/pic3246725.jpg)
This game is inspired by the Portuguese Age of Discoveries in the 15th-16th century. Players take actions such as contracting workers, acquiring ships and buildings, sailing the seas, establishing colonies in discovered lands, trading goods on the market, and getting privileges.
Each player starts with only two ships and three workers and tries to expand his wealth.
There are several lands that, once sailed to, allow players to found colonies. Colonies exist in different places where sugar, gold and spices are available and can be sold to the market to make some money. Money is used to build ships, erect buildings such as factories, shipyards and churches, and to get workers. Workers are necessary to found colonies or to acquire buildings and privileges, which exist in five categories and therefore encourage players to follow different strategies competing with each other.
At the end of the game the player who is most successful in combining their privileges with their achievements (colonies, factories, discoveries, shipyards, and churches) is the winner.
- classic rondelle tension (speed vs payoff)
- varied action flow through sailing/market/colony actions
- interaction with other players' pawns on the wheel
- complexity may be high for new players
- requires careful planning to optimize movement
- TK Imperium Imperial
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Multiple action spaces on wedges — Wedges provide actions like sailing, worker, market, and colony actions.
- Pay-to-extend movement — Movement can be extended by paying resources to go further around the wheel.
- rondelle action wheel — Players have tokens on a pie-wedge wheel and move their token around to stop on a wedge to perform that action.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I'm using pretty loose definitions of rondelle
- I cluster New York Zoo, Murano, and Scorpius Freighter because all of these have neutral pawns
- this is a mancala style game
- there are modular boards and looping action tracks