Mare Balticum
Mare Balticum Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
The game box contains:
- Rulebook
- Cloth bag
- 68 fish and amber tokens (12 salmon, 12 flatfish, 12 herring, 12 cod, 20 amber)
- 25 production tokens (5 in each of 5 colors)
- 25 fishing vessels (5 in each of 5 colors)
- 1 first player marker
- 6 passage of time tokens
- 6 trade contracts (used only in optional module 2)
- 8 demand tokens
- Main game board
- 5 small player boards (each with a hold, a warehouse and a market)
Setup
Place the main game board in the center of the table. Each player chooses a color and receives the corresponding:
- fishing vessels (5 in a 3-player game, 4 in a 4-player game and 3 in a 5-player game)
- player board
- production tokens
Place the 68 fish and amber tokens in the cloth bag and mix them thoroughly. Draw tokens from the bag and place them face up on the board at random. Each shallow water area (light blue area) receives 1 token, and each deep water zone (dark blue area) receives 2 tokens.
After the tokens have been placed on the board, add the 6 passage of time tokens to the contents of the bag and mix thoroughly again. Distribute the demand tokens at random, face up, over the 8 circles next to the 5 ports. No port may contain 2 tokens of the same kind. Note that 2 ports have only one circle each. The numbers "0" and "-1" shown in the port circles have no meaning; they are used only with optional module 1.
The player who most recently saw a fish receives the first player marker. This player chooses any port and places one of his vessels in it. The other players, clockwise, each place one of their vessels in any port. The same port may contain the starting vessels of different players.
Now you are ready to begin playing.
Turn Order
The game lasts several rounds. In each round a player performs up to three actions. After one player has performed his actions, play passes to the player on his left, and so on clockwise.
Actions
There are three types of actions: sailing, fishing and unloading. A player may perform the same action several times in a row, for example sail three times, or fish twice and unload once, etc.
Sailing - during this action the player may move one of his vessels to any area of the game board, as long as all his vessels form an unbroken line after the move.
During the first sailing actions the player places on the board the remaining vessels that have not been placed yet, putting them next to those already on the board. Thus the first sailing action follows the player's vessel that was placed in a port during setup. Once all of a player's vessels are on the board, every subsequent sailing action is used to move one vessel to a different area where the player does not yet have a vessel.
Vessels of several players may be in one area at the same time.
Example 1: In this example the purple player can move a vessel from the port to one of the 3 marked areas. The middle vessel cannot be moved: wherever it moved, it would split the fleet. The rightmost vessel can be moved, but only to the north-west, to the left marked area.
Fishing - this action allows the player to collect one fish or amber token from any area in which he has a vessel. If it is an amber token, it goes immediately face down into the player's warehouse.
If it is a fish token, it is placed face up on one of the five spaces of the hold on the player's board. Each player can keep up to five face-up fish tokens in the hold of his fleet.
If there is no free space left in the hold, the player cannot fish, unless with this action he collects amber. The player may also decide to throw part of his catch overboard to free up space for the fish he wants to catch (see "Throw it overboard!"). Throwing fish overboard does not cost an action.
Example 2: The green player has a vessel in an area with a salmon token. With the fishing action he takes the salmon token from the area and places it face up on an empty space of the hold of his fleet.
Unloading - if at least one of a player's vessels is in a port, the player may unload in that port. The demand tokens in the port show which kinds of fish can be unloaded here. During one unloading the player may unload from the hold of his fleet any number of fish for which there is demand here. The player moves the unloaded fish face down from the hold of his fleet to his warehouse. The warehouse is unlimited: any number of tokens can be stored in it. (The player board depicts a warehouse complex consisting of several buildings, but together they form one warehouse.)
Example 3: The orange player sails, moving a vessel to Gdansk. Here there are demand tokens for herring and flatfish. The hold of the player's fleet contains 5 tokens: 2 herring, 1 flatfish and 2 salmon. The player unloads by moving the herring and flatfish to his warehouse, placing them face down. The salmon tokens remain in the hold. To unload salmon, the player must sail to another port where there is demand for salmon.
Refilling Tokens
If, after a player has completed all three of his actions, any area on the board is left completely without fish, amber or player vessels, new tokens are drawn from the bag and placed face up on every area that meets this condition. Each shallow water area (light blue area) receives 1 token, and each deep water zone (dark blue area) receives 2 tokens.
Throw it Overboard!
At any moment of his turn a player may freely throw fish out of the hold of his fleet. These tokens are removed from the game.
Passage of Time
The bag contains six passage of time tokens. When such a token is drawn from the bag while refilling empty areas of the board, the game is temporarily paused. Each player must choose one of his production tokens and play it. It is placed face down on one of the market spaces of the player's board. In this way the player decides which kinds of fish he specializes in and how much profit they will bring him at the end of the game.
