Oltre Mare Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Game Zones
• Preparation
• Objective
• Turn
  • Sea Power Phase
  • Trade Phase
  • Main Phase
  • Cargo Phase
  • New Active Player
• Venice Card and Prestige Points
• End of Game and Final Scoring
  • 1. Scoring for Goods Sold from the Cargo Hold
  • 2. Scoring for Port Tokens
  • 3. Scoring for Prestige Points
  • 4. Negative Scoring from the Pirates Deck
• Port Tokens
• Credits

Components

• 98 Merchandise Cards (in 7 different colors)
• 1 Venice Card
• 5 Summary Cards
• 5 Merchant Cards (in 5 colors)
• 10 wooden cubes (in 5 colors)
• 1 board
• 32 Port tokens

Game Zones

The Merchandise Deck: the deck players draw Merchandise Cards from.

On the board:

• The Map: represents the Mediterranean and the Port cities. One cube per player represents that player's Ship. Each Ship moves along the routes (the dashed lines) and stops at Ports.
• The Ducat Points Track: a wooden cube for each player indicates the number of Ducat Points (the currency of Venice) that player possesses.

In the player area:

• Player's hand: represents the player's market (the Merchandise they can play).
• Cargo Hold Deck: a face-up pile of Cards. These represent the Cards that have already been loaded into the hold. It is forbidden to look through these Cards. However, the top Card of the Cargo Hold Deck is visible and has two important meanings:
  • the Sea Power symbols indicate the maximum number of Cards the player may hold in hand at the start of their next turn (see Sea Power Phase)
  • the Cargo symbols indicate how many Cards must be played on the player's next turn (see Main Phase).
• Pirates Deck: a face-down pile of Cards. These Cards represent goods stolen by Pirates. A player may buy Cards from their own Pirates Deck. At the end of the game, each Card remaining in this deck reduces the final score by 1 Ducat Point.
• Merchant Card: indicates the player's color and the name of their Venetian merchant family. The Summary Card and Merchant Card together are used to track the number of Prestige Points the player has.

Preparation

• Connect the 4 parts of the board and set it up in the center of the table.
• Shuffle the Port tokens and lay them out face up, randomly, on the Map, one on each Port. Unused tokens are removed.
• In a 2-player game, remove all the Grain Cards.
• Shuffle the Merchandise Cards to form the Merchandise Deck (set aside the Venice Card).
• Choose the first player (for example, the player who lives closest to Venice).
• Starting with the first player, draw a Card from the Merchandise Deck until you find one that names a Port. The player takes that Card to form their own Cargo Hold Deck. Continue in this way until every player has a Card on their Cargo Hold Deck.
• Each player chooses a color and takes the 2 cubes and the matching Merchant Card.
• Each player places one cube on space "11" of the Ducat Points Track, and the other cube on the Port shown on their Cargo Hold Deck's Card. The starting Port tokens are then removed from the game.
• Each player takes a Summary Card and places it over their Merchant Card so as to show "0" Prestige Points.
• Reshuffle the Cards into the Merchandise Deck and insert the Venice Card roughly in the middle.
• Each player draws 4 Cards from the Merchandise Deck to form their hand.

Objective

The game ends when the Merchandise Deck is exhausted. The player who drew the last Card finishes their turn.

Points are then counted (see End of Game and Final Scoring). The player with the highest score wins.

Turn

On their turn, the active player carries out the following Phases in the order given.

Sea Power Phase

At the start of their turn, the player counts the number of Cards in their hand. If that number is greater than the number of Sea Power symbols (on the visible Card of the Cargo Hold Deck), they must discard the excess Cards. The player may choose which Cards to discard. Discarded Cards go onto their own Pirates Deck.

Example: At the start of his turn Stefano has a Sea Power of 5 and 7 Cards in hand. He must discard 2 Cards, of his choice, and put them on his Pirates Deck.

Trade Phase

The active player may freely trade Cards and/or Points with the other players. The other players may only trade with the active player. During negotiation, players may ask what Merchandise and what symbols are on the Cards being offered: they must tell the truth about the Merchandise, but they may lie about the symbols.

Each player who trades with the active player gains 1 Prestige Point (move the Summary Card down one space on the Merchant Card). During a turn, each player may gain at most 1 Prestige Point, no matter how many trades are made with the active player. The active player does not gain Prestige Points.

The active player may buy Cards from the Merchandise Deck or from their own Pirates Deck. Each Card costs 3 Ducat Points (regardless of which deck it is drawn from). The active player may alternate trading with the other players and buying Cards from the decks. They may trade with the other players as many times as they wish, but may buy at most 4 Cards per turn, and may only buy one Card at a time.

