Thematic Overview
The players take on the roles of business people who are engaged in the fields of shipbuilding, trade and transport. Players are
dockyard owner, merchant and shipowner in one. As dockyard operators, the players build ships of various sizes. As merchants,
they purchase goods, which need to be transported on completed ships. As shipowners, players score victory points for completed ships and for goods
shipped. At the end of the game, the player who has most successfully navigated the buisnesses of shipbuilding and trade, and hence has the most victory points, is the winner.
Components
Setup
Put the game board onto the table.
The following material is placed on the board
- The wheel is placed in the middle of the board. At the beginning of the game, align
the section with the anchor on the wheel with the three workers bonus field on the board.
- The round marker is placed on space 1 of the round track.
- Each player puts their victory point marker on space 10 of the score track.
The remaining game components are sorted as follows
- The workers are placed next to the board, forming the general supply.
- The ship tiles are sorted by type and placed in stacks next to the board. There are 4 types of hull tiles:
fore, aft, middle, and 1-ship. There are 5 types of mast and 5 types of sail, each distiguished by the pictured crest. The masts and sails that have a crown symbol are special and should be grouped separately from the others.
- The good tiles are also sorted by type and placed in 4 open stacks next to the board.
- The coins (taler) are placed in a general supply next to the board.
- The 8 action tiles are shuffled face-down and placed onto the 8 action spaces surrounding the wheel. The action tiles are then turned face-up.
- The anchor tile is put aside for now.
- The circular overview tile "Victory points at game end" denotes how many points finished ships are worth at the end of the game. This should be placed in view of all players to use as a reminder throughout the game.
Each player receives
- 1 storage board, which he puts on the table in front of him.
- 4 workers from the general supply, which he sets besides his storage in his personal supply.
- 15 taler in any denominations, which are placed in as his personal supply.
- 1 “Extra Action” tile.
- 1 set of “Pass tiles”. A set consists of three tiles showing -3, -2, and -1 victory point, these are placed with the number sides up next to his storage board.
Note on using the play materials
The number and type of everything in a player's possession is public information. This includes workers and coins in a player's personal supply, tiles on storage boards, delivered goods, the status of pass tiles, the possession of the "extra action" tile, and all tiles in a player's dockyard. These components must be kept visible on the table, and the exact number must be communicated to the other players on demand.
Workers and coins in the general supply are not meant to be limiting. In the unlikely event that there
are insufficient amounts of coins or workers, replacements should be used.
The ship tiles and goods are limited in number. If the stack of a certain type is depleted,
players can no longer obtain them. Players are allowed to count how many tiles are available in each stack.
The most inexperienced player is the starting player and receives the starting player token.
The player in position 2 receives 1 additional taler.
In three player game, player three receives 2 additional taler and 1 additional worker.
In a four player game, the third player receives 1 additional taler and 1 additional worker. The
player at position 4 receives 2 additional taler and 2 additional workers.
Note: After completion of each action phase, the start player marker moves to the next
player clockwise. Don't move the start player marker after the end of a round additionally.
Gameplay (Overview)
The main focus in NAUTICUS is on ships. Finished ships earn victory points at the end of
the game and are essential to earning additional victory points through the shipment of goods. Four different
ship sizes can be built (1, 2, 3 or 4 tiles). Large ships gain significantly more victory points
but are harder to build and therefore take longer until they can be used to
deliver goods, since each vessel must be finished before it can be used to ship goods.
NAUTICUS is played over 5 rounds (4 rounds in the two-player game). Each round consists of exactly 7
action phases. The players decide what the action phases are and in which order they are
executed. At the beginning of an action phase, the start player chooses an action.
This action is performed by him, then by the other players in clockwise order, keeping all
players constantly involved in the game. Once all players have either performed the current action or passed,
the role of start player moves to the next player in clockwise order. The new start player then selects the next action.
At the end of the round, a short intermediate phase takes place in which the action wheel for the next
round is built and negative points for any remaining pass tiles are assigned. Then the next
round begins, and so on, until the required number of rounds have been completed. End game points are awarded for finished ships and delivered goods and a winner is declared.
The Golden Rule
In NAUTICUS the following rule is applied without exception:
Whenever a player receives a free tile (a ship part or a good), he must put this tile in
his storage (if there is no room in the player's storage, the tile is forfeit).
Free means that it was acquired without spending any taler.
Preparation of a New Round
- The round marker is advanced one position on the round track. (Not applicable to
game start)
- The wheel is rotated so that the anchor on the wheel aligns with the action marked by the anchor
tile, which was placed on the first action of the previous round. (Not applicable to
game start.)
