Crossing Oceans Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Game Overview
• Setup
• Game Turn
  • 1. Either place a ship or take a contract
  • 2. Use contracts
  • 3. Carry out one action on the rondel
    • The actions on the rondel
    • Focus on ships
    • Focus on trade houses (short: houses)
• End of the Game
• Scoring

Components

• 1 game board
• 4 player boards
• 16 Blue Ribands
• 16 coal piers
• 48 trade tokens (16 each red, green and white)
• 40 captains (10 of each color)
• 28 trade houses (7 of each color)
• 40 coals
• 54 flags (9 each blue, black, red, green, white and multicolored)
• 5 Red Lanterns
• 22 contracts
• 80 cash
• 50 ships and 5 headquarters

Each ship and headquarter card shows, on its front: construction year, name, income, flag color, price, speed in knots, and tonnage (some ships have no listed speed or tonnage value). On the back it shows a sea region name (for the 5 starting ships), or a number from 0 to 9 (for the steamships in the draw stack). Clippers (sailing boats built before 1869) start the game in a certain port and do not need coal.

Game Overview

Set the game up as described in the separate game setup.

The owner of the Cutty Sark is the starting player. Play continues in a clockwise direction from the starting player.

Each player turn consists of the following three phases:

1. Either place a ship on the game board or take a contract,
2. Use one or more contracts (optional),
3. Move to a new action spot of the rondel and carry out its action.

The rondel has 8 action spots, with there being two spots for "ships". In carrying out this action you can buy new steamships and later in the game headquarters. The ships are the main element of the game, you need them to receive income with the other actions (except "coal"). Ships are also essential for your end of the game scoring. Each ship is linked to a flag. These flags score points at the end of the game according to the build up of your player board. The 3 actions "region", "fleet" and "cargo" can help with your cash flow. The action "Blue Riband" additionally gives you a Blue Riband for the build up of your player board. The action "house" grants you a small income and a trade house in one of your ports as well as a trade token that you can use to build up the three rightmost columns on your player board. The steamships generate income in serving their lines and use up coal to do so. With the action "coal" you can load coal on your steamships and take coal piers for your black column of the player board.

When the stack for ships (and headquarters) runs empty, the end of the game is triggered. At the end of the game you score points. Even though you score some points for money, built trade houses and captains at sea, the most points can be scored by having the right combination of flags and the correct build up of your player board. Take care that you advance the value of the flags that you collect and also that you collect those ships with the flags of which you are increasing the value!

Setup

1. Place the game board in a central location reachable by all players. Decide on which side of the board you play. The two sides are exactly the same except for their art style.

2. Place the following components each as a common supply on the game board:

   • Blue Ribands (16) and coal piers (16) on North America
   • Contracts (22) on Africa
   • Trade tokens (16 green, 16 red and 16 white tokens) on South America
   • Coal (40) on Europe
   • Bank notes separated by value as the bank on Asia

3. Place all the flags next to the ship-market as a common supply.

4. Sort all ships and headquarters according to their back - "sea region" and "0" to "9" - in 11 separate stacks:

   • Place the 5 starting ships with the name of a sea region on their backs and the 5 steamships with a "0" on their backs aside for the moment.
   • Shuffle the ships within the stacks "1" to "9" separately.
   • Build the large face-down draw stack out of these stacks. Stack "9" is at the bottom, followed by "8" on top of it, then so on, with the stack "1" at the top.
   • Fill the 6 spots of the ship-market from left to right from the draw stack.

5. Place the starting ships on the game board:

   • the Scotia to New York (North Atlantic)
   • the Cutty Sark to Sydney (Tasmanian Sea)
   • the Thermopylae to Bombay (Indian Ocean)
   • the Leander to Yokohama (Pacific Ocean)
   • the Ariel to Buenos Aires (South Atlantic)

   In a 3-player game, turn the Ariel on its back, to mark that the South Atlantic and its three ports are closed during this game. Thus, with 3 players there are only 4 regions and 4 starting ships available.

