I hope this rule clarification helps with the ratings as they are a lot lower than I expected.

Once again well done for showing respect for your customers. Looking forward to playing this game.

In the example in the immediately preceding post, we played that with 2 ivory, 2 weapons, 1 uranium, 1 art and 1 automobile, you could play set of five different for 15 plus a single ivory for 1 plus a single weapons for 1, so with that batch of 7 goods, you can get a total of 17 points. Right?

This is a great game! It is fun and involves a lot of strategy. Thanks for keeping your creativity at maximum.
As to the bags, mine is fraying quite badly on the inside and will most likely break in the future. Even when I noticed that…I had supreme confidence that your stellar company would come through for their loyal customers as you always do. Thanks for another great game!

What you cannot do however is trade in 2 ivory, 2 weapons, 1 uranium, 1 art and 1 automobile and say that’s 7 different cargos. At best it would be 5 different cargos (and yield you 15 points).

However by using the term ‘collecting’ in your clarification your suggesting that players should collects goods from the ports that are all different..

eg if I acquired 8 goods in my turn they would all have to be individual..

Which of these statements is true?

Correct you could use your coins to try and thwart opponents whose final turn come after yours; but… this will usually be at the expense of using your coins to help yourself purchase a bigger Victory card on that last turn. And since your opponents know that, they can/should manage the timing of their own cash accordingly, on the prior turn.

As for a 1st player advantage, in all our playtests, it’s turned out to be a theoretical one more than an effective one. Because other players can/will compensate for it in how they play. The only undeniable first player advantage that exists is that if you decide to bid all 7 coins in one port (Rotterdam, usually) on the first turn you are guaranteed to win that port that one time.

if you want to discuss this further, we should probably do it in the forums though…

eric @ DoW

Once again, great customer service on the bags.

I’d love to have a clarification on the final turn… the rules imply (but don’t state) that you can send your boats back out with any remaining cash to prevent other players from getting cargo from ports. In practice, that seems to favor the earlier players – who are already favored by having the first shot at the vp cards. Is this the way the game was intended to play?