Turns, trade and production

Move ships, buy and sell goods, fill orders, and grow your company.

The calendar

A standard game lasts four fiscal years, each with four quarters. Each player takes one turn per quarter: 16 turns each. For a shorter or longer game, use three or five years. At the end of every quarter, resolve a News card. After the fourth quarter, conduct annual accounts. If the game continues, clear ship and factory markers, replace the four face-up Order cards, advance the year, reset the quarter, and pass the Start marker left.

Action points

At the start of each turn, take one Action Point plus one for every ship you own. Place black cubes on your Office board as you spend them. You may take actions in any order. Buying a ship immediately adds its Action Point for this turn. Additional Action Points cost $250M each, may be bought once per turn, and expire at its end. Production Track bonuses also expire at turn end.

Move ships

Moving ships is free. A ship carrying zero or one container may move up to three route spaces. A large ship carrying two containers may move up to two. Follow the dotted route; choose direction at junctions. The route loops off the map south of San Francisco and back north of Australia. Pay the Bank $20M for each ship passing Panama or Suez. Docking at another player’s home city costs $20M to that player.

Movement is one continuous move, and a ship stops when it enters a port. A ship that is not in port may spend 1 AP to boost one extra space, at most once per turn. It may still move after loading if it has not moved yet. Use grey markers to track moved ships; clear them before the next turn.

Buy and sell containers

To buy a container, a ship must be docked at a city in that good’s production region. Pay 1 AP and the price shown for the rightmost container in that row. Pay its owner, or the Bank if it has no player marker; buying your own costs nothing. Each container costs 1 AP. If you buy several from one row in the same transaction, they all cost the first container’s price. The market price rises after purchase.

To sell, dock at a city where that good can be sold. Selling costs no AP. The Bank pays the city’s printed sales bonus plus the current market price. A sale may also complete an order (see Orders and deliveries).

Buy ships and orders

A small ship costs $50M and 1 AP; a large ship costs $200M and 1 AP. Place it at your home city; it can move this turn. You may own at most three small and two large ships. Annual maintenance is $30M per small ship and $100M per large ship.

Buy one face-up Order for $50M and 1 AP, replacing it immediately, or draw a hidden Order for $20M and 1 AP. Keep at most five active orders.

Build factories and produce

A factory costs $50M and 1 AP. You may use only one building site in each production region, with up to three factories on that site. To open a region, first have a ship in one of its cities; later factories on that same site need no ship there.

Each factory may produce once per fiscal year. Pay $20M and 1 AP; place your coloured marker in a new container of its region’s good and push that container into the left of the matching Terminal row. Mark the factory until the next fiscal year. Advance one Production Track space and take its bonus immediately. Production lowers the market price. A player may produce at most one of each good per quarter, or two of a good with both large ships. The matching row must have room.

Production Track bonuses

Buy or sell shares

Buying shares costs $1,000M and 2 AP; advance one Stock Exchange space. Selling shares moves you down one space and pays $100M. You may sell once per quarter, except you may sell further shares when an unexpected cost or annual account is unaffordable. If required to move below value 60, you are bankrupt and eliminated. The optional no-elimination rule lets you sell ships or factories to the Bank for their original purchase price; selling ships also reduces your future AP.