Tips & Strategy

Practical reminders for planning a shipping company.

How to teach it

Start with a single shipment: buy a container in its production region, sail it to a city where it can be sold, and compare the port bonus and market price. Then show how the two goods on an Order need to reach the same destination.

Your first game

• Keep enough cash for the yearly account; each ship adds maintenance.
• Choose an opening Order that overlaps a good available at your home city.
• Compare small and large ship movement with their current loads.
• Producing goods lowers their market price, while purchases raise it.
• Factories can produce only once per year; use grey markers to remember which have produced.

Rulebook and videos

The official Ports of Call site offers tutorials and videos. The English rulebook is version EN-2026.2.

Sources

The game’s publisher is Game Inventors. The English rules are available on the BoardGameGeek file page.