At the beginning of the 16th century: beautiful beaches, wonderful climate, and one of the most important trading cities in the world. Competing companies trade with spices and send their colonists into the world and invest their money. Of most importance is how you manage your spices to grow a successful company: should you build more effective ships? Build more effective plantations? Attract more colonists? The best strategy is the one that creates the most successful business. Goa: wealth and glory, but not without risk!

The game will not be taught during the event. Ask Jay to teach you sometime during the week before entering the event.

Our Portuguese traders have perfected their skills this year and will be able to complete each round of play in 15 minutes, meaning heats will be two (2) hours each--in the past, rounds have been three (3) hours long.

Heats: we will have two heats with HMW being used to determine semi-finalists. The GM will assign players to tables. 4-player games will be preferred, but 3-player games may prove necessary.

Semi-finals/Final: We will strive for a 16-player semi-final, giving us four 4-player games and four winners to advance to the Final. Regardless of the number of semi-finalists, we will have a 4-player Final.

Rules Version / Common Mistakes / Special Rules
· Seating order will be selected randomly by card draw (using bridge suit order-clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades). Do not use the method described in the rule book.
· You may not bid more ducats than you have. Any player bidding more than he has will be penalized one action in the next action phase.
· You may discard a just-purchased plantation if your plantation display is full. You do not have to discard one from your display.
· When performing the Expedition action, the player must discard before drawing or draw only enough cards to ensure that the action does not exceed his hand limit. (For example, a player at the 2/4 position on his development board who already has three cards must first decide to either draw only one card or to discard a card before drawing two.)
· The "take 2 colonists" expedition card may be played in the middle of the Found Colony action. An expedition card marked with an 'A' in the corner must be played before the action is taken. Other expedition cards may be used before or after an action, but not during an action.
· You may use at most one expedition card each turn.
· Red tiles, dark blue tiles, and the Duty tiles may be used before or after an action, but not during an action.
· The use of a tile is never an action. In particular, the benefit of the Espionage tile does not count as the player's action, and it cannot be modified by an expedition card with an 'A' on it.
· The Vice-king tile advances the least-developed success marker.
· The benefit of the Re-supply tile cannot be split among spices, colonists, and ships; all items must be of the same type.
Game tie breakers are as follows: 1) Remaining money 2) Fewest points from expedition cards 3) Player position relative to the flag (the player who ends the game with the flag has precedence, then the player closest, clockwise, to the flag-holder, etc.)

Time Limit Adjudication: The GM may at his discretion impose time limits on any game to ensure that it completes within the allotted time. Any game not in Round 8 (auction) after one hour and 45 minutes will end in its current round.