- Once the wheel is realigned, the anchor tile is set aside. The eight action tiles are
collected by the current start player, randomly shuffled, and dealt face up on the 8
action fields of the board, starting with the field that displays the anchor on the wheel.
The tiles are placed such that the bonus fields are visible!
Sequence of Play
A round consists of 7 action phases. The start player begins the first action phase by
selecting one of the 8 action tiles and performing the corresponding action. Alternatively, he can
pass instead of performing the selected action. Then the next player in clockwise order chooses
whether he performs the same action or passes; this continues until all players have had
the opportunity to either perform the action or pass. The action phase ends by flipping over the
action tile, which is now unavailable for the rest of the current round.
After the first action phase
of a round, the anchor tile is placed on the flipped over action tile. The start player
marker is passed to the next player in clockwise order. Now this player becomes start player and selects from the
remaining action tiles and decides whether he wants to perform the action or pass. Once all
the players have performed the action or passed, the action tile is flipped over and the starting
player marker is passed to the next player in clockwise order. This is repeated until seven of the eight action tiles
have been selected and resolved. After the seventh action phase is complete, the round ends. The remaining
eighth action is not performed in this round.
Performing an action
1. Bonus
The player who selects an action (i. e. the current start player) gets the bonus printed on the wheel that is associated
with the selected action. The player gets this bonus regardless of whether he performs the
action selected or passes. When the player gets the bonus, he slides the action tile towards the wheel
so that the bonus is covered. Then he decides whether he performs the action (e.g. "buy
hull parts" below) or passes.
Important: Only the player that chooses the action receives the bonus. All other players
perform only the selected action or pass.
These are the bonuses (in the order in which they are printed on the board):
- 3 workers (beige clothing): The start player receives 3 workers from the general
supply and places them in his personal supply.
- Mast: The start player receives 1 free "regular" mast (not a crown mast) of his choice and places it
in his storage. (Do you remember the Golden Rule?)
- Sail: The start player receives 1 free "regular" sail (not a crown sail) of his
choice and places it in his storage.
- 2 victory points: The start player receives 2 victory points, moving his marker
on the score track accordingly.
- 2 workers (beige clothing): The start player receives 2 workers from the general supply and
places them in his personal supply.
- 1 worker (beige clothing) + 1 good:The start player receives 1 worker from the
general supply and places it in his personal supply. Furthermore, he receives 1 free good
of his choice and places it in his storage.
- 1 worker (beige clothing) + 1 victory point: The start player receives 1 worker from
the general supply and places it in his personal supply. He also receives 1 victory point, moving his marker
on the score track accordingly.
- 4 taler: The start player receives 4 taler from the general supply and places them in his personal supply.
2. Blue Workers on the wheel
Workers with blue clothes appear on the wheel. Each field, except for the anchor field,
shows 1, 2 or 3 workers. When an action is chosen, these workers are assigned to
the selected action and all players who perform this action gain the indicated number of blue workers that can only be used for the selected action.
Important: Unlike beige workers, players will not get blue workers
in the form of cubes from the general supply. These 0, 1, 2 or 3 blue workers are only available
for performing the selected action. If a player does not use all the blue workers, he forfeits
the remainder.
3. The Actions
3.1 General rules for actions
When an action is selected, the start player resolves it, then in clockwise order the
remaining players resolve the selected action. Performing an action is not mandatory.
Instead of resolving the selected action, a player can pass (even the start player may choose an action and
then pass). When a player passes, he flips one of his 3 pass tiles to the crown side. The first time a player passes he flips the -3 tile, the second time he flips the -2 tile and finally the -1 tile.
The reverse side of each of the pass tiles shows a crown whose meaning is explained in "3.2.2.4 Score crowns".
A player can still pass even if he has flipped all three of his pass tiles.
Each of the 8 actions can be used multiple times by the players in an action phase.
However, 1 worker is needed for each use of the action. A player can use an action more times than there are available blue workers,
for each additional use he must spend a beige worker from his personal supply (these workers are returned to the general supply).
There are 4 action tiles with blue backgrounds, the other 4 have bright backgrounds. The numbers
0-3, which are printed on the board next to the storage areas for action tiles, only matter
for the blue action tiles. With the blue actions, you buy ship parts or
products. This costs not only workers, but also taler. The price of a particular ship
part / product depends on the number that is shown next to the relevant part of the
ship / the goods. For bright actions, there are no coins costs, therefore the numbers for these
actions are meaningless.
