Colonial game guide/signup - game is full!

[SpaceLord]

Colonial: Europe’s Empires Overseas is an empire-building, world-spanning game representing the 15th through early 19th century. Each player represents a European power of the day, and the first player with 10 Prestige(VPs) wins, as long as they don’t have any outstanding loans.

The amazing board is below:



High-Res image

The game generally lasts between 6 and 8 turns. The game status will be tracked both in the thread and in an Excel spreadsheet that will be made available for download via DropBox. This game will actually be pretty easy to track. The only hidden information in the game is the Endeavor cards selected each turn.

Links:

BGG redesign of the rulebook. We will be using this version of the rules, incorporating the 2nd edition updates provided by the designer..

Spreadsheet for tracking the game status

I'll take the first five players that respond. I'll play Yellow.

Though it's not official, below are the game colors and associated Nations available. This has no effect on gameplay.

Yellow: Portugal - SpaceLord
Red: Spain - Vorret
Blue: England - Qantaga
White: France - Grundbegriff
Orange: Dutch - El Guapo
Black: Italy - Isgrimnur

[SpaceLord]

Colonial is broken down into 6 phases, listed below.
1. Endeavor
2. Merchant Fleet
3. Start Player
4. Naval Forces
5. Privateer
6. Interest

The majority of the gameplay lies in Endeavor. The next post explains Endeavor, as well as each action card.

Each game round, each of the other players will PM me the action cards they select, one through four, as described below. I'll pick my cards first, so I can't cheat. The rest of the game is open knowledge.

[SpaceLord]

Endeavor Phase Description, Part 1

Colonial is focused on acquiring and improving overseas territories, by playing 5 of their 6 cards/12 roles during the Endeavor phase.

At the start of each Endeavor phase, each player picks 4 of their 6 role cards(sending them to the referee), and places them in order, from first played to fourth played. Once this is accomplished, all players reveal their first card, and then the first player chooses one of the two roles listed on his card, and carries it out. Then each other player does the same. After each player has played their first action, the process repeats. Note that you can always to decline to play your action when it comes to you.

After 4 rounds of playing cards, a special “Last Change/Bonus” role occurs. Each player chooses one of his leftover two cards, and chooses one role to perform. These selections are done when it is your action, and you do not have to pre-pick the action.


Role card descriptions:


Card A:
Explorer/Ambassador

Explorer: Choose a territory, and roll a six-sided die. Add 1 to the roll if you control an adjacent resource. If you meet the listed Difficulty of the territory, the Exploration is successful. Take the Prestige marker off the territory and add it to your player board.

You then have two options:
1. Take a Merchant Fleet from your board and put it onto the territory’s resource slots, and gain control of that resource. The drawback here is that Merchant Fleets(and thus the ability to place goods into market, to be shipped to your Treasury) only come from two sources: Monopolies and Colonizing.
2. Take 1 Treasury token and place it on a resource on the territory, and gain control of that resource. Also add a Unrest token to the territory. This drawback is more severe, as Unrest can be difficult to overcome if other players decide to cause a Rebellion. See the Rebel role below.
Ambassador: Move yourself up one space on the Diplomacy track, and remove an Unrest marker from the board, if you choose. See Diplomacy, below. War cannot be declared against someone to the right of you on this track.

Card B:
Trader/Financier:

Trader: Move goods from the Market to your Treasury equal to your Economic Progress plus the Native Power of all your Colonies. If you don’t have enough of your own goods, you may ship goods for others. If they agree, they move their tokens from Market onto their board, and you move an equal amount as well. See the next post for an example of Trader/Merchant.
Financier: Add ten tokens to your Treasury. Place a 10x marker onto the Loan space. You cannot win the game while you have an outstanding Loan. Loans can be paid back at any time. The only “forced” payment is during Interest (Phase 6), see below.

[SpaceLord]

Endeavor Phase Description, Part 2

Card C:
Scientist/Missionary

Scientist: Discard tokens from your Treasury to advance on one of the 4 Progress tracks. Pay Treasury equal to the new space’s printed cost. Example: To move from 2 Sailing to 3 Sailing, discard 3 Treasury tokens.
Missionary: Place a Mission marker on an explored territory. These markers prevent Rebellions while they are in play. If a Unrest token is to be placed in a territory with a Mission, the Mission is discarded instead. (Note that this is not exactly the same function as printed on the card.)

