MANILA VARIANTS

Preparation

If a player gets dealt 2 share certificates of the same colour at the start of the game and
s/he is the ONLY player with that colour, the share certificates are collected again and re-
dealt. A player can tell that s/he is the only player with that colour by looking at the face
up cards.

Game Play

The players’ money is kept hidden from the other players throughout the game.

Perform the auction for the Harbour Master as normal, except each player should have a
“bidding” token to indicate the order in which players have passed. The Harbour Master
will roll the dice to move the boats for each of the 3 boat movement rounds, and will
choose 2 of the following actions:

1) Purchase 1 share certificate. Pay the current value for that share, with a minimum cost
of 5 Pesos.
2) Load goods. Choose which 3 goods will be shipped this round, and place them on the
boats.
3) Place boats. Choose the start positions for the 3 boats so that their position numbers
total 9.
4) Choose the start player. This player will place the first worker for each round, with the
other players following in clockwise order.

The last player who passed in the auction then chooses one of the remaining actions, and
then the player who passed second to last will receive the final one. The actions are
performed by the players who chose them in the order listed above after all 4 actions have
been chosen.

For the pirates, use the official variant where, if a pirate boards a boat after the 2nd
movement roll and there are no vacant spaces on the boat, the pirate player chooses a
worker to displace and return to the owning player. (If both pirates board the same boat,
the second pirate may not displace the pirate captain who just boarded the boat.)

3-Player Games

The placement of 2 accomplices takes place prior to the 2nd movement roll rather than the
1st. Thus players will place 1 accomplice, then perform the 1st movement, then place 2
accomplices, then perform the 2nd movement, than place the 4th accomplice, then perform
the final movement.
2-Player Games

Preparation: Deal out 4 piles with 2 shares each face down. Each player takes one pile. The
remaining 4 share certificates are the shares for the dummy player (and are kept secret).

The game is played as in a 3-player game (with the 4workers and the above variants), except the
“Choose the start player” action is not available (placement of the 1 st and 3rd workers begins with
the Harbour Master and placement of the 2nd and 4th workers begins with the other player), and
the Harbour Master first chooses 1 action, followed by the other player choosing an action, and
the Harbour Master gets the 1 that remains. The dummy player always places workers 2 nd, in
between the 2 players, unless the dummy becomes the Harbour Master (see below). The dummy
does not bid for Harbour Master and does not get paid for his workers (although the payout for
the other players is reduced by his workers in the boats; ie. the payout of a boat with 1 player
worker and 1 dummy worker is halved).

To place a dummy worker, the remaining die (the one not associated with a loaded good) is
rolled. Depending on the number rolled, the worker is placed on the corresponding area:
1 = Wharf: Cheapest free space (A before B before C).
2 = 1st and 2nd placements: Left boat; 3rd and 4th placements: Insurance agent.
3 = 1st and 2nd placements: Middle boat; 3rd and 4th placements: Front-most boat. In case of a
tie, the boat that would give the highest return at that moment (eg. ginseng and silk are both on
space 8 with 1 other worker on them; ginseng return=9; silk return=15; place on silk boat).
4 = 1st and 2nd placements: Right boat; 3rd and 4th placements: Pilots (small pilot before big pilot).
Effects: Small pilot +1 to the rearmost boat (if tie, advance the one with the lowest goods value);
Big pilot -2 for the front-most boat (if tie, move back the one with the highest goods value).
5 = Pirates: The dummy never sits on the captain space unless dummy workers occupy both
pirate spaces. Effects: Always board the boat with the highest goods value first (one pirate per
boat maximum). If boarding after the 2nd movement round, the pirate is put on the 1st available
space on the boat. If there is no available space, the pirate is put on the highest number occupied
by a non-dummy player by replacing the player's worker. If a boat is plundered, it goes to the
Shipyard.
6 = Shipyard: Cheapest free space (A before B before C).

If the rolled space is already occupied, the dummy is placed on the next higher number (eg.
insurance agent occupied: go to a boat), going around at the top from 6 to 1. This ensures that
more workers are placed on the boats than on the other spaces (as the boats will rarely fill up),
which is similar to a game with just human players.

With 2 players, there is the danger that in one round the Harbour Master could be bid up high and
the winner could then get unlucky and have almost no money at the start of the next round. The
other player could then get the Harbour Master role extremely cheaply, perhaps even 2 or more
turns in a row. Therefore, the minimum bid for Harbour Master is always half of the winning bid
in the round before, rounded down (put this money in an extra pile near the board to keep track).
If nobody is willing to pay this minimum bid (rather unlikely!), the dummy will become Harbour
Master for free. As Harbour Master, the dummy will act like this:
a) One of his 4 hidden shares is drawn. This is the 1 good that is NOT loaded onto a boat. Put
this share certificate back in with his other hidden shares.
b) Take 1 of each remaining share, shuffle them, and draw 1 to put in the dummy's hand.
c) All boats are placed at space 3 to begin the round.
d) The dummy places workers first. The former Harbour Master places workers after the dummy,
followed by the other player. Placement order does not change for this turn.