Liguria Rulebook

Table of Contents

Game components
Object of the game
Set-up – set-up for 4 players
Overview of variety tiles and ship cards
- Variety tiles
- Ship cards
Sequence of play
End of the game
Final scoring

Game components

1 Game board (back: the prestige points score track used for final scoring)
55 Ship cards
75 Paint cubes – 25 each of red, yellow, and blue
9 Islands – 6 islands showing red, yellow, or blue; 3 blank ones
7 Island score tiles – in value from 3 to 9
120 Variety tiles

Individual player components, in each player color:

1 Ship
1 Buyer
7 Ministers
2 Start tiles
1 Screen
1 Harbor
30 Coins – 20x silver worth 1 each, 10x gold worth 3
1 Cloth bag (the color may vary)
1 Rules booklet

Each ship's maximum cargo capacity for paint cubes is 10.

The harbor is a 3-part screen with a harbor board that has four rows — ships, merchants, buildings, monks — and diplomat spaces on the right side. The harbor pier acts as a storage area for paint on offer.

Object of the game

The goal is to have the most prestige points at the end of the game. Prestige points are earned by fulfilling bishop's contracts, upgrading variety tiles, conquering dedicated islands, and deploying diplomats in other players' harbors.

To be able to do that, players must wisely chose their variety tiles and ship cards each round. Whoever collects the best set of variety tiles and uses their ship cards to the full potential will have the most prestige points and win the game.

Set-up – set-up for 4 players

Unfold the game board in the center of the playing area.
Each player chooses their player color and takes:
- 1 screen
- 1 harbor
- 1 buyer
- 7 ministers
- 1 ship
- 2 start tiles
- 1 silver coin
Each player places their harbor in front of them, with their ship above it and their screen below.

They then place the two start tiles in the corresponding rows of their harbor.

They place the buyer, the ministers, and the silver coin behind their screen.
Each player places any two paint cubes of different colors at the top of their harbor board.

The harbor pier acts as a storage area for paint on offer.
Place all 120 variety tiles into the cloth bag.
Shuffle the island tiles face down, then place them face up between the harbor boards to create a circuit, which includes the harbor boards.

4 players: Return one blank island to the box before shuffling. Place two islands between each pair of harbor boards.

3 players: Use all 9 islands. Place three islands between each pair of harbor boards.

Note: Place no more than one blank island between any two harbors.
Shuffle the island score tiles face down, then place one face up on the designated space of each dedicated island. Return any unused score tiles to the game box.
Shuffle the 55 cards to form a deck. Keep this deck, all paint cubes and coins, and the cloth bag near the game board within easy reach of all players.
Randomly determine a start player.

That player places their buyer on the 4th space of the player order track.

The next player in clockwise order places their buyer on the 3rd space, then the next on the 2nd space, with each taking one additional silver coin.

The last player places their buyer on the 1st space and takes two additional silver coins.

Overview of variety tiles and ship cards

Variety tiles

Tiles placed at the harbor

These variety tiles are placed with the front side up on the harbor when acquired. During the game they can be upgraded (flipped) to earn the player prestige points.

Ships: The more wheels a player has, the longer he can sail with his ship. For each depicted wheel, he can advance his ship one step. Once upgraded the tile is worth 2 prestige points, but loses its ability.
Merchants: The more sacks a player has, the more paint cubes he can load on his ship. For each depicted sack, he can load one paint cube onto his ship. Once upgraded the tile is worth 3 prestige points, but loses its ability.
Buildings: Buildings are worth prestige points. Upgraded buildings are worth a lot more prestige points.
Monks: Each monk counts as 1 positive point (see score area on ship cards) at the end of the game. Upgraded they are worth 2 positive points and 2 prestige points.

Tiles placed behind the screen

Diplomats: Diplomats can be deployed at other players' harbors to earn prestige points at the end of the game.
Knights: Knights are used to conquer dedicated islands, thus gaining paint cubes and the lucrative island prestige points.
Bishop's contracts: Each contract demands a certain combination of paint cubes at the end of the game in order to earn the depicted prestige points.

Ship cards

Each round, a player chooses one ship card to hold onto for the rest of the game.

A ship card has three areas:

Score area: This area shows either positive (green) or negative (red) points. At the end of the game, if the sum of these points is not 0 or higher, the player will lose prestige points.
Actions area: The actions area shows different actions that a player can do on a turn while sailing with their ship.
- Wheel: For each depicted wheel, a player can move his ship one step.
- Anchor: The player can make a stop, then continue sailing.
- U-Turn: A player can change the direction in which they are sailing.
- Upgrade: Each depicted arrow allows you to turn one variety tile frontside down.
Offer area: Shows the paint cubes that a player has to take from the general supply and offer at his harbor. These can be picked up by other players. A blank offer area means the player does not have to offer any new paint cubes this round.

