Goa FAQ
89 questions players ask · Updated Nov 11, 2026 · Full rulebook
Setup
- Does the starting player get an extra action card or a free action at setup?
- What happens to the expedition cards turned over to decide the starting player?
- Which information in your hand is secret: money and expedition cards?
- What do the A and B backs on the game tiles mean?
- Are spices, colonists, ships or ducats limited, and what happens if one runs out?
Auctions
- How does a tile auction run: who opens at zero, and who gets the last word?
- Who receives the money when a tile is won at auction?
- If the auctioneer wins his own tile, what does he pay?
- If everyone passes, does the auctioneer get his own tile for free?
- Does the auctioneer who keeps the flag for free still get the extra action card?
- Which auction tiles give you an extra action card?
- Is the flag auctioned again every round?
- Can you bid more ducats than you have in an auction?
- Can one player win more than one auction in the same round?
- Where may the starting player place the flag?
- How are the auction markers placed before the auctions start?
Player Actions
- What counts as one action on your turn?
- Can you pass instead of taking one of your three regular actions, to save it for an extra action?
- Can you take the same action more than once in a turn or a round?
- What are ships used for?
- Can you sell spices partway through a harvest to make room for more?
- Can you give a spice back from a plantation to make room for a harvest?
- Can you move a spice from one plantation or colony to another to free a space?
- Can you discard spices from your plantations or colonies for no effect?
- How are spices on plantations and colonies refilled after they are used?
Development Board
Found a Colony
- When founding a colony, do you name it first and choose the tile?
- Where do the colonists for a colony come from, and how many are needed?
- Does advancing the colonist track give you colonist cards?
- Do colonists printed on expedition cards in your hand count toward a colony?
- Are the expedition cards you flip for a colony kept in your hand?
- Where do the colonist cards you spend to found a colony go?
- Can you decline to found a colony even with enough colonists, and what do you get if it fails?
- Can you try to found the same colony more than once?
- Can you place spices on a colony board before founding the colony?
- Can you play the two-colonist expedition card after the colony cards are flipped?
- Must the card that draws a third colonist be played before the colony cards are flipped?
End of a Round
- How many extra action cards can you play at the end of a round, and must others get a turn in between?
- In what order are the extra action cards resolved, and can a player with several pass?
- Can you play an extra action card during another player's regular action?
- How do you keep track of the rounds during a part?
Game End and Scoring
- How many rounds does a game of Goa last?
- How are ties for the most victory points broken at game end?
- How many victory points does each set of matching expedition symbols score at game end?
- Is the 20 VP for six matching symbols a misprint for 21?
- Are expedition cards still in hand at game end scored, even single symbols?
The Expedition Cards
- How many expedition cards can you play in one action or turn?
- When must an action-modifying expedition card (marked A) be played?
- Can you play an expedition card in the middle of an action to get more from that same action?
- Where do used expedition cards go, and are they discarded after use?
- When is the used expedition discard pile reshuffled into a new draw pile?
- May you look through the used expedition discard pile to see which cards have been played?
- Can you play a 5-ducat expedition card during an auction to add its cash to your bid?
- Can the expedition card that pays ducats to advance a track move a marker more than one row?
- With the Harvest expedition card, can you take a mix of spices, ships and colonists?
Expedition Hand Limit
- Does the expedition hand limit apply all the time, or only when you draw cards?
- When you draw expedition cards at your hand limit, do you discard before or after drawing?
- Can you discard or play a card between draws within one draw-expedition action?
- Can you draw fewer expedition cards than the track allows?
- Do additional action cards count toward the expedition hand limit?
Tile Timing and Use
- Does using a tile such as Espionage, Swap or a red tile count as one of your actions?
- When you use Espionage on an opponent's colonist track, do you found a colony or just gain the colonists?
- What can Espionage take from an opponent's board, and can it draw expedition cards?
- Can an action-modifying expedition card be played together with Espionage?
- When can you use a red tile, and can you use several in one turn?
- Can you collect a red tile's 4-ducat bonus during the auction phase, before your first action?
- When can you take the resource from an orange tile, and does it add to the action?
- When can you first use the Swap tile after buying it?
Plantations and Colonies
- Do newly bought plantations and founded colonies come with spices on them?
- Can you take a spice from a bonus or tile when you have no free plantation or colony space?
- Can a green/red plantation or colony take green one time and red the next?
- Where can spices go, and can a harvest fill any two plantation spaces?
- Can Calicut hold two different spice types?
- What happens when you discard a plantation to make room for a new one?
- Can you own more than four plantations, and can you own several that produce the same spice?
- Apart from scoring, is there any difference between a plantation and a colony?
- Does Crop Rotation count as a plantation, and does it score at game end?
Specific Tiles
- Which success marker does the Vice-King tile move?
- Can the Re-supply tile split its colonist total between spices, ships and colonists?
- How many spices does the Extra Harvest tile give?
- Do the six spices for the Duty tile have to be paid all at once?
- If you win a plantation you do not want at auction, must you place it on your board?
Editions and Variants
- Is Destination: Spice Islands different from Goa: A New Expedition?
- What are the main rule differences between the first and second editions of Goa?
- Does Goa officially support two players, and is the second edition two-player?
- What is the Bonanza variant, and how do the Bonanza tiles work?
- Can you buy an extra action card for 8 ducats in place of taxes?