   In a 2-player game, turn the Leander and the Ariel on their backs to mark that the South Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean are both closed and each of their three ports as well. Thus, with 2 players there are only 3 regions and 3 starting ships available.

   Afterwards, place a red lantern on each ship that has not been turned on its back in the 3 to 5 regions that are available during your game.

6. Choose your color and take your set of components:

   • 10 captains and 7 trade houses as your personal supply,
   • 1 player board,
   • £150 and 1 contract,
   • 1 play aid.

7. Shuffle the five steamships with a "0" on their backs (the ships from 1870-1874) and then each player draws one ship from this stack. Place this ship in your personal supply off board and take one matching flag from the common supply and place it next to your player board.

The player with the Cutty Sark begins the game.

Game Turn

1. Either place a ship or take a contract

A) Place one ship

Background: Each ocean region on the board contains 2 to 4 ports and each port is linked to a ship spot. The ships mark a regular line between this port and a port in Europe. Each port may only be served by one single ship. The oldest ship (lowest construction year) in a region will always be marked with a Red Lantern token.

Take 1 ship from your personal supply and place it on a ship spot of the game board. If there are empty spots in the chosen region, you must choose one of these empty spots. If each spot already contains a ship, you must replace the oldest ship of the region. Replacing is only possible, if your ship is younger than the ship you replace.

Place 1 captain of your color from your personal supply and 1 coal from the common supply on your placed ship. (Clippers, i.e. the sailing boats until 1869, do not receive a coal. They are powered by wind!)

If you replace a ship, carry out these steps:

• Remove any coal on the replaced ship and place it in the common supply.
• Give the replaced ship and its captain back to its owner. It can be used again, if it can legally be placed.
• If the neutral Scotia is replaced, remove it from play.
• Mark the oldest ship (lowest construction year) with the Red Lantern of the region.

B) Take one contract

If you cannot or do not want to place a ship, take 1 contract from the common supply. (Contracts count as unlimited. If they run out, take a substitute.)

Example - place a ship: The Pacific Ocean contains three ships on its three ship spots. The oldest ship in the region is the Atlantic in Yokohama which is marked by a Red Lantern. Yellow wants to place a ship there but has to replace one of their own. Yellow owns the Thermopylae (year 1868) and the Britannia (year 1887) in their own supply. As the Thermopylae is older than the Atlantic (year 1871), the Atlantic cannot be replaced by the Thermopylae. Thus, Yellow takes the Atlantic back to their personal supply and places the Britannia onto that ship spot. The Britannia comes into play with a yellow captain from Yellow's personal supply and 1 coal from the common supply. The Red Lantern moves to the Devonia which has the construction year 1877 and is now the oldest ship in the region.

2. Use contracts

You can exchange any number of contracts with the bank for money, coal and trade houses, or for extra steps on the rondel:

Money: Take £20 from the bank for 1 contract.

Coal: Take 1 coal from the common supply and place it on one of your ships on the game board for 1 contract.

More than three steps on the rondel: Pay 1 contract for this (see the rondel action below for more details).

Open a trade house: Pay 2 contracts. This action requires a ship in a port without a trade house of yours. Build 1 trade house in a port with one of your ships and take one green, red or white trade marker for your player board. Carry out the steps 2 and 3 that are explained in detail for the "House" action of the rondel (see below). Contrary to the action of the rondel, your ship will not generate income, thus skip step 1.

Example - Use contracts: Blue pays 4 contracts and takes £40 from the bank (= 2 contracts) and opens 1 trade house (= 2 contracts). Blue opens a trade house in New York, as Blue owns the Oregon there. Additionally, Blue takes a green trade token from the common supply and places it on their own player board in the green column (there is already a green trade token printed).

3. Carry out one action on the rondel

The rondel has eight action spots that the captains of the players walk through in a clockwise direction. Captains do not block spots and may be placed on the same spots as other captains.

In the very first turn you can choose any spot on the rondel. Place your captain on the chosen spot and carry out its action.