Sequence of play

Liguria lasts 8 rounds (9 rounds with three players), with one devoted "movement round" also being played. Each round plays out as follows:

Prepare for the game round
Place buyers
Take actions
1. Pick tiles and coins
2. Take a card and upgrade tiles
3. Move your ship

1. Prepare for the game round

Draw 15 variety tiles (12 tiles with three players) from the bag, placing them on the upper track of the game board one by one as you draw them.

3 players: 12 variety tiles and 3 ship cards 4 players: 15 variety tiles and 4 ship cards (cover all spaces)

Next, draw one card per player from the card deck and place the cards face up on the designated spaces of the game board.

In each round, at least one positive and one negative number must be available on the cards in the score area. If this isn't the case, replace the card drawn last with the top card from the deck, repeating this process if needed until the required positive or negative card is drawn. Shuffle all replaced cards back into the deck.

2. Place buyers

First, the player whose buyer is on the 4th space of the player order track places their buyer on a free space on the market street. Then follows the player on the 3rd space, then the player on the 2nd space, and finally the player on the 1st space.

Note: Only in this phase do players play in reverse player order.

The chosen space on the market street indicates how many variety tiles and coins the player can pick during this game round.

Example: Frank places his buyer on the market street first because his buyer is on the 4th space on the player order track. Next up will be Ulrich.

3. Take actions

a. Pick tiles and coins

The player whose buyer occupies the furthest left position on the market street performs this action first, followed by the other players from left to right (the player with their buyer on the furthest right position being the last one).

Based on the space they occupy on the market street, the active player takes the indicated amount of coins and variety tiles.

As long as a player picks adjacent tiles, they do not pay any money. However, if they want to skip a tile, they must pay one silver coin to the bank. A player may skip as many tiles as they want, but they must pay one silver coin to the bank for each skipped tile.

Example: Ulrich takes the silver coin as well as the diplomat and ship variety tile. Since he skipped the building variety tile, he must pay one silver coin to the bank.

A player keeps any knights, diplomats and bishop's contracts they selected hidden behind their screen.

A player places any ship, merchant, building and monk tiles they selected in the corresponding row of their harbor board.

After a player has picked their tiles, move all remaining tiles to the left, closing any gaps. Now, all tiles will be adjacent again, with no empty spaces between them.

Finally, the active player moves their buyer to the first free space of the player order track.

Example: Ulrich places his buyer on the 1st space of the player order track. Next up is Ani.

After all players have picked their coins and variety tiles, they proceed to b).

b. Take a card and upgrade tiles

In order of the player order track, each player takes one card from the game board, places it next to their screen, and performs these two steps:

A player must take the paint cubes shown on the card from the general supply and place them on the storage area of their harbor pier.
A player may upgrade (flip) one variety tile on their harbor board for each brown arrow on the card. By flipping a tile, the player gains more prestige points, but loses the function shown on its front side.

Example: Ulrich takes one blue paint cube, then upgrades his start ship tile, thus gaining 2 prestige points.

c. Move your ship

At the start of the game, each player's ship is in its own harbor. During their turn, a player must move their ship a minimum of one step and at most a number of steps equal to the number of ship icons on their chosen card for this turn, plus any on the player's harbor board. Each harbor board and each island represent one step of movement. A player may forfeit some steps, and a ship may stop its movement at places with other ships.

A ship moves in a fixed direction around the circuit until it arrives at a harbor and stops there. At the start of their next movement, the player may change the ship's direction if it starts its movement in a harbor.

A card with a U-turn arrow allows the player to change the direction of their ship either before or after the movement. In this case, the ship can also be at an island.

Example: With her 3 ship icons, Jenny can move her ship three steps and stops at Ulrich's harbor. Using the U-turn arrow on her card, Jenny now changes the direction of her ship at the end of her movement.

A card with an anchor icon allows the player to make a stopover, which consists of the actions described below.

Important: Even if the stopover takes place in a harbor, the player may not change the direction of their ship.

A ship's maximum cargo capacity is 10 color cubes. Paint cubes aboard a ship cannot be exchanged.

Whenever a ship stops, the player may perform various actions, depending on the location:

Dedicated island: Place knights and/or load paint cubes
A player's own harbor: Unload paint cubes
Another player's harbor: Load paint cubes and/or deploy a diplomat

Example: With his 4 ship icons, Ulrich can move his ship four steps. He moves the ship 3 steps and uses the anchor symbol on his card to make a stopover in Frank's harbor. Subsequently he moves the ship its last step.

Note: He could instead have ended the ship's movement in Frank's harbor.

The actions in detail

Island: Place knights and/or load paint cubes

If the island has no knights on it:

The player may conquer the island at which their ship had just arrived by stacking as many knight tiles on the island as they want and/or have at their disposal. They put one of their small minister figures on top of that stack to mark their ownership. Then, for each of their stacked knight tiles (not the number of swords) the player loads one paint cube of the color shown on the island onto their ship, taking them from the general supply. (Watch the cargo capacity!)

Example: Frank conquers an island, placing 3 knight tiles there. This means he can load 3 red paint cubes onto his ship.

