AI-friendly board game rules summaries — use with Claude, ChatGPT, or any AI assistant
Players take on the roles of merchants in the medieval German Hanseatic League, competing to gain the most prestige points. On each turn, players perform 2-5 actions: placing tradesmen on trade routes, displacing opponents’ tradesmen, moving tradesmen around the board, or completing trade routes to establish trading posts in cities. Completing trade routes allows players to either claim trading posts, develop one of five personal abilities on their writing desk, or score special prestige points. The game ends when any player reaches 20 prestige points, the bonus marker supply runs out, or 10 cities have been fully occupied. The player with the most prestige points wins.
Each writing desk has 5 ability tracks with tradesmen covering the higher values. Abilities start at their leftmost (lowest) value:
| Ability | Values (left to right) | Tradesmen Covering | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| City Keys | 1, 2, 2, 3, 4 | 4 traders (square) | End-game prestige points per trading post in your largest network |
| Actions (Actiones) | 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5 | 5 traders (square) | Number of actions per turn |
| Privilege (Privilegium) | white, orange, pink, black | 3 traders (square) | Colors of trading post spaces you may occupy |
| Book of Knowledge (Liber Sophiae) | 2, 3, 4, 5 | 3 merchants (round) | Number of tradesmen you can move with the Move action |
| Bank | 3, 5, 7, C (all) | 3 traders (square) | Number of tradesmen you can hire from general stock with the Income action |
The writing desk also has a silver plate for holding bonus markers that must be placed at the end of your turn.
| Player | Personal Supply | General Stock |
|---|---|---|
| Start Player | 5 traders + 1 merchant | 6 traders |
| Player 2 | 6 traders + 1 merchant | 5 traders |
| Player 3 | 7 traders + 1 merchant | 4 traders |
| Player 4 | 8 traders + 1 merchant | 3 traders |
| Player 5 | 9 traders + 1 merchant | 2 traders |
Each successive player receives 1 more trader in their personal supply than the previous player to compensate for turn order.
Players take turns in clockwise order. On your turn:
You may use bonus markers at any time during your turn (they do not cost an action), but not during the same action in which you took the bonus marker. After use, flip the bonus marker face-down and place it to the right of your writing desk.
The game continues until one of the 3 end-game conditions is triggered (see Scoring / Victory Conditions).
Hire tradesmen from the general stock to your personal supply. The number you can hire depends on your Bank ability level:
| Bank Level | Tradesmen Hired |
|---|---|
| 3 (starting) | Up to 3 |
| 5 | Up to 5 |
| 7 | Up to 7 |
| C (cuncti/all) | All remaining |
If fewer tradesmen are available in the general stock than your limit, you take only those available. You can only use tradesmen in your personal supply for Action B.
Place 1 tradesman (trader or merchant) from your personal supply onto any free connection point on any trade route. The connection point must not be occupied by you or any opponent. It does not matter if other connection points on the same trade route are occupied by you or opponents.
If you repeat this action, you may choose any valid connection point each time (not restricted to the same trade route).
Displace 1 opponent’s tradesman from a connection point on a trade route and replace it with 1 of your own from your personal supply. You must pay an additional cost from your personal supply to the general stock:
| Displaced Piece | Your Cost |
|---|---|
| Trader (cube) | Return 1 additional tradesman from your personal supply to general stock |
| Merchant (disc) | Return 2 additional tradesmen from your personal supply to general stock |
If you do not have enough tradesmen in your personal supply to pay the cost, you cannot perform this action.
Displaced opponent’s compensation: The displaced opponent immediately receives tradesmen from the general stock and must place them plus their displaced piece on free connection points of adjacent trade routes:
| Displaced Piece | Opponent Receives |
|---|---|
| Trader displaced | Displaced trader + 1 tradesman from general stock (2 total to place) |
| Merchant displaced | Displaced merchant + 2 tradesmen from general stock (3 total to place) |
The opponent may distribute these tradesmen across 1 or more adjacent trade routes. If all adjacent connection points are full, the opponent expands outward to trade routes adjacent to those routes, and so on.
If the opponent has no tradesmen in the general stock, they may use tradesmen from their personal supply instead. If the personal supply is also empty, they may use any of their tradesmen already placed on trade routes. However, the opponent may not place any of these tradesmen into their personal supply – they must go directly onto trade route connection points. An opponent may decline taking additional tradesmen from the general stock or personal supply.
Move your own tradesmen from connection points on trade routes to free connection points on other trade routes. The number you can move depends on your Book of Knowledge ability:
| Book of Knowledge Level | Tradesmen Moved |
|---|---|
| 2 (starting) | Up to 2 |
| 3 | Up to 3 |
| 4 | Up to 4 |
| 5 | Up to 5 |
You may move tradesmen from multiple trade routes and place them on multiple different trade routes. You may swap the positions of one of your traders with one of your merchants (counts as 2 of your moves). You may NOT displace opponents’ tradesmen with this action.
Prerequisite: All connection points on a trade route between 2 cities must be occupied by your own tradesmen. Occupying all connections does NOT automatically create the route – you must explicitly use this action.
When you perform this action, carry out the following steps in order:
Determine who controls each of the 2 cities at either end of the trade route. The player with the most trading posts in a city controls it and immediately gains 1 prestige point. In case of a tie, the tied player with the highest-valued trading post (furthest to the right) controls the city. If one player controls both cities, they gain 2 prestige points (1 per city).
If anyone now has 20+ prestige points, the game ends immediately after this action.
