Imagine yourself as a daring adventurer in the late 17th century, seeking fortune in Macao, the mysterious port city on China's southern coast that served as a Portuguese trading post. Whether you take the role of a fearless captain, an influential governor, a skilled craftsman, or a keen scholar, your goal is simple: accumulate the most prestige through a tightly woven global strategy.

The game unfolds over 12 rounds, and this is where it gets interesting. Each round, you select a card from a display (some are available from the start, others are revealed as the game progresses). These cards provide special abilities, though the most powerful ones require more resources to activate. The heart of the game, however, is the 'ship's wheel'. One player rolls six different-colored dice, and everyone chooses two of them. The die value determines how many cubes of that color you place on your wheel, but there's a twist: you place these cubes in future positions. In essence, you are programming your resources for upcoming rounds!

As the wheel rotates and your cubes become available, you use these action points to do everything: activate the cards you've collected, buy city quarters to gather goods, sail across Europe to deliver those goods, acquire gold coins, or even climb the turn order track to act before your opponents. It's a game of long-term planning, where you must balance hand management with transport logistics and city building. The player who best manages their resources and opportunities over the 12 rounds claims victory. Part of the Alea Big Box series, it has a significant weight, so get ready to put your brain to work with its tactical complexity!