The whole game looks very inviting. The medieval cities depicted on the board, together with the player crests, cardboard coins, money pouches, sticker decorated wagons and wooden commodity pieces, immediately creates the right atmosphere for the players.

There are six cities - Paris, Cologne, Brugge, Genf, Vienna and Genoa - which are interconnected by roads. Three wagons carry goods from one city to another. No-one owns the wagons or controls any of them single-handedly, and in principle a player can put commodities on any transport. There are six different commodities - salt, iron, wine, silk, cloth and food - all of limited supply.

Each round consists of six phases:

1) Buy goods.
Players buy up to three commodities and choose which city/cities to place them in. Each city produces three types of goods and a table on the board determines prices.

2) Load wagons.
If one or more wagons are currently in a city, they are in turn laid out for auction. The high bidder is Master of that wagon until it leaves the city. The Wagon Master can place up to three items of the same type in his slot on the wagon. He then turns to the other players, who must negotiate a price for each piece of goods they want to put on the same transport (a maximum of two). The wagon is then loaded and bidding continues on any other unloaded wagons.

3) Move wagons.
The players take turns moving the wagons, using one Movement Chit (allowing 1 to 4 moves) per round. Two special ability cards allow you to move a wagon one or two extra spaces.

4) Changing prices.
Every player has a price wheel, which allows them to secretly increase the price of one, two or none of the six types of goods. The wheels are presented simultaneously and prices changed upwards. When a commodity goes "over the top", it starts at the bottom again.

5) Selling Goods.
After prices are changed, players sell goods from any wagons that arrived in a city that turn. A bonus is paid if you sell goods that the buying city does not produce itself.

6) Maintaining and increasing social status.
In order to win the game, you have to rise gradually on the Social Order table. The price for climbing a step on the social ladder increases as the game goes on, but so does the upkeep you have to pay each round to maintain your current status. A lot of gnashing of teeth and fiddling in purses in this segment, especially towards the end of the game.