Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery notes

Object: Each player is a 15th century European colonial power staking a claim in the New
World. Discover, colonize, set up trade, build economy, develop technology, build a fleet,
and build an army.
Victory points (VP) are earned three times (at the end of each Age) during 8 game turns. The
player with the most VP at game end wins.
Setup: Each player chooses a color and puts all of those pieces in a supply near him.
Each player gets 10 Spanish Dollars and 5 colonists to start.
Silver coins are worth 1 Spanish Dollar. Gold coins are worth 10 Spanish Dollars.
Place a random discovery counter face down in each region except the Caribbean. Place the
remaining discovery counters back into the box, face down.
Place a face up trade good in each region that matches the depicted trade good.
Shuffle the capital buildings into three face down stacks (one stack per Age). Draw five Age I
buildings and place them face up at the top of the board.
Shuffle the remaining trade goods face down and randomly place four of them face up beside
the Trade Goods event box.
Place a Merchant Ship in the Turn 1 box as the Turn Marker.
Place a Merchant Ship in the Merchant Shipping box.
Place a Merchant Ship on the first space of the Colonist Dock after 2 times the number of
players minus 1 (e.g., in a 5-player game, the ship is placed on the 10 space, blocking the
10, 11, and 12 spaces from use while the first 9 spaces would be available).
The X and Y spaces are available to the player that owns the corresponding buildings.
Take one colonist from each player and randomly place them in the Turn Order area as the
initial starting order.
The player who goes 1st gets no extra money, the 2nd player gets $1 extra, the 3rd player gets $2
extra, etc.
Game Play: During a game turn, the players will take turns placing colonists and specialists
into the Event Boxes to perform different actions. Then the Event Boxes will be executed
one at a time, from top to bottom.
All resources are public knowledge. Resources cant be traded or shared.
Within the three Ages there are 8 turns in the game, each with 10 phases:
Colonist/Specialist Placement Phase: In turn order, each player places one colonist or
specialist in any event box, going around until players have none remaining. None may be
saved for the next round.
The Initiative, Colonist Dock, Capital Buildings, and Warfare event boxes are filled from left
to right.
For the Specialist event box, place a colonist in the desired slot. Only a total of 5 Specialists
are available each turn, one of each type plus a slot for 5 gold to train a Specialist of your
choice.

Resolution Phase: Each event box is resolved one at a time from top to bottom.
After each Trade Goods, Merchant Shipping, Capital Buildings, Specialist, and Warfare box
has been resolved, return the colonists and specialists in them to the players supplies.
Income Phase: Income from Trade Goods and Merchant Ships is collected by all players.
Capital Building Benefits Phase: Any recurring benefits from Capital Buildings (those
generated each turn) are taken by the owning players.
If benefits between players (e.g., one has the Stable and another has Migration) may overlap,
resolve them in turn order.
Refresh Capital Buildings Phase: Replace purchased buildings with new random ones from
the stack corresponding to the Age, placing them face up for purchase.
At the end of Turn 3, Age I ends. Remove all unpurchased Age I buildings from play and place
five Age II buildings for purchase. Repeat, correspondingly, for Age III at the end of Turn
6.
Refresh Trade Goods Phase: Mix any leftover trade goods back in with the draw pile.
Draw 4 random trade goods and place them face up beside the Trade Goods box.
Refresh Merchant Ship Phase: If empty, place a new Merchant Ship in the Merchant
Shipping Box.
Take Starting Colonists Phase: All players take 5 colonists from their supplies and place
them in front of them, adding to any specialists or colonists received during the turn from
buildings or the Specialists event box.
New Turn Order Phase: Move any colonists in the Initiative event box up into the
corresponding Turn Order slots, moving back the players who didnt place a colonist in the
Initiative event box during the turn.
Advance the Turn Marker Phase: Move the Turn Marker forward one turn.
Specialists: Specialists can perform the same function as a colonist but also have abilities:
Captain counts as 2 colonists in the Merchant Shipping and Discovery event boxes.
Merchant counts as 2 colonists in the Merchant Shipping event box. When he arrives in the
New World via the Colonist Dock, he generates $5 for the owning player.
Missionary when he arrives in the New World via the Colonist Dock, he generates an
additional colonist in that colony.
Soldier when a discovery expedition is successful, each soldier generates income displayed
on the discovery counter. After generating this income, they are placed in the supply.
Or when he arrives in the New World via the Colonist Dock, he may be used to eliminate other
players colonists and specialists via the Warfare event box.

