Actions and Auctions

The three steps of a turn, the seven actions, Anchor actions and the delivery auction.

Your turn

Play goes clockwise from the first player. Each turn has three steps (rulebook p. 6):

1. Pay loan interest — $1 to the Off-Shore Bank per outstanding loan, before anything else (Paying interest).
2. Win your Bank auction — if you hold the highest bid in an active Bank auction, you win it now (Winning a Bank auction).
3. Take two actions from the list below.

You may take two different actions or the same one twice — except the actions marked , which you may take only once per turn: Produce and Call Bank.

Free actions

Besides your two actions you may take any number of free actions on your turn: request a loan (this one even on other players’ turns), repay a loan, and the Anchor action when your ship arrives somewhere.

Build

Choose one:

• Build a factory — pay the cost in the next empty space of your factory track to the supply and place a factory there, of any colour still in the supply that you don’t already own.
• Build a warehouse — pay the cost in the next empty space of your warehouse track to the supply and place a warehouse there.

Building costs always go to the supply, never to the Off-Shore Bank. (p. 8)

Produce

Once per turn:

1. Pay union wages — $1 to the player on your right, however many containers you make. If you can’t pay, you can’t Produce.
2. Produce — each of your factories takes one container of its colour from the supply.
3. Set prices — place the new containers in your factory lots as you like; you may also move the ones already there.

You must produce as many as you can, up to your factory storage limit; if the limit stops you, pick which colours to make. You may not discard stored containers to make room. (pp. 8–9)

Factory purchase

1. Buy — pick one opponent and buy any number of containers from their factory lots, paying them each container’s lot price.
2. Move — the containers go straight to your harbor by truck, however far away that opponent is.
3. Set prices — place them in your harbor lots; you may also reprice what was already there.

You can’t exceed your harbor storage limit and may not discard containers to make room. (p. 9)

[More] With Truck Companies, a Factory Purchase also costs a $1 trucking fee — see Truck Companies.

Harbor purchase

Your ship must be docked at an opponent’s harbor.

1. Buy — any number of containers from that harbor, paying its owner each lot’s price.
2. Load — put them in any empty slots on your ship.

A ship holds at most five containers; there is no way to raise this or to throw cargo overboard. Usually you buy as the free Anchor action when you arrive; this action is for buying more at a harbor where you were already docked at the start of your turn. (p. 10)

Sail

Do one of:

• Move to the ocean — from any island or harbor.
• Move to an island or harbor — from the ocean, to Container Island, the Off-Shore Bank or any opponent’s harbor (never your own), then take that place’s Anchor action.

Going from one board to another always takes two Sail actions; you may spend both actions of a turn on it. (p. 11)

Anchor actions

Anchor actions are free — they don’t count toward your two actions:

Arriving at	Anchor action
An opponent’s harbor	You may take a Harbor Purchase there for free.
The Off-Shore Bank	You may load any number of your containers from your holding area, for free.
Container Island	You must hold a delivery auction at once; afterwards your turn ends immediately, even if you have an action left.

Reprice

Choose one district of your board and rearrange any number of its containers among its lots. Repricing during a Produce or Factory Purchase is usually more efficient; this action is for when you have no room to produce or buy. (p. 10)

Call Bank

Bid in an Off-Shore Bank auction: start a new auction by placing a free auction token on a lot and taking its bid tile with your opening bid, or outbid the current holder of an active auction’s bid tile. Full rules: Bank auctions.

Delivery auctions

When your ship reaches Container Island you must auction its whole cargo (p. 15):

1. Opponents bid — each opponent secretly puts any amount of cash from their hand face down in front of them, optionally with $0 bluff cards .
2. Determine the winner — all bids are revealed; everyone but the highest bidder takes theirs back. Ties go to a runoff (below).
3. Deliver — take the highest bid plus the same amount again from the supply, and put every container from your ship in the winner’s scoring area. Or buy the cargo out yourself (below).

Your turn then ends at once — no more actions, and no free actions either (you can’t repay a loan).

Government subsidy

Accepting the highest bid earns you a matching subsidy from the supply — you receive double the winning bid. This is the main way new money enters the game.

Auction buyout

Instead of accepting, you may pay an amount equal to the winning bid to the Off-Shore Bank (spread over its cash lots, see Paying the Bank) and put the cargo in your own scoring area. The high bidder takes back their bid. No subsidy is paid.

Runoff auction

If two or more players tie for the highest bid, the tied players keep their bids on the table and each secretly adds more cash; the highest total wins. Still tied: the delivering player picks the winner — or buys out, and all tied bidders take their bids back. (p. 16)

Bluffing

You may add one or both of your $0 bluff cards to a delivery bid to hide how many real cards you are bidding — or bid only $0 cards. After the reveal everyone takes their bluff cards back for future auctions, including an immediate runoff.

[More] With Player Loans, you may need to ask other players first when you borrow in the middle of an auction — see Player Loans.