Through clever use of cards in hand, players obtain tiles for placement (buildings, landscapes, privileges) as well as the ability to carry out certain actions. The tiles obtained are placed on tactically important spaces on the game board. Players can also place ownership markers onto buildings. By cleverly placing landscape tiles adjacent to the proper buildings, valuable regions can be formed which will bring in doubloons. Through the actions which can be gained by playing cards, players can bring plague stones (among other things) onto the board and thereby block their opponents' tiles. The winner is the player with the most doubloons at the end of the game.