Maracaibo

Setting up Maracaibo involves placing the main Caribbean board in the center of the table, distributing player boards representing personal ships, and assigning starting resources including doubloons, assistants, and cards. Each player places their ship marker at the starting port in Havana, and various tokens, quest tiles, and nation cubes are populated onto the board according to the chosen scenario level.

The primary objective is to accumulate the highest number of victory points by the end of the fourth round. Players achieve this by strategically navigating the Caribbean sea, delivering regional goods to cities, completing quests, upgrading their player boards, and engaging in naval and land combat to build influence among the three major European nations: France, Spain, and England.

On your turn, you move your ship forward between one and seven spaces along valid sea routes. Upon landing, you resolve the scroll ability of the destination city or village, which may allow you to deliver goods or trigger optional actions like buying cards from your hand or reserve. You then spend remaining movement points on optional village actions before ending your turn by drawing cards up to your hand limit.

Victory points are scored dynamically during interim scorings at the end of rounds and through end-game evaluations. Points come from completed quests, deployed assistants, prestige buildings, and card synergies. Additionally, players score significantly based on their final positions on the three national influence tracks and the number of cubes removed from nations.

The game spans exactly four rounds. Each round concludes when at least one player's ship reaches space number 20 in Havana. After the fourth round, final scoring is tallied, combining accumulated points from buildings, cards, quests, and nation influence, and the player with the most points wins.