Game rules

Lisboa rules: how to play and how to score

Reviewed on 22 October 2026 against the publisher’s rulebook. How we check

Lisboa plays 1 to 4 players: everyone helps rebuild Lisbon after the 1755 earthquake and scores wigs, the game’s victory points. Here are the essential rules, Endgame Scoring and setup, based on the official 2020 rulebook.

Players: 1 to 4
Play time: About 30 minutes per player
Winner: Most wigs after two Periods

Lisboa quick rules

The goal: You play a noble helping to rebuild Lisbon. You build Stores, open Public Buildings, build Ships and take Decrees. After two Periods, the player with the most wigs wins.
Your turn: You always have five Political cards in hand, Noble cards and Treasury cards. On your turn, you play one: into your Portfolio to Sell Goods or Trade with the Nobles, or into the Royal Court to Visit a Noble or Sponsor an Event. You may also discard a card to Get 1 Gold. Then you take a face-up card.
Your Portfolio: These are the cards tucked under your player board: at the top, Noble cards and Ships, which give Influence; at the bottom, Treasury cards and their permanent benefit. A Treasury card played there gives you the Treasury value in réis, then the Treasury marker moves down. Your Portfolio holds two cards at first, one more per Rubble set, and you must then Sell or Trade: keep at least one good.
Sell Goods: You place your goods (gold, books, cloth, tools) on the dock of a Ship, yours or an opponent’s, and earn the market price plus the Ship’s modifier. A full Ship sets sail: its owner earns one wig per good. Each production lowers the price of the type produced, and prices never increase.
Trade with the Nobles: Each Noble offers two State actions for a good. Manuel da Maia accepts a tool or gold: Recruit State Officials or Acquire a Plan. The Marquis de Pombal accepts a book or gold: Build a Ship or Produce Goods. The King accepts cloth or gold: Meet the Cardinal, who gives a Clergy tile, or Get a Royal Favor. Two goods at most, for two different actions.
Influence and the Church: Influence goes from 0 to 10. Building a Ship gives you the total Influence of the cards at the top of your Portfolio; ending on space 10 earns one wig. Influence pays for visits and can replace réis. When the Cardinal passes the Influence icon, each player may discard Clergy tiles for their wigs, then gains their total Influence.
Visit a Noble: Play that Noble’s card into the Royal Court and spend Influence equal to the value left of the Treasury marker, plus one per opponent’s Official in that office; any shortfall is paid in wigs. You may take one of that Noble’s State actions without a good, then you must fully take the Noble action. Opponents with that Royal Favor may then follow your visit.
Build a Store: This is Manuel da Maia’s Noble action. The City tile you choose sets the business and the street of its entrance. You take the land reward and a Rubble cube from its row or column, then pay the Treasury value plus 3, 2 or 1 réis per brown, red or blue cube left. The Store scores its column’s value for each Public Building of its color in its row or street.
Open a Public Building: This is the King’s Noble action. You need a Plan from the Public Building’s architect. You take the Site’s two Rubble cubes and reward, return the Officials the Plan requires and hire any missing ones for the Treasury value. All matching Stores then score, whoever owns them.
Decrees and Events: The Marquis’ Noble action gives you a Decree card, which earns wigs at the end if you meet its criteria; a Rubble Set marker gives you a second one. A Treasury card played into the Royal Court sponsors an Event: you pay the Treasury value and take the card’s action, and nobody can follow.
Rubble and the Periods: One brown, one red and one blue cube make a set, which grows your Portfolio and warehouse. A player’s second set, or three empty decks, ends the first Period: 3 wigs per set, new Ships and new cards. A fourth set, or three empty decks again, triggers the end: finish the round, play one final round, then score.
Beginner traps: Don’t play into your Portfolio without a good to sell or trade. Don’t visit a Noble whose action you can’t fully take. Check your Treasury card and Clergy tile benefits every time you pay. And get a Store and a Ship early.
Solo against Lacerda: Lacerda, an automated player, plays after each of your turns: his Courtier moves one Noble, his Helper picks the State action, then he takes the Noble action. At the end, he scores one wig per Rubble cube and three per Decree. Beat him, then aim for the best title at Court.

How to score Lisboa

Wigs on the score track: Your space on the Wigs score track before Endgame Scoring. You start with 5 wigs; the track already includes Ships setting sail, Stores, the Church, space 10 of the Influence track and Rubble sets at the End of the Period.
Hull sizes of your Ships: The sum of the hull sizes of the Ships in your Portfolio, 1 to 4 each.
Completed Rubble sets: 3 wigs per set of one brown, one red and one blue cube.
Store majorities: Type by type, for the most Stores, 2nd-most and 3rd-most: gold 3, 2 and 1; tools 6, 4 and 2; books and cloth 9, 6 and 3. With 2 players, the second player takes the 3rd-most value. Ties: add the tied places and divide, rounded down. No Store of a type: nothing.
Réis and cashed-out Influence: Your réis, plus the réis your Influence cashes out for on its track: 1 wig per 5 réis.
Fulfilled Decrees: Wigs from the Decree cards whose criteria you meet.
State Officials majority: The total State Officials depicted on your completed Plans: 15, 10 and 5 wigs, or 15 and 5 with 2 players, with the same ties. No completed Plan: nothing.
Royal Favor tiles: 2 wigs per tile still on your player board.
Endgame Clergy tiles: Some Clergy tiles still on your player board add 1 wig per Rubble set, or 2 per Ship.
Tie breakers: Tied on wigs: the most Rubble sets, then Stores built, then completed Plans, then money.
Solo: Lacerda scores his Ships, 1 wig per Rubble cube, majorities, 3 wigs per Decree and 2 per Royal Favor, but neither money nor Influence; all his Plans count as completed.

