Clippers

In Clippers, you become a maritime trade magnate in the Pacific, managing your trading settlements on islands and charting strategic routes to success. The goal is straightforward: connect as many shipping companies to your colonies as possible to maximize your score. Each island has a base value and a limited number of ports available for the ships (the Clippers). To establish a route, you use wooden sticks to advance the Clippers of the six trading companies. The more different companies that manage to dock at an island where you have a settlement, the higher its value will be at the end of the game. The trick is that an island's value is multiplied by the number of unique companies that have visited it. For instance, an island with a base value of 5 and 3 different companies is worth 15 points. If you have two settlements there, your points double to 30! But beware: placing your ports too early might result in no one using them, and too late could mean missing out on a spot to the competition. The game demands careful planning, as you need to advance the Clippers without revealing your plans to opponents. It's a game of pure strategy, with no luck involved, where exploiting openings left by adversaries and capitalizing on ports they make valuable is key to victory. Managing your settlements, claiming option cards, expanding your route network, and positioning new Clippers are crucial actions in each game phase.