Rounds, Start and Dice
Coimbra's start conditions, the six phases of a round and how to draft and place dice in the castle and the three cities.
Choosing start conditions
After setup, in reverse player order (the lion on the highest flag first), each player does one of:
- take one of the displayed pairs of start cards, or
- put their pilgrim on a free starting corner of Coimbra in the middle of the pilgrim map.
Then, in player order, everyone does the other one. Each player ends with 2 start cards and a pilgrim on a different corner.
Only now does each player use their start cards, one at a time:
- Move your disk up the card’s influence track by its influence value.
Immediate bonus: gain it once, then put the card to the right of your player
board. 
Phase C bonus: put the card below your player board; it works every
round. (All 8 start cards are in Cards & Components.)
A round
Coimbra lasts 4 rounds. Each round has six phases:
| Phase | What happens |
|---|---|
| A | Rolling dice — the first player rolls the pool |
| B | Drafting and placing dice — 3 dice each, in player order |
| C | Retrieving dice — favor tiles and character cards, in the order of the dice |
| D | New player order — by crowns |
| E | Influence income — by the colours of your dice |
| F | Invest in a voyage — one each, in player order |
Then the round ends.
Phase A: rolling dice
The first player (lion on flag 1) rolls all the dice of the pool once: that is this round’s dice pool. Dice: 3 each of gray, orange, purple and green and 1 white — fewer with 2 or 3 players (see Setup).
Phase B: drafting and placing dice
In player order, take one die from the pool, put it, value up, in one of your die holders and place it in one of the four city locations on the left of the board. Go round until everyone has placed 3 dice.
The castle
The castle row runs ascending, 1 to 6, left to right. Place your die to the right of every die of lower or equal value and to the left of every higher one. In phase C each die here takes a favor tile — the further left, the better the choice.
The three cities
The upper, central and lower city rows run descending, 6 to 1, left to right. Place your die to the right of every die of higher or equal value and to the left of every lower one. In phase C each die here buys a character card from the row beside it — further left means first choice, but a higher price.
- A location can hold any number of dice, and you may put several dice in the same one.
- Your three dice’s colours decide your income in phase E; their values do not matter there.
- Die tokens (2–3 players) count as dice of a neutral player. See Die tokens.