Gamehelpmadeira

For tips on how to play madeira, see Tips_madeira

Elements of Game play

Pirates

• Pirates are black marks that indicate your failure to pay debts
  • e.g., to feed your workers or pay the cost of an action.
  • They have no effect on your score until game end.
• Pirate dice are black dice placed in the City Watch, which may be used by any player to take actions in Phase B.
  • They will only give pirates to players if they fail to pay a building cost in Phase C.

City Watch

• Whenever you place a worker in the City Watch, you may discard 3 pirates.
• Workers placed here have two uses:
  • Phase B: send a worker from the City Watch home to make use of a pirate die.
  • Phase D: send a worker from the City Watch home to gain 4 PP.

Windmill

• Your standing on the Windmill indicates how many workers on the board you can feed automatically in Phase D, without needing additional bread.
• In addition, you may use the windmill to take one or more free actions during a turn:

During phases B, C or D

• Exchange 2 goods for 1 good of a different type.
  • Goods: wheat, sugar, wine
• Move up 1 step on the Windmill by discarding 2 wheat.
  • If you are already on the top step, gain 1 PP instead.

During phases B or C only

• Move down 1 step to gain 1 bread or 3 reals.
  • If you are already on the bottom step, lose 1 PP to take this action.
    • Gaining only 1 bread or 1 real.

Game play

Phase A: Setup and Guild Choice

• The four character tiles are randomly distributed among the five buildings
  • One remains empty each turn, as indicated by the roman numeral on its top right.
• 3 pirate dice are rolled and placed in the City Watch.
• 3 guild dice per player are rolled and placed in rows on the Guild Board.

• Each player in turn places their marker on a row and selects the corresponding dice and one request.
• If the guild symbol matches any of their guild favours they flip them face up.

Phase B: Character Actions

• Following the new turn order established in Phase A, players either select a character action or pass.
• A character action is selected by placing on it either a guild die (at the cost of a worker in the City Watch) or a pirate die.
  • If a guild die is used, the player also places an action marker on the building space (to be resolved in Phase C).
• You may activate a character with a die whose value is equal to or greater than the number of that character’s region (1, 2 or 3).
• You may also use a lower-numbered die by paying the difference in bread.
• A character may have a maximum of 1 pirate die on it, and a maximum number of dice equal to the number of players.
• A player may choose one of two possible character actions:
  • Trigger the action specific to the character.
  • Harvest: all fields in that region will yield one unit per worker, either:
    • Wood (if they have not yet been cleared) or
    • Crop (wheat, sugar or wine).
• One building each round contains no character card, so it only offers the harvest action, plus a bonus: one field is harvested twice.

Steward

a space to plant.

Mayor

city spot.

Commander

ship spot.

Guild master

wood.

Passing

• To pass, a player chooses a free spot in the passing column:
  • they may either choose to gain reals, or take the action depicted.
• The new turn order will be observed for the rest of the round and the beginning of the next.

Phase C: Building Actions

• In numerical order, building costs are resolved and additional building actions are taken.
• For any building with action markers on it, all its dice are rolled.
• The cost is (in a four-player game) 10 reals minus the sum of the guild dice.
  • In three or two player games, the base value is respectively 9 or 8.
• If the result is negative the cost is zero.
• If a player has two or more markers they still pay only once.
• Players have two options:
  • Pay the cost, and take the building action (described below)
  • Take pirates (1 + the number on the pirate die, if there is one)

Phase D: Maintenance

Honour (City Watch)

The player with the majority of workers in the City Watch may send one home to earn 4 PP. Ties do not count.

Income (Colonies)

One good of the appropriate type is gained for each worker in the colonies.

Upkeep (Ships)

Discard 1 wood (or earn 1 pirate) per ship on the board.

Feeding Workers

All workers on the board must be fed. The Windmill indicates how many are automatically fed; if this is insufficient, pay 1 bread or earn 1 pirate per worker.

Phase E: Crown's Requests

• In rounds 1, 3 and 5 players score their requests:
  • in round 1, they may score one of their two requests;
  • in round 3, two out of three;
  • in round 5, all three.
• Scored requests, and any goods or reals used to score them, are discarded.
• In round 2, convertible wheat fields cleared of wood become sugar fields.
• In round 4, convertible sugar fields cleared of wood become wine fields.

Game End

• The game ends after 5 rounds.
• All goods, wood and bread are converted to reals at 1-for-1.
  • Players then earn 1 PP per 5 reals.
• Players with pirates lose points as follows:
  • the one with most pirates loses 16 PP;
  • 2nd most, 8 pp;
  • 3rd most, 4 pp;
  • 4th most, 2 PP.
• In addition, players lose 1 PP for each pirate over 20.
• Highest score wins.
• Ties for number of pirates or for final score go to the player earliest in the turn order.

Reference Sheet

Crown’s Requests

• During Phase E, each player must choose 1 of their Crown’s Requests in the 1st round, 2 in the 3rd round, and 3 in the 5th round.
  • They earn PP for them, and discards them.
• Note: If a player chooses more than 1 Crown’s Request of the same kind in the same round, they must assign different items to them (see Urbanisation on the Tips page for an example).
• The player must discard all the chosen Crown’s Requests, even if they earn 0 Prestige Points for one or more of them.

Guild Favours

• A player can use 1 of their face-up Guild Favours at the beginning of each of their turns:
  • in Phase B - Character Actions (see page 9) (i.e. before they place a die or passes) and
  • in Phase C - Building Actions (see page 12) (i.e. before they pay the cost or receives the Pirates).
• They cannot use a Guild Favour if they have no Action Markers on the Building currently being resolved, because it is not their turn.
• To use a Guild Favour, the player flips it face-down and immediately applies its effect (see below).
• No Guild Favours can be used during Phases A - Round Setup, D - Maintenance, or E - Crown’s Requests.
• Reminder: A player can flip face-up:
• In Phase A - Round Setup, all of their Guild Favours of the same Guild as the one they choose (see page 8).
• 1 or 2 of their Guild Favours (same or different Guilds), performing the “Casa da Coroa” Building Action (see page 13).
• 1 of their Guild Favours, performing the “Guild” King’s Rewards, if it is in play.

Passing

• The player gets 2 Reals
• The player gets 3 Reals
  • OR earns 1 PP, and may move 1 of their Workers to any empty City spot
• The player gets 4 Reals
  • OR moves 1 of their Workers into the City Watch
• The player gets 5 Reals
  • OR moves 1 of their Ships following the usual rules

King’s Rewards

• The player moves 1 of their Workers to any field following the usual rules
• The player flips 1 of their Guild Favours face-up.
• The player discards up to 3 Pirates or gets 2 Bread from the general supply.
• The player moves their disc up one step in the Windmill. They do not discard the 2 Wheat.
• The player earns 3 PP. The player gets 5 Reals.
• The player earns 1 PP, and may move 1 of their Workers to any empty City spot.
• The player moves 1 of their Workers into the City Watch