The listed prices are for the first copy of each of the various tiles.
To buy more than one identical tile, the additional tiles cost 4 taler (and 1 worker),
regardless of the listed price of this tile.
If a player buys all 4 different ship parts / goods available in the action, he shall
receive one additional tile of the type available on the action tile (without the use of
a worker).
Reminder: All tiles obtained free of charge must be placed in storage. Workers are not
considered as costs. A tile that you can buy for 0 coins is "free" even when you use a
worker to buy it. It follows that you can immediately use, without going through
the warehouse, all tiles for which one has paid Taler. (Also see the explanation of
each action.)
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Example: The first player chooses the action "buy hull parts".
He receives a bonus 2 victory points and pushes the action tile
down and covers the bonus box. Then he performs the action
"buy hull parts". He buys all 4 hull parts, has to pay 6 taler
and employ 4 workers. 2 blue workers are available to him
from the wheel, so he still needs 2 workers from his personal
supply to use and puts them back to the general stock. Because
he bought all the parts, he gets a free hull part of his choice,
which he puts into his storage.
Then the next player's turn. He buys a bow and a stern and
pays 1 + 3 = 4 taler for it. As it uses the 2 available Blue
workers, he need employ no workers from his store. The third
player "buys" the free 1-tile-ship and puts it into his warehouse. He does not have to pay taler and does not use workers from his store,
because 2 blue workers are available for the action but it requires only one worker. The unused worker expires.
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3.2 The individual actions
3.2.1 Chargeable actions (blue action tiles)
The printed numbers 0-3 next to the action tiles matters only for the paid
actions. The numbers are the prices for the corresponding tiles shown below them. "Paid"
means that every action performed costs 0-4 taler in addition to the standard 1 worker.
3.2.1.1 Buy hull parts
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The body parts are the basis of all ships. Without them,
masts, sails and goods cannot be used effectively.
In NAUTICUS, 4 different sizes of ships can be built. For
the small 1-tile ships there is a separate, full-body tile. The
larger vessels consist of a front tile, a rear tile, and 0, 1 or 2
middle tiles.
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2-tiles-ship |
3-tiles-ship |
4-tiles-ship |
When hull tiles are purchased, any free tiles must be placed in the storage (Golden
Rule), and the remaining tiles may be placed directly in front of you in your "dockyard". Once you have
put together the bow and stern to start a 2 tile ship, it is not possible to then
insert another midsection. 3 and 4 tile ships can be built from one side only, or may be started in the
middle. So you cannot leave a gap between the bow and stern with 1 or 2 parts in order to
later make it a 3 or 4 tile ship. If you put a bow and a stern separately from each other
in the yard, you have two ships "under construction". It is not possible to combine these into
a single vessel later.
Note: The hull of a ship need not be finished in one action. It is possible (and for large ships,
often the case) that there are several "Buy hull parts" actions needed to complete a hull.
3.2.1.2 Buy Mast
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There are 5 types of masts, distinguished by the emblems on the flags. Only 4 of these
mast types can be bought using this action. The crown masts cannot be bought; they can
only be received as a reward for completed ships ("4 Rewards for Completed
Ships"). Purchased (paid) masts can be built immediately on previously purchased ship
hulls.
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It does not matter if the hull has been completed or not. However, a ship can only
contain one type of mast (mixing different mast types is not allowed). (Exception:
Masts with the crown joker can be combined with any other mast.) Purchased masts that
cannot be put directly on hulls must be placed in the storage, along with any free masts and
any masts that the player chooses not to place.
3.2.1.3 Buy Sails
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There are 5 types of sails, distinguished by the crest on the sails. Only 4 of these types of
sails can be purchased via this action. The crown sail cannot be bought; it can only be
received as a reward for completed ships ("4 Rewards
for Completed Ships"). Purchased (paid) sails can be
immediately placed on masts with the same emblem as
the sail.
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(Exception: Crowns are jokers and the crown sails
can be placed on masts of any kind, and any sail can be placed
on a crown mast.) Purchased sails that cannot be put directly on
masts must be placed in the storage, along with any free sails and
any sails that the player chooses not to place.
3.2.1.4 Buy Goods
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The purchase of goods works the same as the purchase of ship
parts. Purchased (paid) Goods can be placed on the hull parts in
the yard, including unfinished ships. Each body part has space for
exactly one commodity, the commodity is placed directly under the
body part. The goods loaded on a ship do not have to match. |
Goods that have been loaded onto a ship cannot be transferred to other ships;
they can be shipped only with the Action "deliver goods" ("3.2.2.3
Deliver Goods").
