Overview
Cargo Emprire is a transportation game for 1players to 5players players, focused exclusively on cargo delivery. Players each start with 2 trading posts placed in two of the 12 cities of the game board, and proceed to extend their reach by delivering cargo to other cities for 12 game turns.
Gameplay
The game is played for 3 rounds, each consisting of 4 turns per player (or 3 turns per player in a 5players player game). In a turn, the current player picks a starting city with a post of his/her color and an available cargo cube, and the destination city that has a free demand space, matching that cube's color.
To complete a delivery, a player must pay the cost in Transport cards as follows:
- 🚚 A Truck card can be used to move from a city to an ajacent one (connected to it by a railroad track)
- 🚂 A Train card can be used to move from a city to another one 1 or 2 steps away
- 🚢 A Ship card can be used to move between any 2 Ports
After the delivery has been paid for, the cargo cube is removed from the game, and a Trading Post from the player's board is placed on the destination City Tile's demand space of the corresponding color.
There are 2 limitations on possible delivery routes:
- ⛔ A route should be the shortest one, taking the minimum possible steps between cities. However, as an exception, it's allowed to use a land route that would be longer than the shortest possible sea route.
- ⛔ The route cannot be overpaid for (it's not allowed to use 1 Truck card and 1 Train card to pay for delivery to a city 2 steps away, since a single Train card would suffice in that case)
City Upgrades
If a delivery fills the last Trading Post space on a City Tile, the city is upgraded to the next level. A LV1 City Tile is flipped to the LV2 site, with its cargo spaces refilled to the maximum. A LV2 City Tile is removed from the game along with any remaining cargo.
All Trading Posts located on the City Tile during an upgrade are moved to empty Trading Post spaces next to the city.
An upgrade of a city that doesn't have any cargo cubes remaining is called a Perfect Upgrade.
Development
Completing a delivery earns the acting player a number of moves for Vehicle markers on the Development track, depending on spent Transport cards:
- 🚚 Each Truck card used adds 1 step to the Truck marker
- 🚂 Each Train card used adds 1 step to the Train marker
- 🚢 Each Ship card used adds 2 steps to the Ship marker
Additionally a player can gain bonus moves in following cases:
- ⭐ 1 bonus move if the starting City card is among the Public City cards or the player's Private City Cards
- ⭐ 1 bonus move if the destination City card is among the Public City cards or the player's Private City Cards
- ⭐ 1 bonus move if delivery causes a Perfect Upgrade
The bonus moves can be arbitrarily split among Vehicle markers, except those that didn't gain any moves in the first place.
End of the game
The game ends when all players are out of Trading Posts on their boards. At that time the final scoring takes place, with each player gaining score from following sources:
- 🧮 For each Vehicle marker, VP indicated on its space, if any.
- 🧮 3 VP for each Trading Post in a LV3 city.
- 🧮 5 VP for each Private City card
- 🧮 VP for completion of each Goal
The player with the most total VP wins the game.