Card D:
Viceroy/Rebel

Viceroy: Move tokens from your Treasury to a resource space on an Explored territory. The maximum is your current Logistics Progress. This allows you to gain tokens in a territory to solidify/take over a resource, and to prepare to Colonize. See the Conqueror role below. Note that you can target any Explored territory that does not contain a Colony, see the Colony description below.
Rebel: Place an Unrest market on a territory, as well as an Unrest marker on the player board of a player with Presence in that territory. Instead, you may instigate an Rebellion in a territory with a least 1 Unrest marker and no Mission marker. Briefly, a Rebellion is resolved by multiplying the number of Unrest markers by the Native Power of the territory, and rolling that many of the special dice. For each success, the player playing Rebel must remove one token. Note that this player may be forced to remove their own tokens if they have any in the territory.

[SpaceLord]

Endeavor Phase Description, Part 3


Card E:
Merchant/Governor:

Merchant: Move tokens from your supply to the Market space on the board, equal to the number of Merchant Fleets you have. See the post below for an example Merchant/Trader action.
Governor:Place the Booming City marker in one of your Colonies, and pay at least 1 more Treasury than the last Booming City, maximum equal to your Economy. Gain 1 Prestige. See the Booming City rules below.


Card F:
Sovereign/Conqueror

Sovereign: Optionally remove an Unrest marker from your player board. In addition, declare War on a player with an equal or lower Diplomacy ranking, and move down one space on the Diplomacy track. See the War rules below.
Conqueror: In a territory where you possess at least as many tokens as the Native Power, and control all resources, place a Colony marker on the territory. Gain 1 Prestige. See the Colony rules below.

[SpaceLord]

Colonial Game/Endeavor Phase guide

In general, the progress of territories is as follows:

1. The Explorer action is used to Explore the territory. As part of this action, the player places a token on a resource in that territory and claims that resource.
2. A player uses the Viceroy action to add more disks to that territory. This both discourages "resource theft", as well as prepares the territory for Conquering.
3. The Conqueror action places a Colony marker on the territory if that player controls all the resources and has as many tokens as the Native Power of the territory. This also allows the Booming City to be placed in the territory, see below.

To earn money, the following two steps are generally taken:
1. After a player controls a resource, he or she later uses the Merchant action to ship tokens from their supply(not the Treasury), to the Market.
2. Later, the player uses the Trader action to ship those goods in the Market to their own Treasury.

[SpaceLord]

Guide to Territories

Each region in Colonial has several statistics:

Difficulty:
The number printed on the territory is the Exploration difficulty. The higher this number, the more difficult it will be to discover and possibly Colonize that territory. See the Explorer description above.

Native Power:
This represents the strength of the population. The higher this number, the more “work” it takes for players to found colonies there; see the Viceroy and Conqueror descriptions below. The Native Power also makes Rebellion more damaging to a player.

Resources:
This is the Goods provided to the controller of the resource. There are 9 different resources, as well as 3 special Gold resources. Having a monopoly in a resource type provides powerful benefits, see the Monopoly rules below.

For example, West Africa:

Difficulty: 3. If a player has a Sailing of 1, then a 2 is required on a d6. If that same player controls, for example, a resource in the Barbary, they automatically succeed, since having an adjacent territory gives a bonus of +1.
Native Power: 3. Until a single player has 3 tokens in West Africa, they cannot Colonize that territory using the Conqueror. Remember, tokens are added by Viceroy. It would take 2 turns of the Viceroy action to place enough tokens for a Colony in West Africa. This is why using Scientist to improve Logistics can be a powerful play.

[SpaceLord]

Trading Goods and You

Trading goods is often the most confusing mechanic in Colonial for new players. When players cooperate with each other, both parties benefit, by either shipping more goods, or receiving "extra" money for the favor.

Let's do an example.

Yellow(Portugal) has three Merchant Fleets. He controls two resources, though he does not have a Monopoly on either. His Economic Progress has currently improved to 4.

