Ships covers the history of shipping from the time of the Phoenicians to the modern era. The game is divided into three ages, marked with different ship types. The first age is that of the galley, followed by the age of the galleon, then finally the steamship age.

Your turn is divided into two phases. In the first phase, you choose

to either conduct commerce (such as selling goods, taxing

locations or improving your warehouse) or take a card, selecting

one from seven on display; the cards vary in their effects granting

money, victory points or special actions. In the second phase you

choose whether to place a ship, move a ship, or retrieve

ships/merchants. When you place a ship, you do so in either the

merchant box or the warship box on the board. A merchant allows

you to place a merchant cube on the board, giving you goods for

your warehouse. A warship lets you take control of a location at

the cost food.

You need to decide which goods to go for, balance taking cards

with income, manage how your ships move up the track, as leaving

too many in lowly positions will gift additional income to other

players and possibly cost you victory points. You need to be

careful with your merchant cubes as once they are all placed you

will need to expend an action to retrieve some of them. This

leaves ample room for different strategies.

The Limited Edition of Ships comes with wooden ships and game counters to replace the cardboard tokens in the game