Hansa

About Hansa

Hansa is a boardgame for 2-4 players. The original boardgame was created by Michael Schacht (© 2004 ABACUSSPIELE, © 2004 Überplay). This computer game is © Anssi Niitti, 2008. This is freeware and may be distributed freely as long as no changes are made to it.

For information about the boardgame, see www.abacusspiele.de, www.uberplay.com.

Requirements and installation

The game should run on all recent systems with J2SE Runtime version 5 or later installed. The game requires a desktop resolution of at least 800x600 pixels while 1024x768 or better is recommended. The game has been tested on Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS-X.

If you are running the game through Java Web Start (i.e. from a browser), a security dialog will pop up. The game needs extended security permissions only to get rid of the Java "sandbox warning banners" which would ruin the GUI.

Rules and the interface

Objective

The players take role of merchants operating in the Hanseatic cities around the Baltic Sea during the 14th Century. They sail around the sea setting up market booths and buying and selling goods. At the end of the game players get Victory Points from the goods they have sold and from the booths they have in the cities. The player with most Victory Points wins the game.

Game configuration

When the game is launched, the game configuration dialog will open first. It allows you to choose the number of players as well as their names and types (Human or AI). Four players is recommended since the game (especially the AI) has not yet been properly tested on 2 or 3 players.

For those who need a more challenging AI, there are two additional options available. If the option "Tough" is checked, the AI players will play particularly hard against Human opponents. The "Cheating" option allows AI to see the Markers in the Goods Stacks.

The game configuration dialog will also open whenever you choose Game|New from the menu. If a game is already going on, choosing 'OK' in the dialog will start a new game and the old game will be lost.

Stuff

Cities

There are nine Cities in the game. For each City there is a panel on the map with the name of the city at the top of the panel and one or two slots for Goods Markers. The Market Booths players set up in the City will be shown on the panel as well. Between the Cities there are arrows which mark the sailing routes.

Goods Markers

The Goods Markers come in six colors (five colors with three players and four colors with two players). For each color there are 4 Markers which have 1 Barrel on them, 5 Markers with 2 Barrels and 4 Markes with 3 Barrels. In the beginning of a game Goods Markers are placed in the Cities and in the Supply Stacks located at the lower right corner of the map. Later on players get to buy and sell the goods in the cities.

NOTE: Currently the number of Barrels on a Goods Marker is represented by numbers 1-3 instead of barrel images.

The Goods Markers a player has as well as the number of Goods Markers he/she has sold will be shown on the respective player panel at the right side of the game window. The type of the sold Markers will be hidden.

The Ship

The Ship is always positioned in one of the Cities. Buying, selling and setting up Market Booths can only be done in the Ship's current location. The Ship can move between Cities along the sailing routes marked on the map.

Market Booths

During the course of the game players will set up Market Booths of their own colors in the Cities. Having at least one own Booth in a City is a required to perform selling action there and having a majority (more Booths than anyone else in the City) has additional benefits. Each player has 15 Booths to spend and the number of Booths a player has in supply is shown on the player panel at the right side of the game window.

Money

Players need money to operate. The amount of Talers a player has is shown on the top of the player panel at the right side of the game window.

Start

In the beginning of the game each player gets 3 Talers and 15 Market Booths of their color. All Goods are shuffled and the every Cities' Goods slots are filled. The rest of the Goods Markers are placed in the five Supply Stacks. The Ship is placed in Copenhagen.

In the first rounds players set up initial Booths to Cities of their choice. The randomly chosen starting player (marked with (S) after the player's name in the player panel) gets to place the first Booths. The turn is then passed to the next player in the order (... -> yellow -> grey -> white -> purple -> yellow -> ...). There are three rounds of the initial Booth placing. During these rounds players must use their turn to place exactly two Market Booths to one of the Cities. They may not set up Booths in Copenhagen or in any City they already have Booths in.

Human players use mouse to choose the city they want to place Booths in by clicking the City panel or using the popup menu (right-click on the map).

