Maracaibo rules: how to play and how to score

Maracaibo quick rules

The goal

You sail the Caribbean in the service of three nations. The game lasts four rounds; in each, the ships leave Havana and travel around the map. You score points during the game and at final scoring, and the most victory points wins.

A turn

Move your ship one to seven locations, following the arrows, never backward; some locations force you to stop. Take a single main action where you stop, then draw project cards up to your hand limit, four at the start. A card taken from the four face-up cards costs one doubloon.

Cities

A city has an action scroll. You may first deliver a good there: discard a card showing it and place a disc from your ship board on the market. Then take the city’s action, even without a delivery. Clearing both spaces of an area of your ship board unlocks a ship upgrade.

Villages

In a village, you take one village action, two if you spent 4 to 6 movement points, three with 7. Each action: take one doubloon, discard your hand for two doubloons, or buy a project card from your hand or planning area, or instead invest in a prestige building.

Project cards

Discarded, a card pays for a good or an object. Bought, it gives income, a permanent effect, an assistant action or an immediate bonus, and often points at the end. Your planning area keeps three cards out of your hand, to buy later. Your career card offers three tasks.

Combat

Reveal a combat token, choose the nation you fight for and take its combat value. Spend it on combat actions, each once: 2 for one influence or 5 for two, 4 to annex a free city (6 to displace another nation), with 1 influence and the flag’s bonus. Your combat points and figures add 1 each.

Exploring, quests and assistants

Your explorer gets the reward of the space where it stops, and points for crossing the colored barriers. A quest is paid for and gives a reward partly multiplied by your compass symbols. An assistant on a location gives its action when your ship stops there; passed unused, it scores 2 points.

The end of a round

The homeward bound spaces force you to stop. In the first three rounds, the first ship to reach the last one scores 3 points and triggers interim scoring: each player buys a card or scores 2 points, then collects the income of both income tracks. Markets are cleared and every ship goes back to Havana.

Final scoring

In the fourth round, the last space scores 5 points and triggers final scoring: a purchase or 2 points, both income tracks as points, bought cards and buildings, 3 points per nation where you have the most influence, then your noble rank times each nation’s multiplier.

Beginner traps

A round can end sooner than you think: don’t wait to buy. In a village, the distance you sailed sets your number of actions. A card in your planning area can no longer be a good. And remember the 2 points for each assistant you pass.

How to score Maracaibo

Points scored during the game

Your space on the victory point track before final scoring, 100 or 200 token included.

Two points instead of the last purchase

At final scoring, each player buys a card or scores 2 points. A card you buy counts with the project cards.

Victory point income track

The points of your marker’s space.

Points from the doubloon income track

The points printed at your marker’s space: at the end, you don’t take the doubloons.

Project cards and prestige buildings

The points of the cards you bought and of the buildings you invested in, Cathedral included. Cards in hand or in your planning area are worth nothing.

Influence majorities

3 points for each nation where you have the most influence; in a tie, every tied player scores them. Nothing if every marker is still on 0.

Noble ranks

For each nation, your rank times its multiplier: the empty spaces in its marker supply, plus 2 for the nation most present on the board, 1 for the second.

Worked example

Emma has 98 points on the track. She buys one last card rather than taking 2 points, scores 9 from her victory point income track and 4 from her doubloon income track, and 34 from her cards and buildings. She leads influence alone in Spain and is tied in France: 3 + 3 = 6. Ranks 2, 3 and 1 with multipliers of 6, 5 and 2: 12 + 15 + 2 = 29. Total: 98 + 9 + 4 + 34 + 6 + 29 = 180 points.

Common mistakes

• Taking doubloons from the doubloon income track at final scoring: it only gives its printed points.
• Counting cards left in hand or in your planning area: they’re worth nothing.
• Forgetting that a tie for the most influence gives each tied player the 3 points.
• Working out a multiplier without the majority bonus for markers on the board.

How to set up Maracaibo

Setup takes about 15 minutes. Steps marked “with 2 players” also apply to the solo game, which has its own phase at the end.