Merkator

About this board game

Merkator is a strategy board game for 1–4 players, with games lasting about 90 minutes, set during Hamburg’s rise after the Thirty Years’ War.

Travel between cities to collect goods or fulfill orders. When a player visits a neighboring city, the collected goods are added there, creating an evolving supply for future journeys. Choosing where to go—and when—shapes your opportunities throughout the game.

Fulfilling an order gives you another order that is better but more complex. You keep the fulfilled order and may complete it again, although the number of orders you can own is limited. Every order is worth a certain number of points at the end of the game, so building the right collection is central to your success.

• Visit cities to collect goods and complete orders.
• Manage the resource called time, which may be gained or spent depending on your destination.
• Exchange points for special cards that can provide additional goods in certain cities or award more victory points for specific end-game conditions.

Time also lets you take advantage of another player’s journey. By paying a time fee, you may accompany that player on a trip to a town and fulfill your orders there, though you cannot collect goods on the shared trip.

Merkator ends when a player receives the order with the highest value by fulfilling the order one level below it. Balance travel, timing, limited order space, and increasingly demanding objectives as you pursue the most valuable finish.