Welcome to Chartagon! In Chartagon, your task is to disperse your rangers over the land as you strategically explore its different areas. But beware of the competition: others will seek to block your progress and explore Chartagon before you do.
Each players’ first marker must be placed on any harbor post along the coastline (these are marked with a thick black border). Players then take turns, and places one marker of the player’s color on a new post every turn. By expanding their territory, players may block others’ exploration. Eventually there will be no more empty posts or markers to place, and the game is over. To determine a winner, players get one point for each post. The player with most points is the winner! But remember:
- There can never be more than one marker on a post.
- You cannot pass another player’s posts along a path.
- If there are no available moves left for a player and they cannot place a marker, he/she must pass their turn.
PLACING POSTS
Just like in reality, it is faster to travel across the plains (beige posts), a bit slower to travel through the forest (red posts), and a very slow struggle through the mountains (brown posts). The Chartagonian coasts are very rugged, and coast lines are not considered paths. During each players turn, they choose where to expand their exploration by picking any one of their placed markers. The player can then perform one of the following actions:

- move along one path (dotted line) and place the next marker at an adjacent post of any color,
- OR move along two paths and pass one empty forest post (pass one red),
- OR move along two paths and pass one empty plain post (pass one beige),
- OR move along three paths and pass two empty plain posts (pass two beige),
OPPORTUNITIES
Life is full of opportunities that are available just once in a lifetime. In Chartagon competitions this is represented by two opportunity cards that the players can use once each.

Life boat: You find a life boat! This opportunity lets you move from one harbor post to any other available harbor post during your turn.

Irresistible match: When people fall deeply in love, previous loyalties are secondary. Instead of adding an additional post during your turn, this opportunity allows you to charm another player’s adjacent post and change it to your own color.
SURROUND AND SCATTER
You may surround groups of opponents’ markers that are adjacent to each other and connected by paths, and remove the group from the map. To do so, there must be no available paths from the surrounded group of markers to an empty post, and no harbor posts within the group. If a group of markers have a path/connection to a harbor, that group of markers is safe.
EXAMPLE OF PLACING POSTS
Turn 1. Blue player places the cube on a harbor post. The posts that are available to the player during the next turn are indicated here by blue circles. Blue player waits for the other player to take their turns (their markers are not shown here).

Turn 2. Blue player chooses to put his/her cube on the available mountain post. Now, more empty posts become available for the next move.

Turn 3. Blue player chooses next to put the cube on an empty forest post, to further increase their influence on the island. The game continues like this until all posts are taken or all markers are used… Good luck, blue player!

SOME FINAL WORDS
We hope that you will enjoy the world of Chartagon. The more you play and the more you read about the islands, the more you will discover. For example, in the Chartagon Discovery edition, there are more randomness and it includes discovery and storm cards, more opportunities, waterways, and much more. There is also a mobile app on Google Play called Chartagon Weather, which can be used to add atmospheric sounds while you play, and a board game timer called Chartagon Timer. Further, this is the first game in a series of four within the same world. The other games will show you the very beginning, and the very end, of the Queens bloodline, and give more details to other important characters and events. Good luck exploring!
CREDITS
The Chartagon game was first discovered and documented by Pär Nyström. More details were found by Kim Astor, Joshua Juvrud, Hans Nyström, Johanna Lieb, Klara Nylén, Moa Nylén, Anna Nylén, Amanda Lindqvist, Anton Gerbrand, and many others. Corrections and improvements are welcome.
Photo by Anna Nylén and Sian A. Lewis, art by Pär Nyström, typeface design by Toshi Omagari, Georg Duffner and Octavio Pardo. Translated to English by Pär Nyström and Joshua Juvrud.
Produced 2021, with care.