In the thread, his Economic section would appear like so:

Merchant Fleets: 3
Economics(plus Colonies NPs): 2
Resources: 2

Portugal has selected the Merchant action. He can ship 3 goods from his supply to the Market due to MF being at 3. However, he only controls two resources. He asks Spain if he may ship one of Spain's goods. If Spain agrees, Portugal places three tokens from his supply into the Market. Spain then gains 1 Treasury from their supply. Both players benefit.

Later, Portugal has founded a Colony in West Africa. This increases his total Economic power to 5, due to West Africa's NP of 3. He has 3 Goods in the Market. He can ship all 3 of his own goods, but has two leftover Economic power. He again asks Spain, who also has Goods in the Market, if he may ship their goods. Spain agrees. Spain receives two red goods from the Market to their Treasury, and Yellow receives all 3 of his goods into his Treasury, as well as 2 "bonus" tokens in the Treasury taken from his supply.

Booming City:If any player has a Booming City, and another player ships goods using Merchant, the first good shipped must be shipped using the Booming City's resource. In effect, every Merchant card played gives the BC player one Treasury.

[SpaceLord]

Tokens in Colonial

Player disks: Each player has an unlimited number of disks in their color. There are several spots for these disks:

Treasury: A player's money. This is where a Loan can be paid from.
Supply: A generic, out-of-play pile containing extra tokens.
Merchant Fleet: Used for the Merchant action
Naval Forces: Naval ships, used in war and for fighting off pirates(Privateers)
Progress Tracks: There are five tracks on the board. See the Track portion below

Each player also has 8 Colony tokens.

Booming City: There are 10 Booming City tokens in the game, only one may be in play at any one time. See the full Booming City description.

[SpaceLord]

Tracks in Colonial



There are five tracks in Colonial. To advance on the 4 Progress tracks, a player must play the Scientist action described about and pay the next value on the track from their Treasury, to their supply. The fifth track is different, see below.

Economic, pictured above(2-4-6-10):
This track is used for four purposes:
1. When using the Trader action, this is the base number of goods that can be shipped
2. When placing a Booming City with the Governor action, it represents the cap the player is allowed to spend from their Treasury. Each Booming City costs at least one more than the current one.
3. A player cannot control Opium or Tea until that player has reached the 3rd level (6) of this track. Thus, no one can found a Colony in India or China until this Progress level is reached
4. When any player reaches the end of this Progress track, any player who ships Slaves(black) goods is reduced one spot on the Diplomacy track.

Sailing(0-1-2-3):
The number reached on this track is added to that player's Explore attempts.

Naval Forces(1-2-3-4):
During phase 5, Naval Forces, each player can move 1 to 4 tokens from their Treasury to their Naval Forces section of their board, depending on the level reached here.

Logistics: (1-2-3-4):
This track limits a player to 1,2,3 or 4 tokens moved onto the board from the Treasury while using the Viceroy action.

Diplomacy:
The Ambassador action is the only way to advance on this track. Each player begins at spot 4. There are several ways to reduce one's Diplomacy score. See the Diplomacy entry below.

[SpaceLord]

Gaining and Losing Prestige

Gain Prestige:
When successfully exploring
When founding a Colony
When founding a Booming City
When you win a War
When Circumnavigating or Discovering the New World(see below)
When you have a Revolution at Home(see rulebook)

Lose Prestige:
When a Colony becomes an Independent State
When a Booming City is lost due to War/Rebellion
When losing a War

[SpaceLord]

Special Game Events and Notes

Both Egypt and the Levant are Explored at the beginning of the game. Players may therefore use the Viceroy on these territories immediately.

When Exploring, a player may choose to Circumnavigate the Globe, with a Explore target number of 6. The first player to succeed gets 2 bonus Prestige.

All of the New World territories begin with a +2 bonus to Difficulty. The first person to successfully explore any territory in the New World gains 1 bonus Prestige. Afterwards, all New World territories become their listed Difficulty

Australia must be Explored twice. The first time is worth 1 Prestige, and the 2nd time is also worth 1 Prestige, and allows placement of tokens on the Gray Resource

[SpaceLord]

Monopolies and Controlling Resources:



There are 12 "different" goods in the game, see the chart above. As mentioned earlier, a Monopoly occurs when you are the only player to control a good of that color. Each of the three Gold resources are considered Monopolies.

