Game Objective

In Endeavor: Age of Sail, your goal is to guide your empire to victory by accumulating the most Glory! Prepare for an era of maritime expansion, where you will represent a naval power connecting to the most distant regions of the world. Starting from Europe, you will build buildings, collect resources, and control trade routes to become the most successful empire when the Age of Sail comes to an end!

You will earn Glory in several ways:

• Increasing your attributes (Industry, Culture, Wealth, and Influence) to certain limits.
• Controlling cities, fleets, and the connections between them.
• Owning buildings and Asset Cards that grant Glory.

Initially, only Europe is available, but as the game progresses, you will send ships to open new regions for colonization and trade. Will your empire write the history books?

Setup

Let's set up the table for your maritime adventure! Follow these steps to prepare Endeavor: Age of Sail:

1. Board: Choose one side of the Double-Sided Board (Side A for 2-3 players or 4 with high conflict; Side B for 4 with low conflict or 5 players) and place it in the center of the table.
2. Trade Tokens: Randomly distribute the 95 Trade tokens face up on all circular spaces on the board (expedition tracks, cities, fleets, and circular links). Square links do not receive tokens.
3. Asset Cards: Separate the eight decks of Asset Cards and place each one, face up, in its corresponding space on the board. Each deck should be ordered from bottom to top in the sequence 5-4-3-2-1. (The Europe and Slavery decks have a value 0 card that goes on top.)
4. Governor Cards: Slide one Governor Card for each region, below the edge of the board, so that the symbols remain visible.
5. Buildings: Prepare the buildings tray near the board.
   • Separate the buildings into piles by type (e.g., all five Markets in one pile).
   • Place the Level 1 piles in the Level 1 column, Level 2 in the Level 2 column, and so on.
   • For the Level 5 column, shuffle the Level 5 buildings face down and place four of them in the bottom right corner. Then, place the remaining 3 Level 5 buildings face up in the Level 5 spaces (including one on top of the face-down tiles). These three are the only Level 5 buildings available in this game.
6. Player Material: Each player chooses a color and receives a Player Board and tray with all 35 population discs and 4 status cubes. Place your cubes on the '0' space of the four attribute tracks and keep your discs in the tray (this is your supply).
7. Crown: Randomly determine the starting player and give them the Crown.
8. Starting Buildings: In turn order, starting with the player with the Crown, each player chooses which side of their starting tile they will use: Colonial House or Merchant Dock. Place the tile with the chosen side face up in the leftmost space of your waterfront area. Then, place 1 disc from your supply on the activation circle of your starting building.
   • Beginner's Tip: We recommend choosing the Colonial House. If you choose the Merchant Dock, increase the cube on your Wealth Track from 0 to 1, as indicated on the tile.

Ready! Your Age of Sail adventure is about to begin!

The Game Turn

The game lasts seven rounds, and each round is divided into five phases. The player with the Crown plays first in each phase, and the others follow clockwise.

The First Three Phases (In Order)

To facilitate learning, all players perform one phase before moving to the next. When more comfortable, they can choose to have each player complete their three phases before passing the turn.

1: The Building Phase

In this phase, each player constructs a new building for their empire.

• On your turn, choose 1 building from the supply and add it to your waterfront area, in the leftmost available space.
• The chosen building must have a Construction Level equal to or less than your current Construction Level, which is determined by your Industry attribute. (If there is no such building in the supply, you can take one from the next Construction Level.)
• If the constructed building shows any attribute symbol in the bottom left, immediately mark this increase on the corresponding track by moving the cube.
• You can build duplicate buildings.

2: The Growth Phase

Your population is growing! In this phase, you gain more population discs.

• On your turn, gain population discs from your supply and add them to your Port.
• The number of discs you gain is indicated by your Growth Level, which is determined by your Culture attribute.
• If your disc supply runs out, add as many as you can and lose the rest.

3: The Wage Phase

It's time to pay your workers and free up your buildings for new actions!

• On your turn, "pay workers" by moving discs from your buildings back to your Port.
• The maximum number of discs you can move is indicated by your Wage Level, which is determined by your Wealth attribute.
• "Paying a worker" frees both the disc and the building to be used later.
• If you have more discs on buildings than you can move, you choose which ones to move.

4: The Action Phase

This is the main phase of the game, where you perform actions that will boost your empire! Starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise, each player performs an action or passes.

• Once a player passes, they can no longer perform actions in this phase.
• The game continues clockwise with active players performing actions until everyone has passed.

General Rules for the Action Phase

• When acquiring cards or tokens that give attribute symbols, immediately increase the indicated attribute on the track by the amount of the symbol shown.
• If you exceed 15 on an Attribute Track, place the Track Extender at the end of the track to increase its size.
• When claiming a brown Attribute trade token, stack it in the circular space at the base of the corresponding track.
• When claiming a blue Action trade token, keep it in your Port.
• You can never trade or give cards or tokens to other players, nor discard cards or tokens whenever you want (except in the Discard Phase).

