center. Bonuses can only be obtained once at the end of the turn in which you purchase the card. In the example, you acquire 2 Food.

How to Play

A game is played over 4 rounds. Each round is divided into 3 phases.

Phase I Action Phase — The players take turns clockwise from the first player to perform one action until all players pass.

Phase II Food Phase — Earn and pay for Food.

Phase III Settlement / Preparation Phase — All players will score points as determined by the Settlement card for that round. Then flip the Settlement card face down, discard cards from the main board, and collect all Ship pieces. (Some of these steps are skipped in the last round.)

I Action Phase

On their turn, a player performs one of the following 6 main actions. Play then proceeds clockwise to the next player. Repeat this until all players "f. Pass".

In addition, you can take any number of Free actions at any time during your turn.

Main Actions

The main actions are as follows.

• a. Place a Ship piece
• b. Acquire Chart/Contract card
• c. Shipbuilding
• d. Play a Character card
• e. Tap an Action Character card
• f. Pass

a. Place a Ship piece

Move 1 Ship in the Sea space on your player board to an Action space (space with a Ship icon) on the main board or your previously acquired Chart.

If Food is shown to the left of this ">" icon, pay Food and acquire the resources on the right of the ">" icon. Move a number of Ship pieces from the Sea area of your player board to the appropriate Resource area to indicate receiving these resources.

• You cannot place a Ship piece on a space that already has a Ship piece.
• You cannot place a Ship piece on a Chart that has not been acquired, or on Charts belonging to other players.
• If you cannot pay the indicated Food cost, you cannot take this action.

b. Acquire Chart/Contract card

Pay the cost and any additional cost indicated on the top left of the card and take 1 Chart or Contract card from the board. Victory points, shown at the top right of the card, will be added to your total at the end of the game.

You cannot take more than 1 Chart/Contract card during your turn.

Once you take your card, slide cards to the right to refill the empty space, then draw from the deck to replenish the leftmost space at the start of the next player's turn. The card drawn and added to the row will have the most additional cost. Contract cards provide lots of VP.

The Chart and Contract card rows should always be full at the start of a player's turn. If the Chart deck is exhausted, continue the game without the Chart deck. If the Contract deck is exhausted, shuffle the discard pile immediately to form a new deck.

The Charts you acquire provides you Action spaces that only you can use once per round by placing your Ship pieces like the Action spaces on the main board.

c. Shipbuilding

Pay the cost by Wheat or Emergency Procurement to build a new Ship piece.

The cost per ship is 6/5/4/4 Thaler in rounds 1/2/3/4. You can build multiple Ships in one turn.

Every time you build a Ship, move one Ship piece from the far left of the Shipyard to the Homeland space. Ships built will be placed in the Sea space from the next round. After that, you can use the Ships during every round.

You cannot build more than 6 Ships.

Any Ships bought during the fourth round cannot be used (as it will not move to the Sea space in the next round).

Tip: Shipbuilding is an important action. If you cannot decide what to do at the initial stage, it is safe to build a Ship. In Amalfi, one Ship piece can be used for a minimum of 3 Thaler to buy cards, so Ship tokens are mostly useful.

d. Play a Character card

Play a character card from your hand in the play area. Pay the cost in Thaler shown on the top left of the card, in the same way as in "b. Acquire Chart/Contract card".

There are 4 types of Character cards.

(A) Immediate — This card is activated only once immediately when it is played. Note that when there is a scoring opportunity that states "Excludes Immediate Cards" in the scoring criteria, these cards do not count toward the score.

(B) Permanent — These cards stay effective until the end of the game. The effects are triggered at the timings stated.

(C) Action — These cards can be tapped (rotated sideways to trigger its effect) once per round. The tapped cards cannot be reused in the round. In the preparation phase of each round, return these cards to their standard orientation.

(D) Ending — Additional points will be added at the end of the game. At the beginning, 2 Ending Character cards are dealt to each player. The remaining Ending Character cards are not added to the deck, so they cannot be drawn during the game.

e. Tap an Action Character card

In your field, tap an Action Character card, which has not been tapped this turn.

After you tap it (rotate it sideways and trigger its effect), it cannot be used again during this round.

In the Preparation phase of each round, return your used Action Character cards to their original position (i.e. portrait orientation).

f. Pass

If you no longer can, or no longer wish to, take additional actions, you can choose to pass.

Once you pass, no further actions can be taken during that round. (Hard Pass) After all players have passed, proceed to the Food Phase.

Free Actions

a. Discard Character card(s) and gain Food.

Discard one or more Character cards from your hand and obtain Food equal to the number of discarded cards.

b. Move a Ship piece and gain the Food of corresponding Thaler.

For example, if you move 1 Ship piece from the Gem to Sea space, you get 3 Food. If you move 1 Ship piece from the Sea to Homeland space, you get 3 Food.

c. Claim a Milestone card.

Place a Ship piece on an unclaimed space on a Milestone card and immediately gain VP.