If there is a bonus marker next to the newly created trade route, take it and place it face-up to the left of your writing desk. You may use it once at any time during any of your turns after completing this action (including this turn, but not during this action). Using a bonus marker does not cost an action. After use, flip it face-down and place it to the right of your writing desk.
Then immediately draw 1 new bonus marker from the supply and place it face-down on the silver plate of your writing desk. If the supply is empty, the game ends immediately after this action (and you cannot use the bonus marker you just took from the board).
At the end of your turn, you must place all bonus markers on your silver plate onto trade routes on the board, subject to these restrictions:
3a) Establish 1 Trading Post: Remove all your tradesmen from the trade route. Return all but 1 to the general stock. Use the remaining tradesman to fill the leftmost vacant trading post space in one of the two cities at either end of the route.
Rules:
East-West Connection: If establishing a trading post creates a continuous chain of your trading posts from Stendal to Arnheim (marked with red banners), you score prestige points immediately: 7 points for the first player to achieve this, 4 for the second, 2 for the third. The length of the route, the positions of your trading posts within cities, and city control are all irrelevant. If anyone reaches 20+ prestige points, the game ends immediately.
3b) Develop 1 Ability: If one of the two cities at either end of the trade route has a pictogram of one of the 5 abilities, you may develop that ability instead of establishing a trading post. Return ALL tradesmen from the trade route to the general stock (none are kept). Remove the leftmost trader (for City Keys, Actions, Privilege, Bank) or merchant (for Book of Knowledge) from the corresponding ability on your writing desk and place it in your personal supply. From now on, the improved value is available. If you just revealed a higher Actions value, the additional action is immediately available this turn.
3c) Score Special Prestige Points (Coellen): If you create a trade route between Coellen and Warburg, you may place a merchant from the trade route onto 1 of the 4 special prestige point spaces (valued 7, 8, 9, or 11). The space must be empty. You may skip over empty spaces (unlike trading posts). You must have the appropriate Privilege level matching the space’s color. Return remaining tradesmen to the general stock. The merchant stays until end-game scoring.
The game ends immediately (active player completes the current action, but remaining actions are lost) when any of these occur during Action E:
Add prestige points from all 6 categories:
A) Prestige Points Track: Points already scored during the game (city control, certain trading posts, East-West Connection).
B) Fully Developed Abilities: 4 prestige points for each ability that is fully developed (all tradesmen removed, all spaces empty). Exception: No prestige points for fully developing the City Keys ability.
C) Bonus Markers Collected:
| Number of Bonus Markers | Prestige Points |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1 |
| 2 or 3 | 3 |
| 4 or 5 | 6 |
| 6 or 7 | 10 |
| 8 or 9 | 15 |
| 10 or more | 21 |
All collected bonus markers count (both used/face-down and unused/face-up).
D) Special Prestige Points (Coellen): Score the value shown on any special prestige point spaces you occupy with a merchant (7, 8, 9, or 11).
E) Prestige Points for Cities: 2 prestige points for each city you control (most trading posts). Additional trading posts established via the bonus marker count toward your total. Ties are broken by the highest-valued trading post (furthest right). Only 1 player scores per city.
F) Prestige Points for Network: Identify your largest connected network of trading posts. A network consists of adjacent cities in which you have at least 1 trading post, connected by trade routes. Count the total number of trading posts in your largest network, then multiply by your City Keys ability value. Add this to your total.
If tied for most prestige points:
Traders (wooden cubes) and merchants (wooden discs) are collectively called “tradesmen” and are generally interchangeable, with 3 exceptions:
When placing a new bonus marker on the board at the end of your turn, all 3 of these must be satisfied:
A trade route can still be created even if both cities at either end are fully occupied. This may be done to score prestige points for city control or to take a bonus marker.
If you develop the Actions ability and reveal a higher value, the additional action is immediately available this turn (even if this happens via a bonus marker for +3 or +4 actions).
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| A) Income | Hire up to 3/5/7/all tradesmen from general stock to personal supply |
| B) Place 1 Tradesman | Place 1 tradesman from personal supply onto a free connection point |
| C) Displace 1 Opponent | Replace opponent’s tradesman with yours; pay 1 (trader) or 2 (merchant) extra to general stock |
| D) Move Tradesmen | Move 2/3/4/5 of your tradesmen between free connection points |
| E) Create 1 Trade Route | Complete a route you fully occupy: score points, take bonus marker, then establish/develop/score |
| Ability | Start | Max | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| City Keys | 1 | 4 | Network multiplier for end-game scoring |
| Actions | 2 | 5 | Actions per turn |
| Privilege | White | Black | Trading post color access (white < orange < pink < black) |
| Book of Knowledge | 2 | 5 | Tradesmen moved with Action D |
| Bank | 3 | C (all) | Tradesmen hired with Action A |
| Category | Points |
|---|---|
| A) Prestige Points Track | As scored during game |
| B) Fully Developed Abilities | 4 PP each (except City Keys) |
| C) Bonus Markers | 1/3/6/10/15/21 PP for 1/2-3/4-5/6-7/8-9/10+ markers |
| D) Coellen Special Points | 7, 8, 9, or 11 PP per occupied space |
| E) Cities Controlled | 2 PP per city you control (most trading posts; tiebreak: highest-valued post) |
| F) Network | Trading posts in largest network x City Keys value |
| Position | Traders | Merchants | General Stock |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start Player | 5 | 1 | 6 |
| Player 2 | 6 | 1 | 5 |
| Player 3 | 7 | 1 | 4 |
| Player 4 | 8 | 1 | 3 |
| Player 5 | 9 | 1 | 2 |