Worked example

In a 4-player game, Emma ends on space 48 of the track. Her Ships have hull sizes 2 and 3: 5 wigs. She has 3 Rubble sets: 9. She has the most book Stores (9) and is second in gold (2): 11. Her 13 réis plus 4 from her Influence track make 17 réis: 3 wigs. Her fulfilled Decrees are worth 2 and 6: 8. She is second in State Officials: 10. Finally, 2 Royal Favors: 4. Total: 48 + 5 + 9 + 11 + 3 + 8 + 10 + 4 = 98 wigs.

Common mistakes

Forgetting that the track starts at 5 wigs and already includes the End of the Period sets: at the end you only add the 3 wigs per set of Endgame Scoring.
Scoring tools at 6, 3 and 1: that was the 2017 rulebook; since 2020, it is 6, 4 and 2.
Giving majority wigs to a player with no Store of that type, or no completed Plan.
With 2 players, giving the second player the 2nd-most value: they take the 3rd-most value.
Forgetting to cash out Influence for réis before counting money.

How to set up Lisboa

Follow the phases in order. With 2 players, part of downtown is closed; solo, set up a 2-player game, then Lacerda.

Each player

Put 1 Royal Favor tile of each Noble per player in the Rubble bag, and the Clergy tiles in their bag.The three Nobles: Manuel da Maia, the Marquis de Pombal and the King.
Each player takes a player board, a Player Aid book, 5 Rubble Set markers, 8 wooden houses and 8 Officials.
Each player places 1 good of each type on their board and takes 10 réis.
Each player draws 2 Clergy tiles and keeps one.
Each player draws 1 random Royal Favor tile and 1 random Starting Plan.
Courtier in the Royal Court, Wigs marker on space 5, one Official in the Marquis’ office.
Influence discs: first player on 4, second on 5, third on 6, fourth on 7.The starting player is whoever visited Lisboa most recently.
With 2 players and solo: one Official of an unused color in each Noble’s office.

The board

Public Buildings: two stacks of 8, one blue side up, one green side up, the top tile of each on its architect’s space.You see the available Public Building and the next one.
Plans: one stack per architect, fewest Officials on top.
Price markers on the market track, one City tile on each display space.
One random Scoring tile below each downtown column; solo, never two of the same value side by side.
With 2 players and solo: row E is covered with the 2-player overlay.
Church: 6 Clergy tiles on the dark spaces, the Cardinal on the Influence envelope.
Remaining Royal Favors on their Noble’s portrait, Treasury marker on 3, goods and money in the supply.

The cards

Separate the Political cards by the color of their backs and shuffle each deck.
Deal 5 blue cards to each player; the rest of the blue deck goes back in the box.Solo, keep it for Lacerda’s setup.
The red cards form four decks of 5 in the display, top card face up; purple and brown wait for the second Period.
Ships: 3 copies of each with 4 players, 2 with 3 players, 1 with 2 players and solo; blue on top of red in the shipyard.
8 Decree cards face up, the deck beside them.With 2 players and solo, a card related to row E is replaced as soon as it comes out.

The earthquake

All Rubble cubes in the bag.
One cube at the bottom of each column and at the end of each row of downtown.
Two cubes on each Public Building Site.
Six cubes in the Rubble pile.With 2 players and solo, row E is skipped and the remaining cubes go back in the box.

Solo

Lacerda takes his Officials, his houses, one Royal Favor and 2 random Starting Plans.He uses no player board, cards, money or goods. You go first.
A blue card places his Helper above the red deck of the same character.
Depending on the Helper, a first blue Public Building goes west of row D, or a green one east of row D.
Another Noble card places Lacerda’s Courtier on that Noble’s portrait.

Frequently asked questions

How many cards in hand in Lisboa?

Always five: you play one per turn, then take a face-up card. You start with five cards from the blue deck.

Who goes first in Lisboa?

The player who visited Lisboa most recently. Their Influence disc starts on 4, the next players on 5, 6 and 7.

How do Store majorities score in Lisboa?

Gold 3, 2 and 1 wigs; tools 6, 4 and 2; books and cloth 9, 6 and 3. With 2 players, the second player gets the 3rd-most value.

Ludingo’s Lisboa sheet was last reviewed on 22 October 2026, based on: eagle-gryphon.com, BoardGameGeek.