If buying a Card takes a player below 0 Ducats, the cost of Cards becomes 4 Ducats. The cube may go below the "0" space to indicate negative points.

Main Phase

The active player must play (face up) on the table in front of them some Cards from their hand. The exact number of Cards they must play is shown by the number of Cargo symbols on the visible Card of their Cargo Hold Deck. If the player does not have enough Cards, they may not begin this Phase, but must continue the Trade Phase until they have enough.

Each Card carries 2 actions out of 4 possible ones: Ducats, Pirates, Market, Navigation.

These Actions are carried out in the order given below.

Ducats Action. The active player earns Ducat Points. If the total number of Ducat symbols on the played Cards is 1, the player earns 1 Ducat Point. If the number of symbols is 2, the player earns 3 Ducat Points. If the number of symbols is 3 or more, the player earns 6 Ducat Points.

Pirates Action. The active player must move Cards from the Merchandise Deck to their own Pirates Deck. The moved Cards are placed face down, without being seen. If the total number of Pirate symbols on the played Cards is 1, the player moves 1 Card. If the number of symbols is 2, they move 3 Cards. If the number of symbols is 3 or more, they move 6 Cards.

Market Action. The active player must draw Cards from the Merchandise Deck to add to their hand. If the total number of Market symbols on the played Cards is 1, the player draws 1 Card. If the number of symbols is 2, they draw 3 Cards. If the number of symbols is 3 or more, they draw 6 Cards.

Navigation Action. The player must move their own Ship along the routes on the map. The number of Ship symbols on the played Cards indicates exactly how many Ports the Ship must move (it cannot stop early). It is not allowed to travel the same route more than once during the same turn.

If there is a Port token at the Port where the Ship stops, the player takes it: this becomes their new active Port token. If instead there is no Port token there, the active player loses their current active token (it is turned face down).

Symbols on played Cards	1	2	3	4+
Ducats — earn Ducat Points	1	3	6	6
Pirates — move Cards from the Merchandise Deck to the Pirates Deck	1	3	6	6
Market — draw Cards from the Merchandise Deck into hand	1	3	6	6
Navigation — move the Ship on the map	1	2	3	4

Cargo Phase

After carrying out the Actions, the active player must place the played Cards onto their Cargo Hold Deck. The Cards are placed face up, and the order in which they are stacked is the player's choice. This order is very important (see End of Game and Final Scoring).

The last Card stacked (the visible one) affects the player's next turn: the number of Sea Power symbols defines the maximum number of Cards the player may hold in hand at the start of their next turn (see Sea Power Phase); the number of Cargo symbols indicates the number of Cards that must be played on their next turn (see Main Phase).

At the end of their turn, a player may hold in hand as many Cards as they have (they will only have to discard at the start of their next turn).

New Active Player

The new active player is the one to the left of the current one.

Venice Card and Prestige Points

When the Venice Card is drawn, some bonus Ducat Points are awarded among the players.

The player with the most Prestige Points earns 6 Ducat Points, the player with the next-highest number of Prestige Points earns 3 Ducat Points, and the third-highest earns 1 Ducat Point. The others earn nothing. In case of a tie, all tied players earn the Ducat Points due.

All players then reset their Prestige Points to zero by placing their Summary Card on the "0" space of their Merchant Card. The Venice Card is discarded. The active player continues, drawing any Cards they still need to complete their turn.

End of Game and Final Scoring

When the Merchandise Deck is exhausted, the game ends. The active player may finish their turn (they do not draw any Card from the Merchandise Deck if they were meant to).

Players earn Ducat Points as described below.

1. Scoring for Goods Sold from the Cargo Hold

Each player "sells" the Merchandise Cards present in their own Cargo Hold Deck. The score is calculated based on groupings of Cards of the same type. For this reason it is important not to shuffle the Cards in the Cargo Hold Deck.

Starting from the first visible Card, Cards are drawn one at a time until all the Cards of that same type of Merchandise have been drawn.

Example: Francesco starts leafing through his Cargo Hold Deck. The first Card (the visible one) is Wood, the second is another Wood, the third is Silk, as are the fourth and fifth. So far he has formed two groups: one of Wood made up of 2 Cards, another of Silk made up of 3 Cards.

Cards of the same Merchandise that are found in separate parts of the Cargo Hold Deck are considered to belong to different groups.

Example: Continuing to form groups, Francesco finds another 4 contiguous Wood Cards. These Cards form a group of their own and are not combined with the previous Wood group.