Four of the production tokens show numbers. The fifth, showing a safe, works differently. The player plays it face up and must pay a tax by discarding any two fish or amber tokens. These two tokens may be taken from the hold of the fleet or from the warehouse. At one time or another during the game all five tokens will be played, so sooner or later every player will have to pay the tax. Players can choose only the time of payment. You cannot pay the tax if you do not have two tokens to discard (except in the rare case when this token is already the fifth one).
Players place their production tokens simultaneously.
During the game players may look at which token lies on the spaces of the market area of their board. But once placed, a token can no longer be moved to another market space.
After everyone has placed a production token, the passage of time token is placed on the time track to show how much time has passed and how much time is still left for fishing. Then another token is drawn from the bag for the sea area that requires a new token.
End of the Game
Drawing the sixth passage of time token from the bag heralds the approach of winter, and the waters of the Baltic Sea will soon freeze over, making sailing impossible. After the sixth passage of time token, production tokens are no longer distributed, since all 5 production tokens have already been placed. The current round is played out under the usual rules, that is, until the participant sitting to the right of the first player has performed all three of his actions. Then each player takes one more turn (3 actions), and the game ends. If the sixth passage of time token is drawn after the turn of the last player, then each player takes one more turn (3 actions) and the game ends.
Scoring
To determine the winner:
- Throw away all fish tokens still in the hold. Fish not delivered in time will not be bought and will bring no points.
- Reveal the production tokens on the market, which show the value of the different kinds of fish for each player.
- Reveal the fish and amber tokens stored in the players' warehouses and count their value. Each fish token brings as many points as shown on the production token of the corresponding area of the player's board. Each amber token always brings one point.
The player with the most points wins. In case of a tie, the player with the most tokens in his warehouse wins. If the tie is not resolved this way, it stands!
Example 4: The purple player counts his points. First his production tokens on the market are revealed. Salmon brings him 3 points, herring 2 points, flatfish 1 point and cod 0 points. Then the player reveals the tokens collected in the warehouse. He has 3 salmon (3x3 = 9 points), 4 herring (4x2 = 8 points), 1 flatfish (1x1 = 1 point) and 3 amber (3x1 = 3 points). His total score is thus 21 points (9+8+1+3 = 21).
Optional Modules
Mare Balticum includes two optional modules that make the game more varied. After several games with the basic rules, you can try adding one or both optional modules. If you are experienced players, you can start playing with the optional modules right away.
Module 1 - Demand Management
In this case the demand tokens are not placed in the ports at random during setup.
When any kind of fish is unloaded in a port for the first time, the unloading player chooses the demand token showing the kind of fish being unloaded and places it on one of the circular areas next to the port. If a second kind of fish is unloaded in the port (during the same unloading or later), the corresponding demand token is placed in the port on the other circular area. The values next to the areas (0 or -1) determine whether part of the fish is lost during unloading. Zero means that all fish tokens of that kind go to the warehouse. The value "-1" means that when unloading that kind of fish one of the tokens is discarded and the rest go to the warehouse.
Demand tokens remain in their ports until the end of the game.
A port cannot have two tokens of the same type.
Each kind of fish can be unloaded in only 2 ports. Note that 2 ports (Copenhagen and Riga) allow demand for only one kind of fish.
You cannot set a demand on the value "-1" if you are unloading only 1 fish token there.
Example 5: The black player sails to Gdansk. In the hold of his fleet there are 3 salmon tokens and 2 herring. There are no demand tokens in Gdansk yet, so the player can now choose what the demand here will be. First he places the salmon demand token in the "0" area and unloads all three salmon tokens, moving them to his warehouse. Then he places the herring demand token in the "-1" area and unloads both herring tokens. This means that one of them is discarded and the other goes to his warehouse. From this moment only salmon and herring can be unloaded in Gdansk.
Module 2 - Trade Contracts
At the start of the game place the deck of 6 trade contract cards face down next to the game board.
During the game, in addition to the 3 basic action types of the main game, a fourth type of action becomes available. (Players still perform 3 actions per turn.)
Action: Make a trade contract. The player takes the deck of trade contracts, chooses one of them and places it in front of himself face up. If the player already has a trade contract card, he may exchange it for another card from the deck. A player can never have more than one trade contract card.
At the end of the game, the player with a trade contract decides which of the collected tokens will bring points from ordinary sale and which will go to fulfilling the contract. The player determines which tokens are used for the contract by moving them from the warehouse onto the contract card. Each set of 4 tokens matching the contract brings 7 points. The player may fulfill the contract several times, receiving 7 points for every 4 suitable tokens. The player is not obliged to fulfill the contract. A partially fulfilled contract (fewer than 4 required tokens) brings no points.
Example 6: At the end of the game the green player holds a trade contract for 1 salmon, 1 herring and 2 amber. He decides to move 8 tokens from the warehouse onto the card: 2 salmon, 2 herring and 4 amber. This allows him to fulfill the contract conditions twice. Consequently he receives 14 points. The tokens remaining in the warehouse bring points according to the rules, in accordance with the production tokens on the market areas.