Performing Actions

There are two ways to perform an action on your turn:

1. Activating a Building:
   • Move a disc from your Port to a building in your waterfront area that has an empty activation circle.
   • Then, perform the building's action(s).
   • The disc placed on the building simply triggers the action. Many actions (Sail, Occupy, and Attack) will require additional discs from your Port.
   • Some buildings allow more than one action (indicated by a "+" between them); you can perform one or both, in any order. Performing multiple actions from one building still counts as one turn.
2. Spending an Action Token:
   • Discard a blue Action token from your Port from the game and perform the action it allows.
   • Some buildings and blue tokens allow choosing between multiple actions (indicated by a "/" between them); you can only perform one of these actions.

The Actions

The five standard actions you can perform are:

1. SAIL:

   There are three ways to Sail. You do not need to have a presence in the region to Sail there.

   • To the Expedition Track: Move a disc from your Port to the nearest unoccupied space of the card pile on the expedition track of any closed region and gain the Trade token from there.
     • Opening a Region: When the last unoccupied space of a region's expedition track is claimed, the region becomes open. The Region's Governor Card is immediately gained by the player with the most discs on the expedition track (in case of a tie, to the player whose disc is closest to the card deck). When gaining a Governor Card, flip it to the vertical orientation and place it in one of the card spaces or the free Governor space on your board, gaining the conferred attributes. Open regions allow Sailing to fleets, Occupying, and Attacking. Europe is considered open from the start.
   • To a Fleet: Move a disc from your Port to an unoccupied fleet space in Europe or any open region, gaining the Trade token from there.
   • To the Open Sea: Move a disc from your Port to an open sea zone of any open region (Europe has no open sea). Multiple discs from different players can occupy a region's open sea.
2. OCCUPY:
   • Move a disc from your Port to an unoccupied city in an open region or Europe, and claim the city's Trade token.
   • To Occupy in a region (except Europe), you must have a presence in the region (at least one disc already there). All players are considered to have a presence in Europe.
   • Controlling Connections: If you have a disc in cities/fleets on both sides of a connection, you control it. If you are the first to control a circular connection with a token, you claim it immediately. Connections give Glory at the end of the game.
3. ATTACK:
   • First, discard a disc from your Port back to your supply (your casualty).
   • Then, discard an opponent's disc from a city or fleet back to their supply (opponent's casualty), and occupy the empty space with a second disc from your Port.
   • You can only Attack occupied cities or fleets in Europe or open regions.
   • You must have a presence in the region to attack in it (except Europe).
   • As a result of an Attack, you may be the first to control a connection with a token; in this case, you claim the token.
4. PAY:
   • Move a disc from a building of your choice back to your Port. This frees both the building and the disc to be used later. (It is identical to "paying a worker" in the Wage Phase, but occurs in the Action Phase.)
   • Unusual Buildings: Some buildings with the symbol cannot have workers paid during the Action Phase; only in the Wage Phase.
5. BUY:
   • Take the top Asset card from the card pile of your choice and add it to one of the spaces on your board (or to the side if there is no space). Gain the attributes shown on the card.
   • You can only buy a card if you have a presence in the area equal to or greater than the card's Buy Value.
   • Regions do not need to be open to Buy; just sufficient presence.
   • There are two piles in Europe: the Europe Deck and the Slavery Deck. Your presence in Europe counts for buying from both.
   • There is no card limit when buying, but in the Discard Phase you may have to discard if you exceed your limit.
   • Value 1 cards with the '+' symbol give 1 disc from your supply to your Port immediately.
   • Abolition of Slavery: The Value 5 card in the Europe deck is special. The first time any player gains it, all players must immediately set aside all Slavery cards they possess, reducing attribute points. These face-down cards will be worth -1 Glory each at the end of the game. Set aside Slavery cards do not count towards the card limit.

5: The Discard Phase

In this phase, you evaluate your cards and discard if necessary.

• You can freely rearrange cards between your spaces.
• If, after rearranging, you exceed your card limit, you must discard the necessary cards (you choose which ones) down to your limit.
• When discarding a card, reduce your Attribute tracks by the amount equal to the symbols on the discarded card.
• Your card limit is determined by your Influence Points, up to a maximum of 5 cards.
• You can keep 1 Slavery card beyond your limit (without exceeding the maximum of 5 cards).
• The Free Governor space on your board can only hold 1 Governor Card and it does not count towards your card limit or the maximum of 5 cards. If there is no card in this space at the end of the game, it is worth 3 Glory.
• When a Slavery Card is discarded, it is flipped over and kept near the owner's board as a reminder that they will lose 1 Glory per card at the end of the game.
• When a Governor Card is discarded, it is removed from the game.
• When any other Asset card is discarded, it goes to the face-up discard pile near Europe. Cards in this pile can be bought by any player using the Buy action (with presence in Europe equal to or greater than the buy value). Value 1 cards bought from this pile do not give the bonus Population disc.

End of Round

• All players must check that their Attribute track markers are correct, counting the attribute symbols on their asset cards, trade tokens, and buildings.