To calculate the score, each group formed in this way is considered. Each type of Merchandise has a sequence of scores (see the table below, or the Cards). The numbers in the sequence indicate the Ducat Points the player earns if the group is made up of that many Cards.

Example: Wood has the sequence 1 / 3 / 6 / 9. Francesco earns 3 Ducat Points for his group of 2 Wood Cards, and 9 Ducat Points for his group of 4 Wood Cards. Silk has a sequence of 0 / 3 / 8. Francesco earns 8 Ducat Points for his group of 3 Silk Cards.

If a group is made up of a number of Cards greater than the sequence, the score is still the highest value in the sequence.

Example: Andrea has a group of 5 Silk Cards. The number of Ducat Points he earns is 8, as if he had only 3 Silk Cards in the group.

Merchandise	Scores	Rarity
Spices	0 / 4	8
Silk	0 / 3 / 8	10
Silver	0 / 3 / 7 / 12	12
Sugar	0 / 3 / 7 / 11	14
Wine	1 / 3 / 6 / 10	16
Wood	1 / 3 / 6 / 9	18
Grain	1 / 3 / 5 / 8 / 12	20

2. Scoring for Port Tokens

The player with the most Port tokens acquired during the game earns 6 Ducat Points. The second player with the most Port tokens earns 3 Ducat Points, the third earns 1 Ducat Point. The other players earn nothing. In case of a tie in the number of tokens, the tie is won by whoever has the greatest number of different token types. If there is still a tie, all those players earn the Ducat Points due.

3. Scoring for Prestige Points

The player with the most Prestige Points earns 6 Ducat Points, the player with the next-highest number of Prestige Points earns 3 Ducat Points, the third earns 1 Ducat Point. The others earn nothing. In case of a tie, all tied players earn the Ducat Points due.

4. Negative Scoring from the Pirates Deck

Each Card present in a player's own Pirates Deck subtracts 1 Ducat Point from the total score.

Port Tokens

When a player stops their Ship at a Port, they take the Port token (if there is one). Each token taken is placed in front of the player. However, only the last one becomes the active token; the others are turned face down.

A token remains active until another token is taken, or the Ship stops at an empty Port (in which case the player has no active token).

There are 6 different Port tokens.

Compass. A player who stops at a Port with the Compass may immediately move their Ship to any other Port of their choosing on the map. The player takes the Port token at the Port they moved to, while the Compass is discarded. It is not permitted to move to a Port where there is another Compass.

Fight the Pirates. The player disregards the Pirate symbols on the played Cards. This means that during their turn no Card will be added to their Pirates Deck during the Pirates Action. The player must still discard any excess Cards during the Sea Power Phase (see Sea Power Phase).

Favorable Market. The player may buy Cards at favorable prices during their own Trade Phase. They may buy Cards (from either the Merchandise Deck or their own Pirates Deck) at the following prices: the first Card costs 1 Ducat Point, the second 2 Ducat Points, the third 3 Ducat Points, and the fourth 4.

Local Authority. At the start of each turn, the active player earns Ducat Points according to the formula: Ducat Points earned = number of Sea Power symbols present on the visible Card of the Cargo Hold Deck, minus 3. So if there are 6 Sea Power symbols, they earn 3 Ducat Points; if there are 5 symbols, they earn 2 Ducat Points; if there is only 1 symbol, they earn 1 Ducat Point; otherwise they earn nothing.

Good Deals. The player adds 1 Ducat symbol to those on the played Cards (see Ducats Action). This applies even if there is no Ducat symbol at all among the played Cards.

Example: Giulio has the Good Deals token. On his turn he plays 4 Cards for a total of 2 Ducat symbols. In total he actually has 3 symbols and therefore earns 6 Ducat Points.

Calm Navigation. The player earns 1 Ducat Point for each Navigation symbol on the played Cards (during their own turn).

Credits

Special thanks to: Roberto Bovo, Henning Kropke, Andrea "Sargon" Cupido, Francesco Valvo, Stefano Ramazzo.

Thanks also to: Giulio Caccin, Alejandro Gonzalez, Nicola Da Rù, Alessandro Bordin, Ignazio Fraroberto, Massimo Biasiotto, Luca Sandonà, Davide Bacco, Raffaella Ceccato, Marianna Fantin, Klara Prifti, Ilenia Zecchin, Stefano Peron, Luca Peron, Simone Zarbin, Isaac Dal Corso, Lluca Venturini, Davide Fauri, Fabrizio Gatto, Massimo Biasiotto, Dario Fogo, Fabio Sattin, Barbara Sommavilla, Massimiliano Zattera, Angelika Ludwig, Christian Hildenbrand, Mik Svellov.

All rights reserved. a Mind the Move, 2004.