To control a Resource, you must have the most, or first, tokens on the resource slot in a region.

See the following situation:



In West Africa, Green has 4 tokens on Black, and Orange has 3. Black has 2. If Black placed 3, or Orange placed 2 later, then the other colors would gain the resource.

Having a Monopoly is useful during Phase 2, Merchant Fleet. During this phase, for each Monopoly a player has, he or she may move one Treasury to their Merchant Fleet.

Breaking a Monopoly: If any player has the only tokens on a resource color, that player has a Monopoly. If another player takes any resource of this color, they drop one spot on the Diplomacy track.

[SpaceLord]

Player Boards

Pictured is an example of a player board for orange:



This player has 3 Treasury, 2 Merchant Fleets, and 1 Naval Forces. The large arrangement of tokens at the top are his supply pool, as well as his Colony markers and 5x and 10x markers.

[SpaceLord]

Dice



The dice in Colonial. There's a single standard d6, as well as 5 special dice. Each of the dice has two success laurels, so each roll has a 1/3 chance of rolling a success.

During our game, I will use Random.org to generate dice rolls.

[SpaceLord]

Other Game Phases

2. Merchant Fleet:
As stated above, each player may move one Treasury to their Merchant Fleets for each Monopoly they control

3. Start Player:
The Start Player token moves one to the left, unless a single player has the most Monopolies, then that player is the Start Player, unless they were first already.

4. Naval Forces:
In player order, each player may move tokens from their Treasury to the Naval Forces box, up to their Naval Forces progress track indicator.

5. Privateer:
See the rulebook, this will be explained after the first round.

6. Interest:
If a player has Unrest tokens on their board, then they are forced to pay Treasury equal to the number of tokens on each Loan they have outstanding.

[SpaceLord]

War: What is it good for?

By using the Sovereign action from Card F, a player may declare War on an opponent who is on the same Diplomacy spot as himself, or to his left(lower.)

Here's the steps:
1. The player declaring a war may remove a Unrest token from their player board.
2. The aggressor moves one spot down(left) on the Diplomacy track.
3. Land War: In all territories where the two players both have disk, a battle occurs. Simply roll dice equal to the number of disks. For each success, remove one token. All attacks are simultaneous.
4. Naval War: Roll one die for each Naval Forces token controlled by each player. As before, remove one token from the opponent's Naval Forces for each success. If there are more hits than ships, then, in order, Merchant Fleets and Privateers are removed. Note that these latter two tokens do not fight, but simply die.
5. Losing: After Land and Naval Wars, the first year of war is over. At this point, if any player lost all tokens in one of the two theaters, then that player loses, and gives up one Prestige to the victor. If both players lost all disks, then both players lose and no Prestige changes hands.
6.Surrender:If there is no victor, then both sides have a change to surrender. They simply relinquish one Prestige to the other participant. The defender decides first.

[SpaceLord]

Unrest and Rebellions:

The black unrest tokens have several functions in the game. None of them are good for the player possessing them.

Unrest:
1. As part of the Explore action(Conquistadors), a Unrest token is placed on a territory.
2. The Rebel action can both place Unrest tokens on the map, as well as a player's board. See the Unrest at Home heading below.

Rebellions:
By using the Rebel action on a territory with an existing Unrest token, a player can spark a Rebellion. Multiply the number of Unrest tokens in the territory times the Native Power of the territory. Roll that many dice, and for each success, remove one disk. Note that a player may be forced to remove his own disks if there are enough successes.

Independent States:
If a Colonized Territory has no tokens of the Colonizing player left at any time, they become a Independent State. The Native Power of the state is doubled, so it takes twice as many disks to Colonize. The player who lost the colony loses 1 Prestige. If they had a Booming City in this territory, they lose an additional Prestige.

Unrest at Home:

During Phase 6, a player is forced to pay 1 Treasury for each outstanding Loan they owe, times the number of Unrest tokens on their player board.