3.2.2 Free Actions (bright action tiles)
In the 4 free actions, the printed numbers 0-3 next to the surfaces of the action tile are not
important. "Free" means that these actions require no taler to be paid, but they continue to require
one worker for each action taken.
3.2.2.1 Transport (from storage to dockyard)
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In their storage, players collect all ship parts and goods they
have received for free, or otherwise not directly added
to a ship under construction. Each hull part, sail and good takes
exactly 1 storage box to store. Masts take 2 boxes to store.
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You can rearrange the storage as you want (if you want, for example,
to store a mast, but no two places are next to each other). But if the
warehouse is full, no more ship parts or products can be stored.
With the "transport", one moves ship parts and goods to the dockyard. You can carry any number of
tiles to the dockyard, but one worker is needed for each transported tile. The tiles can be added to
existing ships or used to create new ones.
3.2.2.2 Withdraw money
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With this action, obtain new money from the general supply.
For each worker a player uses, he receives 2 taler from the
general supply.
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3.2.2.3 Deliver Goods
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This action can only be performed by players who have at least 1
fully finished ship (hull + mast(s) + sail(s)) which is fully loaded
with goods - i.e. there is a goods tile under each hull section. If one
chooses to deliver goods, he can deliver any number of fully loaded
ships. But he must always deliver the entire cargo of a ship.
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For each undelivered good, 1 worker is required. Partial deliveries are not
possible. If the player cannot deliver all the goods of a large ship because he does not have enough
workers available, he may not deliver any goods of this ship. Delivered goods are collected on the
right side next to the warehouse. These products bring the player victory points at game end: the
more goods of one kind, the more points (see "Playing"). Once a ship has been discharged,
it may again be loaded with goods to deliver again.
3.2.2.4 Scoring the Crowns
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With this action, you can obtain victory points. How many victory
points a player can get is dependent on the number of workers
employed and the number of currently visible crowns. A player using
this action counts all his visible crowns. Crowns are on the crown
masts and crown sails, and it is not important whether the crown sail or
the crown mast is in storage or is already part of a ship. What matters is
possession.
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Also, there are crowns on the back of the pass tiles. The sum of crowns on masts, sails
and already inverted pass tiles results in the number of victory points the player receives per
employed worker and advances his marker on the Victory Point track.
Important: A player can receive a maximum of 15 points per round using this action.
(Exception: if the extra action (see "5 Extra - Action") is used, one can perform the entire action
once again this round, so it is theoretically possible to get up to 15 victory points twice in one round, once per game.)
Example: Player B has 1 crown mast on a sailing ship and one crown in the warehouse. In addition, he has flipped 1 pass tile. He
uses the 2 blue workers who are currently assigned to this action and one worker from his store. He receives 3 x 3 = 9 victory points
and moves his marker on the scoring track.
If he had used 2 other workers, he would have received the maximum amount of 15 victory points.
3.3 Passing
A player may choose not to perform an action, but pass. But this is not necessarily a bad thing,
because every time a player passes, he may flip one of his pass tiles over to reveal the crown. At
the end of the round, everyone loses victory points according to the pass tiles which have not been
flipped. A player who does not pass in a round, loses a total of 6 victory points. By passing once,
you have already reduced this loss to 3 victory points. So, it is often useful to pass at least once
per round. Also, flipping a pass tile reveals 1 additional crown that can bring additional victory
points for the action "Evaluation of the Crowns" for the rest of the round.
Reminder: If the start player for the action passes, he still gets the bonus for the selection of the
action.
4. Rewards for completed ships
Each time a player completes a ship, he interrupts his turn and immediately receives one or
more rewards. A ship is finished when all the ship parts are placed. A 1-ship with hull + 1 mast
+ 1 sail is complete. A 4-hull boat with 4 hulls (bow + 2 middle parts + stern ) + 4 (matching)
masts + 4 (matching) sails. Goods have nothing to do with the completion of ships. For each
mast in a built ship, the player receives one reward.
There are 6 rewards to choose from:
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1 crown mast:
The player receives one
crown mast and puts it into his storage.
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1 crown sail:
The player receives one
crown sail and puts it into his storage.
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3 victory points:
The player receives
3 victory points and moves his marker accordingly.
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7 taler:
The player takes 7 taler
from the general supply.
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3 workers:
The player takes 3
workers from the general supply.
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2 goods:
The player receives
2 different goods and puts them into his storage.