Initiative Event Box: Each player with a colonist in an Initiative slot receives income equal to
the number in that slot.
Players may not place more than one colonist into the Initiative event box.
Colonist Dock Event Box: In numerical order, owning players place colonists and specialists
into a discovered region in the New World. Once placed, these colonists may not be moved
(unless allowed by a building).
The first player to have 3 colonists in a region gets the trade good for that region that was
placed during setup. Once this occurs, the region is eligible for VP scoring and remains so
unless the colonys total population drops below 3.
The X and Y spaces are only available to owners of related buildings and are resolved in order
after the numbered slots.
If desired, once specialists (other than soldiers) have conveyed their benefits in the New World,
they can be swapped out for colonist figures.
Trade Goods Event Box: In numerical order, players take one trade good from the pool of
four and place it face up in front of them.
Merchant Shipping Event Box: The player with the highest value in colonists and specialists
gets the Merchant Ship. Ties are broken by turn order.
Colonists count as 1; Captains and Merchants each count as 2.
Capital Building Event Box: Players take turns, left to right, buying available buildings (one
building per colonist placed). Players are not bound to make a purchase.
Buildings that say immediately convey their benefits once purchased.
Discovery Event Box: In turn order, players may declare which of their colonists and
specialists in the box will explore a chosen undiscovered region.
Turn over the regions discovery counter. If the value of the players declared colonists and
specialists is > the number of Native American icons, then the expedition succeeds. Place a
colonist in the discovered region, gain the dollars on the counter, and gain any bonus for
soldiers. The discovery counter is placed in front of the player, counting for VP at the end
of the game.
If the expedition fails, flip the discovery counter back to face down.
Successful or not, all declared colonists and specialists are returned to the players supply.
After all the New World regions are discovered, further expeditions use the top card from the
Discovery Card Deck but dont place a colonist in the region. When a Discovery Card
Deck expedition fails, shuffle the card back into the deck.
Only one discovery can be launched by a player per turn.
Youre not required to send all of your colonists in the Discovery Dock on an expedition they
can remain in the event box.
Specialists Event Box: Players receive the corresponding specialists.
The player using the training box pays 5 gold and chooses one specialist.
Place the specialists in front of the players for the next turn.

Warfare Event Box: Players take turns, left to right, declaring a single Battle or a full-scale
War (one conflict per figure placed in the event box). You can also choose to pass.
A Battle is choosing a single opponent to fight against in a single region. A Battle has no cost.
A War is a battle against a single opponent in all colonies where both players have at least one
colonist or specialist and either player has at least one soldier. A War costs $10.
In each battle, each one of your soldiers eliminates one enemy unit of your choice. Casualties
occur simultaneously.
Trade Goods and Merchant Ships: The number on each trade good indicates the number of
that trade goods counters there are in the game the number has no other function.
Acquired trade goods remain with the player throughout the game and generate income at the
end of each turn.
Income is based on sets of three or four. The sets can be rearranged each turn as desired.
Any three trade goods = $1. Three of a kind = $3. Four of a kind = $6.
Merchant ships act as wild cards for making sets, although only one can be used per set.
Merchant ships do not otherwise count as a trade good (e.g., for a building effect).
Capital Buildings: The cost increases with each new age: $10 in Age I, $14 in Age II, and $20
in Age III.
Victory Point Calculation: VP are scored at the end of each Age. Keep track of VP on paper.
At least 3 colonists and/or specialists are needed for a colony to be scored.
The player with the most colonists and specialists receives 6 VP, while 2 nd most receives 2 VP.
A 2-way tie for 1st awards 2 VP to each and 0 VP to 2nd place.
A 3-way (or more) tie for 1st awards 0 VP to all.
A tie for 2nd awards 0 VP to each.
End Game Scoring: The most VP at game end wins.
VPs are awarded for discovery counters, colonies, some buildings, and VP equal to the dollars
that their trade goods and merchant ships generated at the end of Turn 8.
The first tiebreaker is the tied player who gained the most VP from colonies on turn 8.
The second tiebreaker is the tied player with the most gold.
The third tiebreaker is the tied player with the most trade goods.