
- BGG rank
- BGG #5,427
- BGG rating
- 7.2
Magna Roma
- 1–4 players
- 30–90 min
- Complexity 2.5/5
- 2022

2026
Rules assistance for The Great Harbor
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.

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Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
The Great Harbor is a board game released in 2026 for 1–4 players, 45–120 minutes per game, and ages 13 and up. It was designed by Matteo De Nardis and its main mechanics are Variable Player Powers, Dice Rolling, and Modular Board.
Build your Roman colony in the Mediterranean, trade and engage with the Great Harbor of Carthage, construct mighty trading ships to trade with the cities along the Mediterranean, and fight the Cilician pirates in this dice drafting, worker placement game for 1-4 players! In The Great Harbor, you play as a powerful Roman governor of a Mediterranean colony. The game is played over multiple rounds where players will draft dice from a common dice pool, and will use those dice as workers to place them on the tiles of the Great Harbor to play the corresponding actions. In order to place a die on a certain slot, the die must match the color of the slot of the tile. The die power (ranging from 1 to 6) will determine the strength of your action on that tile. Once someone places a die on a slot, that slot is taken, and no other dice may be placed there until the end of the round. The actions that can be played include: gaining resources that are important for shipbuilding, scheduling workers to work on building the ships, increasing your colony capacity to dock ships and population, sending your ships to trade along the Mediterranean and be on the lookout for pirates, hire special workers and diplomats and more. The game ends after six rounds after which victory points from the constructed ships, buildings, senate influence, and objectives are then calculated, and the player with the most points is the winner of the game and proclaimed the most powerful governor of the Mediterranean! —description from the publisher
The Great Harbor supports 1–4 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.
The listed playing time for The Great Harbor is 45–120 minutes. This is the publisher’s estimate for a full game. The actual duration depends on the group, the player count and familiarity with the rules: first sessions usually run longer, while experienced groups often finish faster. Setup and teaching time are not included in this estimate.
The catalogue lists The Great Harbor for ages 13 and up. This is the publisher’s recommendation and reflects reading demands, rule complexity and small components rather than theme alone. Younger players can often join with help from an adult, so check the age guidance on your edition and consider your group’s experience with board games.
The Great Harbor has a complexity rating of 3.0 out of 5 from BoardGameGeek players, which makes it a medium-weight game. The rating reflects how much rules knowledge, planning and decision-making a typical game demands. Expect a longer first teach for heavier games, and use a preparation guide before game night.
The Great Harbor belongs to these categories: Ancient and Pirates. Its main mechanics are Variable Player Powers, Dice Rolling, and Modular Board. Categories describe the theme and setting of a game, while mechanics describe what players actually do on their turns. Each mechanic links to a catalogue hub with similar games, which helps when you want something comparable.
The credited designers of The Great Harbor are: Matteo De Nardis. These credits come from the published game data and name the people responsible for the game’s design, not its illustrators or publishers. Designer pages on MeepleRules collect other titles by the same designers, which helps when you enjoy a game and want to find similar ones.
The catalogue lists The Great Harbor as a base game. It can be played on its own with the components in the box and does not require any other title. Expansions, if any exist, add new content or rules on top of it and are listed separately in the catalogue with a link back to this base game.