If a player ever has 4 Unrest on their player board, they have a Revolution at Home.
1: That player loses all tokens in their Treasury
2: He discards all his Unrest markers on his player board
3: In the next turn, he only gets 1 action, as a Last Change action
4: He gains 1 Prestige

Not good.

[SpaceLord]

Diplomacy



There are 5 spaces on the Diplomacy Track, and players begin in the fourth position. A player may not declare War on another player who is to their right on this track.

There is only one way to advance to the right: The Ambassador action from Card A.

The following actions drop a player in Diplomacy:

1. Declaring War
2. Taking over a Resource, see the picture in the Monopolies/Resource section above.
3. Breaking a Monopoly - note that #2 and #3 can occur due to the same action, in that case, only move down one spot
4. Several Colonizing options move you to the right on the track

[El Guapo]

Sure, I'll play. Assuming we get to pick who we are, I'll be the Dutch (orange).

[Qantaga]

I'll play, too. It looks very interesting.

If we're choosing on our own, I'll take England (blue), but I'm happy, too, if you plan on randomizing nations.

[SpaceLord]

I'll play, too. It looks very interesting.

If we're choosing on our own, I'll take England (blue), but I'm happy, too, if you plan on randomizing nations.

Thanks, El Guapo and Qantaga. There's an advanced variant where each Nation has dramatically different powers, but it supposedly not balanced. Colors(heck, we can change which real-life country you represent) are generic.

Yellow - Portugal - SpaceLord
Dutch - Orange -El Guapo
England - Blue - Qantaga

Need three more for a full game!

[Remus West]

Looks fun but I can not play anything else until I get off my ass and update the Arkham game I am supposedly running.

[Grundbegriff]

Yes, please.

[SpaceLord]

Guide to opening areas:



As you can see from the above image, Africa and the Middle East are the easiest areas to explore. (Difficulty 2-4).

IMPORTANT: There's a misprint, and both The Levant and Egypt do not have Prestige tokens, and thus cannot be Explored. To place disks from Treasury there, a player will just need to use the Viceroy action.

The orange Resources are the most plentiful by far in the game. So while they are good for Merchant actions, it's almost impossible to hold onto a Monopoly in orange. However, note that when a Monopoly is broken(meaning the 2nd person to control an orange), the player breaking the Monopoly drops 1 spot on the Diplomacy track. So being the first to grab an orange Resource is definitely an advantage.

Notice that both The Levant and Egypt have large Native Powers(6 and 5). As stated in the Conqueror action, it takes a number of disks equal to the NP of the territory before a Colony can be placed.

So, I'd suggest the following choices in the first round:

Scientist(to either improve Sailing to make Exploring easier, or Logistics to allow more disks to be moved to territories using the Viceroy action)

Financier: Since each player only starts with 3 Treasury, everyone will need more money to do much of anything.

Explorer: Notice that West Africa has both Gold and Black resources, and is easy to Explore. Gold is the best available resource. Don't be surprised if you have a fight on your hands if you try to enter West Africa.

Viceroy: I'd make sure you choose this action to be later in the turn than Financier, especially if you want to use Scientist to advance your Logistics to 2. A single Explore-->Scientist(Logistics)-->Viceroy action in Arabia, Ethiopia or West Africa can prepare you for a Colony to be founded via Conqueror.

[SpaceLord]

Looks fun but I can not play anything else until I get off my ass and update the Arkham game I am supposedly running.

This game will definitely require less book-keeping than Arkham. Man, what a nightmare that was back in the day. I'd been much better off if I'd known about Vassal.

[SpaceLord]

Potential First Turn Actions!

Card C: Scientist - improve Sailing to 1 by paying 1 Treasury
Card A: Explore - Barbary is automatic, and West Africa requires a 1 when Sailing=1
Card B: Financier - gain 10 Treasury and a Loan
Card D: Viceroy - put 1 Treasury in conquered territory

Your PM to me would just be C,A,D,B

Last Chance: Your two remaining cards would be E and F, which includes Merchant, Governor, Sovereign, and Conqueror. If you managed to place enough tokens in a territory, I'd choose Conqueror and found a Colony. If not, a decent choice would be Merchant, to put a few tokens in the Market for later Trader actions.