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Each reward can be taken a maximum of two times per completed ship. If you complete a 4-
ship, you can take 2 crown masts and 2 crown sails for example. Or 4 different rewards. The
distribution of rewards is entirely up to the player, as long as he chooses no reward more than 2
times.
Important: If a ship is completed, the current turn is interrupted and the reward(s) given. If
this happens during the "transport" action, and the player takes as a reward (for example) a
crown sail, which then goes into the storage, he can immediately apply the "transport" on
those parts and move them to a ship, possibly finishing another ship for more rewards. Coins
or workers gained as rewards can also be immediately used for further actions.
5. Extra Action
Each player begins the game with one "extra action" tile. This can be used once in the game
during a player’s turn, to perform an additional action with slightly modified rules before or
after the current action. First, the player receives 2 workers from the general supply. Then he
selects one of the 8 known actions and executes them according to the following rules: for a
paid action, each tile has a purchase price of 2 taler. All other rules remain unchanged: Any
use of the chosen action costs 1 worker. If you buy tiles, you can continue to buy one of every
kind for the price of 2 taler each. If you want to buy more tiles of a kind, the price increases to
4 taler as before. If you buy all 4 tiles, you get 1 extra free tile. Once this extra action has been
performed, the extra action tile is placed back in the box.
Important: The action tiles on the board have nothing to do with the extra action. The extra
action does not cause the tile for the corresponding action to be flipped and it can also activate an
action where the action tile is already flipped!
Note: It is usually wise to keep the extra action for the last round, so you can react to an
adverse order in the selection of actions.
6. End of Action Phase
Once all the players have completed the action selected by the first player, an action phase is
completed. The first player flips the action tile over on its back, making the action no longer
available in this round (except as an extra action). At the end of the first phase of actions each
round, the anchor tile is placed on the newly flipped over tile (see "End of Round"). There it will
stay until the end of the round. The first player gives the starting player marker to the player on his
right. If two or more action counters are still face up, the next action phase begins and the
new start player chooses an action. After 7 Action phases, only 1 action tile is left and the round is
over.
End of Round
Once 7 action phases have been carried out and only 1 action tile remains, the round ends. The
remaining action is not performed in this round.
Then the pass tiles of the players are evaluated. Each player loses victory points, corresponding
to the non-inverted pass tiles, moving back accordingly on the scoring track. (In the unlikely
event that a player slips below 0 victory points, the points can also go into the negative.) All Pass
tiles are flipped back over to the side indicating the negative points. Thus, each player starts
with a potential 6 penalty points and no crowns for the next round.
The round marker is advanced on the round track.
If there are still more rounds to play, the wheel is reoriented in such a way that the anchor
on the wheel on the action field lines up with the location containing the anchor tile. Once the
hub is realigned, the first player puts the anchor tile next to the board, takes all eight action tiles,
shuffles them and places them randomly on the open fields of action, starting with the box next
to the anchor on the wheel.
The start player begins the new round, in which he selects one of the eight actions.
Note: There is no steady income of Taler or workers. The player must make do with the starting
capital and what they receive from the actions, rewards and bonuses.
End of Game
The game ends after the 5th round, or after the 4th round in the game for two. Now, all players
win points for their finished ships and delivered goods. But remaining coins, workers not
employed, ship parts in the dockyard and storage, as well as undelivered goods are also still worth
something.
Victory points for delivered goods
The delivered goods are grouped into sets according to their type.
For each set of identical goods, the player gets the following victory points:
Set of 1 good: 2 victory points
Set of 2 goods: 5 victory points
Set of 3 goods: 9 victory points
Set of 4 goods: 14 victory points
Set of 5 goods: 20 victory points
For each further tile of a set, the player receives 5 additional victory points.
Victory points for completed ships
Each player receives victory points for each completed ship, depending on the size of the ship:
1-tile ship: 2 victory points
2-tiles ship: 8 victory points
3-tiles ship: 20 victory points
4-tiles ship: 35 victory points
Victory points for residual material
Remaining workers, ship parts in shipyards and warehouses, and undelivered goods are
exchanged for 1 Taler each. For every 3 coins that the player now has, he gains 1 victory
point. The coins are retained by the players as possible tie-breakers.
Whoever has the most victory points wins this game. In the case of a tie, the player with the
most money that could not be converted to points (0, 1 or 2 Taler) is the winner. If there is
still a tie, the player with the most coins including coins for which he has already received
victory points wins. If there is still a tie, the players involved share the appropriate placement.