How to play
There are four goods, from cheapest to dearest: corn, berries, peas and acorns. Your barge carries ten at most; anything over that goes overboard, one at a time from whatever you have most of.
Everyone starts with two trader cards (make 2 corn, and turn up two steps) and a little corn. On your turn, do one of these:
- Play a trader from your hand. A make card gives you goods. A turn up card moves goods up a step each, like corn to berries or peas to acorns. A swap card trades the goods on its left for the goods on its right, as many times as you can pay.
- Take a new trader from the row of six. The first one is free; for any other, put one of your goods on each card to its left. If the card you take has goods on it, you get those too.
- Fill an order by paying exactly the goods it shows. The first order in the row also carries a gold coin (3 points), and the second a silver coin (1 point).
- Rest to pick all your played trader cards back up into your hand.
The end
When someone fills their fifth order (fourth with four or five players), the round is finished so everyone has had the same number of turns, then the game ends. Score your orders and coins, plus 1 point for each good that isn’t corn. The most points wins; a tie goes to whoever played later in the round.
Tips
A few good traders early make every later order quicker. Watch the goods piling up on traders further along the row: taking a card can pay for itself. And don’t turn everything into acorns; you need the cheaper goods for orders and swaps too.