If the island has one of the active player's knights on it:

If the player's ship stops at an island they conquered previously (i.e., an island with their minister on it), they load exactly one paint cube of the color shown on the island onto their ship. For each of their knight tiles on that island showing only 1 sword and a colored cube, the player also takes one paint cube of their choice.

Example: Frank conquered this island before and thus loads one red paint cube onto his ship. Because of his knight tile showing 1 sword and a colored cube, he also loads one paint cube of his choice, choosing yellow.

If the island has another player's knight on it:

If the island where the active player's ship stops is occupied by another player's knights, they may conquer the island by landing a greater number of knights (swords, not knight tiles) than the other player has.

The expelled player takes back their minister figure and knight tiles. The knight tiles are not returned behind the screen, but are flipped to their rear side (green 1) and kept separately until the end of the game.

The conqueror now places their knight tile(s) and minister figure on the island as explained before, then loads the appropriate number of paint cubes.

If a ship stops at an island without any knights or with another player's knights and the active player does not conquer the island, or the active player stops at a blank island, nothing happens. The number of knights on an island must always be visible for all players.

Example: With his 4 knights, Frank conquers Ani's island, which was held by only two knights. Ani returns her minister figure behind her screen and keeps the flipped knight tile separately.

Example: Frank places his knight tile and his minister on the island and loads one yellow paint cube onto his ship.

A player's own harbor: Unload paint cubes

The player unloads all paint cubes from their ship and hides them behind their screen.

Another player's harbor: Load paint cubes and/or deploy a diplomat

Load paint cubes

The player may load as many paint cubes from that harbor as the number of sacks on all their merchant tiles and as their cargo capacity allows.

Example: Ulrich's merchant tiles show 4 sacks, so he can load 4 paint cubes from Frank's harbor.

Deploy a diplomat

The player may place diplomat tiles on any free diplomat space on the right side of the other player's harbor board, then mark them with one of their minister figures. This diplomat applies to the row to the left of the figure.

The first player to deploy a diplomat on a player's harbor has to place a minimum of 1 diplomat (1 depicted scroll = 1 diplomat), the next player to deploy on this same harbor has to place a minimum of 2 diplomats, etc.

A player can place more than one diplomat on another player's harbor, but not on the same turn.

Example: One of Ulrich's figure is already at Ani's harbor, so Jenny spends 2 diplomat tiles, then marks them with her diplomat figure.

Next game round

After all players have completed their ship movement, they place their card for this round behind their screen.

Remove any leftover variety tiles, and the game board is equipped with new cards and new variety tiles then return to 1. Prepare for the game round.

End of the game

The game ends after 8 game rounds (9 game rounds with 3 players). Before final scoring, a final "movement round" takes place during which each player may move their ship a number of steps up to the number of icons on their ship tiles (wheel / upgraded-wheel). The player order is identical to that of the previous game round.

The only action the players may perform now is unloading their ship at their own harbor.

Final scoring

First, turn over the game board to reveal the scoring track. The players use their buyers to mark their score.

The players calculate their prestige points as follows:

All players take the score tiles from their controlled islands and mark their score accordingly.

Example 1: Frank scores 12 prestige points for two conquered islands.
All players sum the visible prestige points (i.e., the purple numbers) of the variety tiles on their harbor board, and add the result to their previous score.

Example 2: Ani scores 20 prestige points for her 7 visible purple numbers.
The players total their positive points (i.e., the green numbers) on collected ship cards, monk tiles, and expelled (flipped) knight tiles, then subtract their negative points (i.e., the red numbers), which are found only on ship cards. If the result is 0 or positive, then nothing happens; if, however, the result is negative, the player loses 5 prestige points for each point that the sum is below 0, subtracting these prestige points from their previous score.

Example 3: Ani has collected 15 positive points and 17 negative points. Since 15-17 = -2, Ani loses 10 prestige points.

IMPORTANT: If the result is positive, the players do not gain prestige points!
Each player assigns the corresponding paint cubes to their bishop's contracts and scores the indicated number of prestige points for each completed contract. The used paint cubes are put back in the box.

Example 4: (red + blue cubes for a contract worth 3) + (yellow + yellow cubes for a contract worth 1) + (blue + blue + blue + yellow cubes for a contract worth 2) = 14 prestige points.
The players form sets with their remaining paint cubes (1 set = 1 blue, 1 red and 1 yellow paint cube). Each set is worth 3 prestige points. Incomplete sets are worthless.

Example 5: 1 red + 1 yellow + 1 blue cube = 3 prestige points.
Each variety tile in the same row as a player's diplomat is worth 2 prestige points.

Example 6: Jenny scores 8 prestige points, 2 for each of the 4 variety tiles in the ship row. Ulrich scores 6 prestige points, 2 for each of the 3 variety tiles in the building row.

The player with the most prestige points is the winner of the game! In case of a tie for the most prestige points, the tied players share the victory.