In all subsequent turns you must move the captain to another spot. Move the captain 1, 2 or 3 steps in a clockwise direction. If you pay 1 contract to the common supply, you can move further than 3 steps. You could move, for example, from "ships" to the other action "ships". (You can never stay in the same spot or move forwards, so that you arrive in the same spot you left.)

The available actions are described below. If an action is composed of more than one step, you must carry out the steps in their exact order.

Blue carried out the action "coal" and choses a new spot. Blue can choose from: Region (1 step), Ships (2 steps) or Blue Riband (3 steps).

The actions on the rondel

Ships

1. Buy: You can buy up to 3 ships (or headquarters) from the ship-market and/or the docks. You must pay the extra costs listed for the current position in addition to the printed price of the ship (+£10 in position 1, +£20 in position 2 and so on). Buying from the docks only costs the listed price on the ship.

Take all the ships you bought with their flags and place them in your personal supply, sort the flags above your player board according to their color. If you bought a headquarter, place it in your personal supply. Place the multicolored flag next to your player board. Additionally, take the trade token that is depicted in the lower right corner of the headquarter (Blue Riband, coal pier or a trade token of a certain color) from the common supply and place it without the usual additional costs on the topmost empty spot of the matching column. (If the column is full, take a token for the column in which you have the fewest, without paying any costs.)

2. Fill the ship market: the ship market receives 3 new ships/HQs from the stack (independent of whether you bought 1, 2 or 3 ships/HQs). To make room for the 3 ships, you must move all the remaining ships of the ship market to the left (keeping their original order), until there are 3 empty spots to the right. If ships are moved beyond position 1, they are placed into the docks. In the docks there is enough room for only 1 single ship of each flag color. So, if there is already a ship with this flag color, you must remove that ship from play and place the ship that just moved over from the ship market there instead. Then, place a matching flag from the common supply on each ship that is new in the market. If the stack of ships is empty, the headquarters (and ships) in the market only move to the left. If the stack of ships runs empty, the end of the game is triggered. This round is completed as usual and then you play 3 entire rounds. Follow the rules for the end of the game (see End of the Game).

Example - ships: 1. Red decides to buy the two available blue ships. For the Pommerania in the docks, Red must only pay the price of £60 listed on the ship. For the Belgenland the extra costs of £30 are added to the listed price, thus, Red pays £90 in total for this ship.

2. Then, the market is refilled with 3 new ships from the stack. To make room for the 3 new ships, in this case, first, the 2 ships on the left (Arizona and City of Berlin) will be moved to the docks. As the Abyssinia is on the black flag of the docks it will be removed from the game to make room for the City of Berlin that also has a black flag. The 3 remaining ships are now moved to the left, so that the 3 spots on the right are empty. These spots are now refilled from the stack. Finally, place one matching flag from the common supply on each one of the 3 ships that has newly entered the market.

Focus on ships

Ready ships

Steamships are only ready, if they carry at least 1 coal. The 4 clippers (sailing boats) do not require coal, they are always ready. (You cannot place coal on clippers.) If steamships transport and generate their income, they use up 1 coal, which is returned to the common supply.

Some ships have no listed speed or tonnage. Clippers start the game in a certain port and do not need coal.

Fleet

All your ready ships generate their income. Each steamship uses up 1 coal in doing so (except clippers).

Take the income from the bank, place the coal back into the common supply.

Example - fleet: Green owns these 4 ships on the game board and carries out the action "fleet": The Ormuz has no coal, thus, it is not ready. The other 3 ships have coal, or in the case of the Cutty Sark as a clipper is always ready.

The Arizona and the Adriatic return one coal each to the common supply. Green takes this income from the bank: £50 (Arizona) + £30 (Adriatic) + £20 (Cutty Sark) = £100

Cargo

Designate one of your ready steamships, this steamship carries out a large cargo job and uses up 1 coal in doing so. The profit generated from this job, depends on the tonnage of the ship, take £10 per 1,000 tons from the bank. Return one coal from the ship to the common supply.

Ships without listed tonnage are excluded from this action.

