Santa Maria

Santa Maria is a streamlined Eurogame of average complexity in which each player must establish a colony. The game involves dice drafting and strategically building your "engine." It has a low luck factor and no destructive player interaction.

In Santa Maria, you expand your colony by constructing buildings on your colony board. Dice (representing workers) are used to activate buildings. Each die activates an entire column or row of buildings on your colony board. Buildings are completed in order, and then the die remains on the last building to block it. Therefore, the placement of new buildings is crucial to your strategy.

Throughout the game, you'll produce resources, establish shipping routes, send out conquistadors, and recruit monks to strengthen your religious influence.

The player with the most happiness points at the end of the game (after three rounds) wins. The tiles are different each game, so the scoring method can vary from game to game.

Santa Maria also includes a solo variant.