Movement
Q. Can I move ships on the diagonals?
A. No.
Blockades
Q. The section for the High Seas Squadron states... "Roll once for each ship attempting to move in, out, or through that zone during the next turn in order to evade it." Since none of these zones have any pre-existing blockade strength (they are not along the coast) I'm not sure how many dice should be rolled and what they are referenced against. I'm sure a failure on the dice/die will destroy the ship, but if the strength is only 1 as stated in the rule, what result will sink the ship? I'm guessing you roll one die for each ship and if the result is a 1 (1 in 8 chance) they sink...
A. The H. S. Squadron is a "1" value blockade marker. The same computation is used for ships as evading any other blockade. Add the ship value (plus one for empty ship) plus any card and subtract the "1" for the qualifying number that you must roll or lower. The only differences are that the H.S.S. is always a 1 and there is no possibility of Confederate port defense (since it is always outside the Confederacy). Note that a player need not move any ships to or from this location.
Q. Load/Unload actions (clarification) - One action loads or unloads all types of goods, if present.
A. Right.
Q. Blockade deck - Do you reshuffle deck, less captured city cards, each turn, or is there a discard pile?
A. You reshuffle, the captured city cards becomes the discard pile, which contains the cards that are removed from play.
Cards
Q. Play action card action - It is unclear when some cards are played or if their effect is one-time or continuing?
A. For the most part they are all "one time" except Captain and Pilot which say "place with ship card", however, "Insurance" stays in effect until used (once). The "Government Subsidy" card says on it "each time". "Convoy" and "Hidden Inlet" should say one turn.
Q. Does the"Private Launch" launch card require an extra action to bid on ship or can it be used more than once?
A. No for both queries.
Q. There is a card that lets you refit a ship. The text says that the ship cannot move this turn. What if the ship being refitted moved earlier this turn, is that still okay?
A. No, the ship cannot be moved during the entire turn.
Q. Does the "Rebel Raider" card include the High Seas Squadron when it is blockading Havana, for instance?
A. Yes- that is the primary purpose for the card and 1/2 the historical purpose for the raiders.
Q. Is the "Convoy" card played prior to movement?
A. Yes
Q Is the "Convoy" card's effect single-use? If continuing use, can a player allow another player to use its effect?
A. Yes it is single use, no another player may not use it.
Q. FOG COVER/NEW MOON/RUNNING TIDE/SPIES - Are these cards played before ship movement?
A. Yes.
Q. INSURANCE - When exactly is this card played?
A. Any time, on your turn, as an action.
Q. Does the insurance card's effect then stay available for the player to use until required?
A. Yes.
Q. Can action cards be played without invoking their effect (in effect, simply discarded)?
A. Yes, for the cash value of $5,000 added to the Port Defense Fund in addition to the normal $5,000 for a total of $10,000 (rules bottom of page 6)
Q. Can action cards be played where no play is possible (increasing port defense above 6 or for a captured port)?
A. No.
Q. Can a "Captain" and a "Pilot" both be on the same ship?
A. Yes, that is the specific reason for the distinction.
General
Q. Can a ship voluntarily dump goods into the ocean (outside of trying to escape a blockade)? If so, does it cost an action?
A. Yes you can dump goods and no it does not require an action. The main reason for it to be done is when running a blockade to get out of a port.
Q. Is it correct that when taking actions, player A takes ALL of his 4 actions at once, then player B takes ALL 4 actions at once, etc?
A. Yes.
Bribes
Q. "If a ship carries more black market goods than war goods, bribes must be paid..."
So bribes (thus reducing profit by $5k) are calculated per individual ship not by the complete totals for an unload action, or the unload for all ships at a specific port, for the whole turn?
A. Yes it is per ship.
War Effort Chart
Q. Why does the War Effort Chart require subtraction instead of a simple numerical reference?
A. The blockade cards drawn are subtracted because there is a possibility that late in a game where very few war goods are delivered, so many ports will be closed that less than twelve cards remain in the deck. Example with a system of number of cards drawn rather than number of cards subtracted: If ten cards remain in the deck, and players delivered 4 war goods, their war effort would accomplish nothing (ten cards drawn) in respect to the chart, because zero war goods delivered would have the same result (10 cards drawn since only 10 cards remain in deck).
Q. Inland attacks: am I understanding correctly that the number of inland attacks is always 1 or 2 (so never 0)?
A. Yes.
Ships
Q. If a ship is sunk, is it removed from the game, or available for auction? (Ie: new ship is build).
A. Removed from game.
Q. Ship with speed 2, was in a port with 1 defense. Blockade level was 2 (no assault). Then port was assaulted, so blockade level became 4 and ship had to leave. Speed+defense+unloaded-blockade = 2+1+1-4=0. I suppose that means an auto-kill, doesn't it?
A. Yes.
Railing
Q. Does railing commodities constitute an action.
A. Yes, but it is the only action that works together with another (Load).
Q. Railing merchandise from inland cities is a Load action per se or do I need to spend a Load action too?
In other words, if I am only loading goods from inland cities, do I need to spend 2 actions (Rail and Load) or just 1 (Rail)?
A. Basically, if you have a ship in a port, and you want to load stuff onto the ship, and you can get said "stuff" through the rail lines, then you can do so at the cost of an extra action and extra cost for moving the goods along the rail lines.
Q. If I want to load commodities and I spent another action to rail commodities from other cities:
1. Do I have to load the goods already in the port first, or could I just load goods from distant cities even tough there might be still goods in the current port?
2. Does the kind of goods provided in the current port matter for the goods I could rail there? So could I only rail tobacco to ports with tobacco boxes?
A. You can but do not have to pick up the goods already in port first. You can rail either cotton or tobacco regardless of the boxes at the port your ship occupies being full or empty. Tobacco can be railed even when there are no tobacco boxes at the port your ship occupies. Cotton can be railed to a port with only empty tobacco boxes available as well. The goods go straight to the waiting ships, with only the ship's capacity as the limit on goods railed.
Ships
Q. There are just 7 smokestacks in the game per player, so if you have all seven ships on the board, and you have a "Private launch" card, or if someone begins a bid on a ship you want, can you abandon one of your ship to buy another?
A. There is no limit to how many ships you may have, so you need not abandon one but just mark them with an unused color peg.
Q. I understand that you cannot buy two ships during a single bidding action, but can you buy two ships on a single turn, for example, if two different players conduct a ship bid action, or if you bought one with the "Private Launch" card?
A. Yes.