Example - cargo: Green owns the 4 ships on the game board depicted above. Green can only use the Arizona for a cargo job. The Ormuz has no coal and is, thus, not ready. The Adriatic and the Cutty Sark have no listed tonnage value. Thus, green designates the Arizona and returns one coal from the Arizona to the common supply. For the tonnage of 5,000 tons, green takes £50 from the bank.

Region

Designate one region: All owners of ready ships in this region earn their income and use up one coal for this from their ships (except clippers). Return the coal to the common supply. Each owner of a ship that earned income in this way, takes it from the bank.

As you initiated this action, you take a Bonus of £30 from the bank for each of your own trade houses within this region.

Example - region: Blue designates the Pacific Ocean as the region. The Majestic has no coal and thus, isn't ready.

The Stirling Castle and the Oregon each return one coal. Yellow takes £30 as their income.

Blue takes £50 as their income. As Blue initiated the action and has 2 trade houses in the region, Blue takes a bonus of £60 from the bank.

Blue Riband

The Blue Riband can only be acquired by the fastest ship in the North Atlantic. You take double the income and return 1 coal for your record breaking crossing of the North Atlantic Ocean. If at least one other ship has the same fastest speed in the North Atlantic, you can acquire the Blue Riband in returning 2 coals from your ship for the record breaking crossing - your firemen almost blow up your engines to be faster! In this case you still only take double the income. At the beginning of the game the Scotia blocks the North Atlantic, so that ships with a speed of under 15 knots cannot acquire the Blue Riband, as she holds the speed record.

Additionally, you take one Blue Riband from the common supply and place it in the first column of your player board. If the column is already full, you cannot take another Blue Riband. Instead take one trade token or coal pier for the column in which you have the fewest, pay the costs to the bank, if any.

Example - Blue Riband: In phase 2, Green returns 1 contract to place 1 coal on the Arizona.

The steamship Arizona (1879) crosses the North Atlantic with a speed of 15 knots on its way to Montreal. The only other ship in the North Atlantic, the neutral Scotia in New York also has a speed of 15 knots. As the Arizona only had 1 coal, green spends 1 contract in phase 2 in order to place 1 additional coal on the ship. Now green can carry out the action Blue Riband with the Arizona: The Arizona uses up 2 coals. Green takes double the income from the bank for this record breaking crossing (2x £50 = £100) and a Blue Riband for their player board.

Coal

Carry out these two steps:

1. Buy one coal pier: You may take one coal pier from the common supply. Place it on the topmost empty spot of the matching column on your player board. If this spot has a listed cost, pay it to the bank. In this case (to the right) it is £30. If the column is already full, you can take a token for the column in which you have the fewest, pay the listed cost to the bank, if any.

2. Load coal: First, take as many coals from the common supply as you have coal icons on your player board. In the case above, you take 4 coal (as you also count the coal pier that you just bought). Distribute this coal evenly amongst your steamships on game board, adhere to these rules:

• As long as there are steamships of yours without coal, no steamship can load a second coal; As long as there are steamships of yours that only have 1 coal, no ship can load a third coal.
• No steamship can have more than 3 coals. If you have more coal than legally placable, it is lost.

Example - coal: 1. Yellow has already two coal piers on their player board and now places another one from the common supply on the third spot. Thus, Yellow pays £60 to the bank.

2. Yellow now has 5 coal icons on their player board (2 printed on the board and 3 from acquired coal piers) and, thus, takes 5 coal to load from the common supply.

Yellow may distribute 5 coal on their 4 ships. As the Ariel is a clipper, she cannot receive coal and is ignored for the rest of the distribution. The first coal must be loaded on the Campania, as she has no coal at all currently. Then, there are 2 ships with only one coal currently, these must be loaded with a second coal now. Thus, 1 coal is placed on the Campania and 1 on the Adriatic. Now there are 2 coals remaining, as all the steamships now have 2 coals, they can be distributed freely, yet not both on the same ship. Yellow decides to place 1 coal on the Mauretania and 1 on the Campania. Both, the Mauretania and the Campania, thus, have reached the maximum of 3 coal they can carry.