Be careful not to accidentally use a Ship piece from your hand.

In the rare case where Contract cards run out, all players can each perform the additional free action to convert 3 Thaler to 1 VP using free combinations of Spice, Wheat, Wine, Gem and Textile.

II Food Phase

Acquisition: Acquire Food for the number of Colony tokens you have earned. You cannot get more Food than the upper hand limit. Any excess Food is ignored.

Payment: Pay a number of Food equal to the largest revealed number in your Shipyard. At the start of the game, you must pay 2 Food per turn.

If you build all your Ships, you must pay 8 Food.

III Settlement/Preparation phase

The players each earn points according to the Settlement card for that round.

Skip the following steps in the final round.

Turn the Settlement card for this round face down to show it has been scored.

Move the rightmost Chart card on the board to the Public Chart space and refill the card row immediately. Charts in the Public Chart space will be available to all players in the next round.

Discard the two rightmost Contract cards on the board and refill them immediately.

The players each collect all of their Ship pieces in the Action and Homeland spaces and place them in the Sea space.

Return all tapped Action Character cards back to their original positions.

Give the start player marker to the player on the left.

Exception: In a 3-player game, the player with the lowest victory points gets the start player marker in the fourth round. (In case of a tie, determine who among the tied players will be the first player in whatever way you like.)

Game End

The game ends after 4 rounds.

After the 4th round, add the following to each player's victory point total:

• VP from Colonies
• VP from Chart and Contract cards
• VP from Ending Character cards.

In case of a tie, the player with the most left-over food is the winner.

FAQ

Reshuffling Cards:

Chart and Character cards will not be reshuffled even if the deck is exhausted. When there are no Character cards available, instead of adding a Character card to your hand, you gain 2 Food. (The card effect that reads "Every time you add a Character card to your hand" can be obtained even if the deck is exhausted.)

The Contract card discard deck should be reshuffled when the deck runs out, forming a new deck. If a Contract card is no longer available, all players can each perform the additional free action to convert 3 Thaler to 1 VP using free combinations of Spice, Wheat, Wine, Gem and Textile.

If you run out of Colony tokens:

After you have used all 6 Colony tokens, gain 1 VP per Colony token you should have received instead.

Carrying Over Resources:

Can I carry over unused resources to the next round? → The cards in your hand is private and the Character cards returned to the box during the setup and Character cards in the discard pile are concealed.

Public Information:

What information is private or concealed? → The cards in your hand is private and the Character cards returned to the box during the setup and Character cards in the discard pile are concealed.

If you do not have enough Ship pieces to get resources:

If I perform an action to get 2 resources on a Chart when only 2 Ship pieces remain on my player board, can I get 2 resources? → You can get 1 resource, convert it to Food as by a free action, and then get 1 additional resource. If there is even 1 Ship piece on the player board, you can gain resources + Food by sliding and adjusting the Food track. If you do not have any Ship piece, you will not get anything.

For all descriptions:

All statements that say "Acquire" are optional. Even if you cannot complete the action wholly, you can still perform that action or bonus as much as you can.

Solo Rules

The following changes are made for solo play.

• Instead of three Milestone cards, randomly place four Milestone cards face up.
• Earn 30/20/15/10 points when achieving the Milestone in rounds 1/2/3/4.
• Arrange the four Settlement cards randomly face up. On each round, the player chooses which Settlement card effect to activate. Each Settlement card can only be activated once during the game. Turn the activated Settlement card face down.
• Draw 3 Ending Character cards and 10 other Character cards. Then choose and keep 8 of these 13 cards as your hand. Discard the remaining cards.

The following changes will be made during the game.

• Ignore the additional Resource and Food cost icons in the Chart and Contract card rows.
• Ignore the icons for paying and receiving Food in the Character card row.
• In the Settlement/Preparation phase, make the following changes:
• Discard the rightmost Chart card instead of moving it to the Public Chart board.

Icon Description

Resource — The number under the resource icon indicates the number of that item or its value in Thaler.

• Spice
• Wheat
• Wine
• Gem
• Textile
• Food
• Spice, Wheat, Wine, Gem and/or Textile (in any combination)
• One of the applicable resources

Cards

• Character
• Contract Book
• Contract Paint
• Contract Building
• Chart
• Milestone
• Achieved Milestone
• Settlement
• Immediate
• Permanent
• Action
• Ending
• VP
• Sea space
• Homeland space
• Ship piece
• Shipbuilding
• Colony

These arrows appear in the top left of the icons on resources and cards. The down arrow (Gain) indicates the action to gain the item, and the up arrow (Pay) indicates the action to pay the item.

The pentagon shape indicates the timing to perform the action depicted in the pentagon.

Credits

Game Design: Takeo Yamada Illustration: Urabe Rocinante Art Direction & DTP: Sai Beppu

Publisher: uchibacoya Address: 83 Kinsei-cho, Yamakawa, Ibusuki-shi, Kagoshima, Japan https://uchibacoya.stores.jp