madeira
Please the crown, feed your people, thrive; all without resorting to piracy - too often
LB_NUMBER_OF_PLAYERS: 2 - 4
Game duration: 71 mn
Complexity: 4 / 5
Play madeira and 960 other games online.
No download, directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.
Play madeira and 960 other games online.
No download, directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.
Rules summary
Elements of Gameplay
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 (see City Watch below). 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:
- - In Phase B, send a worker from the City Watch home to make use of a pirate die.
- - In 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 are 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.
- If you are already on the bottom step, lose 1 PP to take this action.
- Move down 1 step to gain 1 bread or 3 reals.
Gameplay
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 or (at the cost of a worker in the City Watch) 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 a 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
Honor (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 his Crown’s Requests in the 1st round, 2 in the 3rd round, and 3 in the 5th round. He earns 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, he must assign different items to them (see below Urbanization for an example).
The player must discard all the chosen Crown’s Requests, even if he earns 0 Prestige Points for one or more of them.
Guild Favors
A player can use 1 of his face-up Guild Favors at the beginning of each of his turns:
- in Phase B - Character Actions (see page 9) (i.e. before he places a die or passes) and
- in Phase C - Building Actions (see page 12) (i.e. before he pays the cost or receives the Pirates).
He cannot use a Guild Favor if he has no Action Markers on the Building currently being resolved, because it is not his turn.
To use a Guild Favor, the player flips it face-down and immediately applies its effect (see below).
No Guild Favors can be used during Phases A - Round Setup, D - Maintenance, or E - The Crown’s Requests.
Reminder: A player can flip face-up:
- in Phase A - Round Setup, all of his Guild Favors of the same Guild as the one he chooses (see page 8).
- 1 or 2 of his Guild Favors (same or different Guilds), performing the “Casa da Coroa” Building Action (see page 13).
- 1 of his Guild Favors, performing the “Guild” King’s Reward, if it is in play, (see below).
Passing
- The player gets 2 Reals
- The player gets 3 Reals
- OR earns 1 PP, and may move 1 of his Workers to any empty City spot
- The player gets 4 Reals
- OR moves 1 of his Workers into the City Watch
- The player gets 5 Reals
- OR moves 1 of his Ships following the usual rules
King’s Rewards
Various Rewards available
- The player moves 1 of his Workers to any field following the usual rules
- The player flips 1 of his Guild Favors face-up.
- The player discards up to 3 Pirates or gets 2 Bread from the general supply.
- The player moves his disc up one step in the Windmill. He does 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 his Workers to any empty City spot.
- The player moves 1 of his Workers into the City Watch