An alternate choice would be:

B, C, D, A
Card B: Financier - gain 10 Treasury and a Loan
Card C: Scientist - improve Logistics to 2 by paying 2 Treasury
Card D: Viceroy - place 2 Treasury in an Explored territory. This can be used to stake a solid claim on a Levant/Egypt resource, or to sneak into Black in West Africa, for instance. Which would annoy any player who'd just Explored there. This also gives a bonus of preventing a Colony from being founded there, see the Conqueror action.
Card A: Explorer/Ambassador: Depending on what's happened, you might be able to sneak into a low-Difficulty territory. Remember that if you control a resource next to a territory, you get +1 to Explore. Otherwise, moving up 1 spot on Diplomacy is a solid action for later, when you're going to be messing with the other players.

Last Chance: You'd be left with cards E and F. For this player, Merchant might be a better choice, since they will most likely have two Merchant Fleets still in play, and thus can ship two goods.

[SpaceLord]

Yes, please.

Pick a color!

Yellow: Portugal - SpaceLord
Red: Spain - EMPTY
Blue: England - Qantaga
White: France - EMPTY
Orange: Dutch - El Guapo
Black: Italy - EMPTY

As I said earlier, the colors and countries are interchangeable. Heck, if you want to be Freedonia, go for it!

It's a fantastic, elegant game, by the way.

If we don't get two more, I think it plays smashingly well with five.

[Grundbegriff]

I'll be France, well known for their naval exploits.

White is fine.

[Grundbegriff]

I found this video overview of Colonial helpful for orientation.

[Qantaga]

I found this video overview of Colonial helpful for orientation.

Nice find. Thanks!

[Qantaga]

Looks fun but I can not play anything else until I get off my ass and update the Arkham game I am supposedly running.

I bet your resolve to sit this one out is already crumbling.

Come on, you know you want to play.

[Remus West]

Looks fun but I can not play anything else until I get off my ass and update the Arkham game I am supposedly running.

I bet your resolve to sit this one out is already crumbling.

Come on, you know you want to play.

I do but I feel crappy about not getting that game updated (and it sits in my computer room staring at me every time I'm in here). I can't play a game myself while in the middle of letting others down on an implied if not outright promise to complete that game.

[SpaceLord]

I found this video overview of Colonial helpful for orientation.

Nice find. Thanks!

Since Ryan's video(which inspired me to buy Colonial), a few things have changed. Booming Cities are much better now, and War has been fixed. The original rules for War were terrible.

[Vorret]

Wait... is this a real game or it's a forum game? I'm confused right now.

I mean, do I need to buy something to play this?

[Remus West]

Wait... is this a real game or it's a forum game? I'm confused right now.

I mean, do I need to buy something to play this?

It is a real game but you do not need to buy it as he is intending to run the whole thing in the forum. Much like I am doing with Arkham. Hopefully with a better update schedule though.

[SpaceLord]

Wait... is this a real game or it's a forum game? I'm confused right now.

I mean, do I need to buy something to play this?

It's a real game, BBG link here. It's impossible to find currently, as it had a tiny print run and was really only available in Europe.

You can be the 5th player, and we can get started today. I'll be posting suggestions the first turn or two. I've also posted a link to the revised rulebook we'll be using.

[Qantaga]

Vorret, sign up and play. Like Remus says, SpaceLord will maintain the physical game, but will post all the cards, dice rolls, board status, turn updates, etc. here. We (the players) will make our game decisions in the thread. I don't own the game, either.

Remus, as an Arkham player, I grant you full immunity to play and enjoy this game without any Arkham carryover. It's completely different to play and to host. As SpaceLord mentioned, we all know that Arkham is a beast to run and Demands more time and effort than most. Don't sit this one out because of Arkham, if you think you'd enjoy playing in this game.

Note: cross posted with SpaceLord.

[Newcastle]

Wait... is this a real game or it's a forum game? I'm confused right now.

I mean, do I need to buy something to play this?

yeah send me a check for $200 bucks (US $) and i'll send you the board you need.

[Vorret]

lol

alright count me in.
sounds like fun