House

Designate one port in which you want to build a trade house. Requirement: There must be a ship you own in the linked sea spot and you cannot have already a trade house in this port.

1. The ship transports: If the ship in the linked spot is ready, you earn income from the bank and return 1 coal from this ship (except clippers) to the common supply.

2. Place a trade house: Place a trade house in your color next to the port icon. If there are already trade houses of other players, pay £30 directly to each one of them.

3. Take a trade token: Take a trade token of your choice (red, green or white) and place it on your player board in the matching column on the topmost empty spot. If this spot has a listed cost, pay it to the bank.

Example - house: Yellow designates the port of Rio de Janeiro. There is a ship owned by Yellow and they have no yellow trade house there:

1. Yellow returns 1 coal from the Campania to the common supply and takes £70 income.

2. Yellow places a house in Rio de Janeiro and pays £30 to green, as they already have a green house there.

3. Yellow takes 1 trade token from the common supply. Yellow choses a red trade token and pays £60 to the bank to place it on the next empty spot in the red column on their player board.

Focus on trade houses (short: houses)

Trade houses come in handy in several different occasions:

• You get £30 for each house in the designated region of the "region" action,
• you get £30 from a player that places a house in the same port,
• each trade house that you built is worth 3 points at the end of the game.

End of the Game

If, at the end of carrying out the action "ships", the stack is empty, the end of the game is triggered. Continue to play the remainder of this round and then play 3 more rounds, beginning each round with the owner of the Cutty Sark (i.e., the starting player). Finally, continue with the scoring at the end of the game. To count the three rounds down, after the stack ran empty, place 3 coals next to the captain of the starting player on the rondel. Each time this captain moves, remove 1 coal and move the remaining coal with the captain to its new spot. When it is this captain's turn, but there is no coal left, you immediately move over to the end of the game scoring (no further action is carried out). Now, place all the captains from the rondel on the "0" of the scoring track on the game board.

Blue has triggered the end of the game with their action "ships". As the stack ran empty, they placed 3 coals next to the yellow captain (the owner of the Cutty Sark) on the rondel. Then, they continue to play in the usual player order. When it is Yellow's next turn, the third last round has started. Yellow removes 1 coal token before carrying out their action.

Scoring

Score your points in following these four steps. Tally your points with the captain of your color from the rondel on the scoring track of the game board.

1. Coal and contracts are turned into cash. Exchange all the coal on you ships on the game board and your remaining contracts into money. Take £20 for each coal or contract.
2. Money scores points. For each £100 you own, score 1 point on the scoring track. Cash under £100 scores no points.
3. Score captains at sea and trade houses. Score 3 points for each captain at sea and for each trade house on the game board and tally them on the scoring track.
4. Score flags. The token at the lowest spot of a column on your player board determines the point value of the matching flag. If a column has no added tokens, the printed token in that column counts for 3 points. Multiply the value of the column with the number of matching flags you own and tally the result on the scoring track. The multicolored flags score the number of colors of your other flags to a maximum of 5 per multicolored flag, if you have all other 5 flags. Add the result of the multicolored flags to the tally.

The player with the most points wins. In case of a tie for most points, the player that owns the younger ship wins.

Blue tallies up their points in scoring:

1.) and 2.) Blue has 1 coal on a ship on the game board and 1 contract in their supply and, thus, receives £40 for them. With their remaining cash of £120, it means they have £160 in total which scores 1 point.

3.) With 2 captains at sea (i.e., on ships on the game board) and 3 trade houses on the game board Blue scores additionally, 5 x 3 = 15 points.

4.) During the game, Blue has collected ships and headquarters with these flags: 4 blue, 1 black, 2 green, 1 red and 2 multicolored flags.

These score as follows:

4 x 9 = 36 points (blue column) 1 x 3 = 3 Points (black column) 2 x 7 = 14 points (green column) 0 x 3 = 0 points (white column, bought no ship with a white flag) 1 x 5 = 5 points (red column) 2 x 4 = 8 points (multicolored flags: for 4 points each, as Blue owns blue, black, green and red flags)

This tallies up to 82 points in total for Blue.