How To Play Coimbra (6 Minute Guide)

Set in Portugal during the famed Age of Discovery, Eggertspiele’s 2-4 player game, Coimbra, takes place in its namesake city, a hub of culture and rising wealth. Players take on the role of heads of prestigious Coimbra houses, looking to win over and gain favor with the city’s most significant citizens as well as undergo various voyages. There are many important decisions to make and plenty of unforeseen variables, making each game a unique and challenging experience!

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GAMEPLAY:

Objective:

The objective in Coimbra is to be the player with the most Victory Points (VP) at the end of four rounds. VP is earned in various ways throughout the game, such as income rewards or card bonuses. Further VP points are awarded during the end phase by tallying up rewards from voyages, end game card conditions, and more.

Components

Main game board
4 player boards
13 dice of 5 total colors
24 monastery tiles
15 Voyage cards
56 Character cards
4 Favor tiles
4 crown tokens
4 influence scoring tiles
5 die tokens and 1 cap tile
12 die holders, 3 of each player color
100 disks, 25 of each player color
4 pilgrim markers, 1 of each player color
4 lion markers, 1 of each player color
8 cube markers, 2 of each player color

Setup:

Place the main game board within reach of all players.
Sort the monastery tiles into facedown piles based on the number printed on their backs. Pick 8 of the “I” tiles and distribute them onto the corresponding blue “I” places on the main board’s Pilgrim Map. Repeat this process with 4 of the “II” tiles onto the brown “II” spots, and 2 of the “III” tiles onto the ruby “III” spots.
Take your 4 influence scoring tiles and randomly place 1 on each of the spaces above the 4 influence tracks, making sure the sides match up with how many players there are.
Distribute your die tokens.
- For a 4-player game, the die tokens will not be used at all.
- For a 3-player game, place a 3 die token onto the “Upper City” area of the board, a 4 die token onto the “Central City” area, and another 3 die token onto the “Lower City” area.
- For a 2-player game, place both a 3 die token and a 2 die token onto the “Upper City” area of the board, place a 4 die token and a 3 die token onto the “Central City” area and a 5 die token onto the “Lower City” area.
Draw 6 Voyage cards and place 1, facing up, on each of the Voyage card spaces across the bottom of the main board.
Prepare your colored die for the game.
- All 13 will be used in a 4-player game
- For a 3-player game take away one of the purple die and one of the green die.
- For a 2-player game, remove two of the purple die, two of the green die, one of the gray, and one of the orange.
Each player gets a player board and receives the matching colors of 3 die holders, 2 cube markers, one pilgrim marker, and the 25 disks.
- Die holders are placed on the shutter spaces of the player board
- Cube markers are put on the “7” spots of the player board’s guard and coin tracks
- 1 disk is put on the “0” of the main board score track; 4 other disks are placed on the “0” spots of the four influence tracks on the main board.
Player order is decided by random, and players place their lion markers on the main board by the player order flags. Player 1 places their lion by the 1 flag, and so on.
Sort the Character cards by the I, II, or III numbers on their backs. The II pile will be stacked facedown on top of the facedown III pile, forming the Character Stack. The I pile is to be saved separately for now.
To the left of the main board, beside the castle area, lay out the 4 favor tiles side by side, forming 4 columns. Draw 4 cards from the character stack and lay them out face-up, side by side, to the left of the Upper City. Repeat this process to the left of the central city, and again to the left of the lower city.
The crown tokens are now distributed based on their color. Moving top to bottom, starting with the column closest to the main board, place the crowns on the first card that matches their color. If none match, the crown token isn’t used that round.
Grab your I pile of character cards that you had kept separate.
- With a 4-player game, make 4 groupings of 2 cards each, placing them face up next to the main board.
- With a 3-player game, make 3 groupings of 2 cards each
- With a 2-player game make 2 groupings of 2 cards each.
In reverse player order, players can now choose to either grab one of the groupings of character cards for themselves or place their pilgrim marker onto a free starting corner in the center of the pilgrim map.
Once this is done, in player order this time, players much choose whichever action they did not perform the last time. Players can now resolve any immediate card effects from their chosen 2 Character cards.

Turn Phases

Each of the four rounds in Coimbra is broken up into six phases.

Rolling Dice: The first player rolls all the die, creating this round’s die pool.
Drafting & Placing Dice: In player order, players select 1 die each and put it on a city location. This is done until each player has chosen and placed 3 die.
Retrieving Dice: In order of by die position, players retrieve their dice from various occasions, choosing available favor tiles and character cards.
New Player Order: Next player order is decided by tallying the number of crowns each player has. Whoever has the most is 1st, second most is 2nd, etc.
Influence Income: In the newly selected player order, players resolve their influence income based on their die colors.
Invest in a Voyage: In player order, players can pick one voyage they wish to invest in.

After all phases complete, the next round gets set up with 12 new character cards drawn for the display area, and favor tiles and crown tokens redistributed accordingly.

End Phase

The game ends after the completion of the fourth round. Victory Points are now tallied, including gains from voyage investments, placement on the influence tracks, sets of diplomas, guards/coins/crowns, and end game bonuses. Whoever has the most VP is the winner. If there is a tie, whichever player comes first in the player order is the winner.

QUICK INFO:

Time to Play: 60-90 mins
Alternative Titles: N/A
Suggested Player Age (Manufacturer): 14+
Community Suggested Player Age: 12+
List of Expansions: Coimbra: Royal Treatment (2018)Community Rating: 7.8/10
Popularity: OVERALL 240   –   STRATEGY 132
Difficulty: Moderate-high
Published Year: 2018
Creator/Publisher Credits:
            Designers:
            Flaminia Brasini
            Virginio Gigli
            Artist:
            Chris Quilliams
            Publishers:
            Eggertspiele
            Ghenos Games
            Pegasus Spiele
            Rebel
            Sternenschimmermeer
Official Game Site: https://www.eggertspiele.com/en/
Official Game Rules: https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/167788/coimbra-en-rules