Broadly speaking, Container is a trading game where
the goal of the game is to make as much money as possible. Goods
in the game are produced by machines, sold to be stored in warehouses,
shipped from warehouses to an island, where they are sold at
auction. Players generate cash by buying and selling goods
to each other, and by accumulating goods on the island.
Operating the game:
Generally speaking, do things just as you would when playing with a
real board. The interface will let you make any legal move, and
conversely will prevent you from making any illegal moves.
Anything you can pick up or drop will be indicated as you move the
mouse, so if you can't seem to do what
you're trying to do, most likely that is because you are trying to do
someting illegal. All the financial transactions are
completely automatic.
To buy a factory or a warehouse, move it from the storage area to
your player mat.
To produce goods, move the goods you want to produce to your
factory storage area.
To buy factory goods, move them from another player's factory
storage to your warehouse storage.
To buy warehouse goods, move your ship to a dock and load goods
onto it.
To take out a loan, move a loan card from the pile (near the
island) to your player mat.
To auction goods, move a loaded ship to sea, then to the island.
To produce luxury goods, first move the two goods you are trading
back to their storage areas, then move the gold container to your
storage area.
ALWAYS: click on DONE to commit to the action you
have just completed.
Re-Pricing goods: After
you have produced goods or purchases warehouse goods, you have the
option of re-pricing all the goods in the area. This
optional phase completes with a second click on DONE . You can also reprice
goods without producing or purchasing.
Auctiions and Loan Requests:
After you click on DONE
to start an auction or commit to a loan request, each of the other
players bids in turn, until finally the focus moves back to you, and
you must take the final action of accepting the loan or selling the
goods.
Useless Ship Actions: A
few truely useless actions are technically legal, but not allowed by
the program. Among them are docking a ship without buying
anything, or docking a ship where you can't afford to buy anything, or moving
an empty ship to the island.
Loans: The offical rules
prescribe reposession of containers, and eventually warehouses and
factories, for players who cannot pay interest on loans. Fun
though this may be (for the other players) in live games, it just isn't
necessary: if it ever comes to mandatory reposessions, you are in a
hopeless position. At boardspace non-payment is handled two ways.
If you have only one loan, you must
take out a second loan if necessary to pay interest.
If you cannot pay interest and already have two loans, the interest is added
to the loan principle; leaving you with a bigger debt and no
cash. This is a little kinder than the official rules, but not
much; and it doesn't interrupt the flow of the game.
End of Game: In addition to
the usual rule, if all players go three moves without buying, selling,
or producing the game ends with the current net values.