Game play

The players take turns starting from the player marked with (S) and following the order (... -> yellow -> grey -> white -> purple -> yellow -> ...). During his/her turn a player may carry out any number of actions he/she can afford.

Turn

In the beginning of his/her turn the player takes regular income of 3 Talers. Then, before taking any other action, the player may spend 1 Taler to replenish Goods Markers. If this action is taken, all the empty slots in the Cities are filled with Goods Markers from the Supply Stacks (beginning from the leftmost Stack). If all marker slots are empty then the player must replenish. A Human player may choose replenishing by clicking the Supply Stack or using the popup menu. The replenish action may not be cancelled by using Undo for obvious reasons.

Then the player may carry out any number of the following actions:

Sailing

The player's action is bound to the location of the Ship. If the player wishes to buy/sell/build in another City, he/she must first move the Ship there by sailing. Sailing between the Cities along the sailing routes costs 1 Taler per route. A Human player sails by clicking the target City or by using the popup menu.

The player may take only one action in the current City. After that he/she must move the Ship or end the turn. It is possible to do multiple action in one City by moving the the Ship around between those action.

Buying Goods

If there are Goods Markers in the current City the player may choose to buy one of those Markers by paying 1 Taler to the player that has the Market Booth majority in the City. If there aren't any Market Booths in the City or several players are tied for the majority, the money is paid to the bank. If the active player has the majority, then he/she gets the Goods Marker for free. A Human player may choose to buy Goods by clicking the respective Marker icon on the City Panel or by using the popup menu.

Selling Goods

If the player has at least two Goods Markers of the same color and at least one Booth in the current City, he/she can sell goods. All Markers of the colors the player has has at least 2 Goods Markers of will be sold. If other players have Goods Markers of those colors, they will lose one marker (the least valuable) of each of the sold colors. The sold Goods Markers are worth 2-4 points (depending on the number of barrels) each in the end of the game. The number of sold markers is shown in the player panel while the color and the number of the barrels are hidden information. A Human player may choose to sell buy clicking the Sell-button at the bottom of the map or by using the popup menu.

In the original boardgame the player who has multiple Markers in more than one color gets to choose which colors to sell. Usually the best choice is to sell all, and that's why the rules are a little bit simplified in this computer version.

Building Booths

If the player has Market Booths in supply and at least one Goods Marker, he/she is able to set up Market Booths in the current City. The player uses one of the Markers and has as many Booths as the Marker has barrels placed in the current City. If the player does not have enough Booths in supply then all the Booths left are placed. A Human player places Booths by clicking the Build-button at the bottom of the map (and the choosing the Marker to use from the menu if there are multiple Markers in the supply) or by using the popup menu.

Ending turn

The player may end the turn whenever he/she wishes. At the end of the turn, however, the player loses all money beyond 3 Talers and all but three Goods Markers. If the player wishes to end the turn while still having more than three Markers, he/she gets to choose which Goods to keep. A Human player ends the turn by clicking the End-button at the bottom of the map or by using the popup menu. If the Human player has excess Goods Markers, the set of Markers to keep has to be chosen from a popup menu.

End of the game

The game ends after the rightmost Supply Stack is first used while replenishing. The last round is played as usual so that every player gets equal amount of turns: the game ends when the player before the starting player ends his/her turn. Holding the mouse pointer on the Supply Stacks will let a Human player see exactly how many Markers there are in the Stacks as well as how many Markers there are left before the last round is triggered.

Scoring

Players get Victory Points by following rules

The player with most VPs wins. If there is a tie, the tied player with most Market Booths in the Cities wins. If the game is still tied, the tied players share the victory.

When the game ends, a dialog pops up showing the scoring. Click OK to close the dialog and select Game|New from the menu to start a new game!

Bugs and issues

Version history

Current version number is 0.53

Contents

  1. About Hansa
  2. Requirements and installation
  3. Rules and the interface
    1. Objective
    2. Game configuration
    3. Start
    4. Game play
    5. End of the game
  4. Bugs and issues
  5. Version history