Chartered: Building Amsterdam – Capitalism, But With Cute Warehouses

The year is 1600 and Amsterdam is thriving. With ships sailing across the globe and trade booming, the city is quickly becoming the heart of international commerce. As a merchant, you’re right in the middle of the action. Your goal? To build companies, invest in stocks, and outsmart your rivals, all in the hopes of becoming the wealthiest merchant around. The market’s unpredictable, your opponents are just as ambitious, and only one of you will come out on top.

👥 2-5 players, ages 10+
⌛ Playing time: 60 minutes
📝 Designers: Alexander Kneepkens & Arnold van Binsbergen
🎨 Artwork: Odysseas Stamoglou & Nicholas Westgård

🏢 Publisher: Jolly Dutch (review copy provided)

Gameplay Overview

In Chartered, you and the other players take on the role of ambitious merchants, working together to rebuild Amsterdam as it was in the 1600s. But don’t let the teamwork vibe fool you. This is still a competition, and only one of you is walking away with the most money.

On your turn, you get to choose from three possible actions. One of your options is to buy building cards. You can either pick from the open market or draw blindly from the deck. The deck has two types of cards. Blueprint cards show a color and a specific location, and you’ll use those to place new warehouses on the board. Level cards let you build upwards, adding a second, third, or even fourth floor to an existing warehouse. When you go for blueprint cards, you get to take two cards, whether you’re drawing or choosing from the market. But if you’re taking a level card from the market, you only get one that turn.

Another option is to actually build a warehouse. You’ll play a card, find the matching location on the map, and place your warehouse there. Sometimes this is just a simple placement, but things get interesting when you connect warehouses. If you connect two, you’ve just founded a new company, and you’ll place its stock marker on the stock chart. If you add a warehouse to an existing company, that company grows and its stock value increases. And if you place a warehouse between two companies, the higher-value one takes over the smaller one and the values get added together. It’s a bold move and can shift the game fast.

After building, you’re allowed to trade up to two stocks. You can buy, sell, or mix it up. Timing your trades well can make a big difference.

Whenever a company’s stock value increases, there’s a chance for a stock event to happen. If that happens, the active player either picks from the available event cards or draws one blindly. That event could spark a quick bidding war or auction for something useful, like an extra turn, a stock card, the chance to trade, or even a valuable building card.

And if you can’t (or don’t want to) buy or build on your turn, you’ve still got an option. You can sell up to two of your stocks at their current price. Sometimes it’s just a way to keep the game moving, but other times it’s a clever way to set up a future power play, especially if you’re running low on cash.

The game ends when the final warehouse is placed and the active player finishes their action. At that point, everyone sells their remaining stocks to the bank at their current market value. The player with the most money wins the game and earns the title of Amsterdam’s wealthiest merchant.

Game Info

Chartered: Building Amsterdam is a medium-weight strategy game where money, timing, and a little bit of sneaky stock dealing go a long way. Released in 2024, it’s designed by Alexander Kneepkens and Arnold van Binsbergen and published by Jolly Dutch Productions. The game plays with two to five players, works well from age 10 and up, and usually wraps up in about an hour.

If you’ve played classics like Big Boss or Acquire, this one will feel comfortably familiar, but still fresh. In fact, this is a reimagining of an earlier game, Chartered: The Golden Age. Compared to the original version, this edition adds some smart updates: a modular board that lets you create different city layouts each game, new company founding rules that allow diagonal building by playing two cards, and the removal of those old bonus stocks. There’s also a new twist with “broken roofs,” which let you drag down a company’s value on purpose. And on top of all that, stock events now add surprise interactions and auctions that keep things unpredictable. Think of it as the same solid foundation, with a lot more room to build on.

Components and Production

Let’s talk table presence, because Chartered definitely makes one. First of all, the box is packed. Literally. Everything fits in there, but it’s not exactly a toss-it-in-and-go situation. You’ll want to be a bit strategic when putting things back. Thankfully, there’s a handy packing guide from the publisher if you want to avoid playing warehouse Tetris after every game.

Now for the fun part: the components. The cardboard warehouses are the true stars here. You’ll need to assemble them before your first play, but once built, they don’t need to come apart again. They come in a bunch of different colors and styles, and the nine headquarters warehouses are bigger and match the branding of their companies. These pieces give the board a great 3D look and make it easy to read the game state at a glance.

You’ll also get four modular board pieces that form the map of Amsterdam, letting you mix things up with each setup. The game includes a stock chart to track each company’s value, a healthy stack of building and stock cards, and some nice extras like action cards, stock event cards, cardboard money, broken roof tokens, and even two punchboard tools to help with the setup. Cardboard helping you punch more cardboard. We love a game that’s self-aware.

Gameplay and Strategy

In Chartered, you’re not really tied to a single company. Everyone can invest in any of the nine available firms, and part of the game is figuring out who’s quietly hoarding which stocks. Since players keep their shares hidden, reading your opponents becomes just as important as reading the market.

Early on, you’ll mostly be picking up blueprint and level cards to give yourself options on where to build. Founding a company early can be tempting, especially since it gives you early access to stock, but it’s also risky. If you grow too fast or put all your money into one basket, you might find yourself swallowed up by someone else’s merger plans.

As the game develops, so does the board. This is where the real drama kicks in. Companies grow and get absorbed into one another. You’ll find yourself investing in rival companies just as often as your own, trying to ride their success while steering the game in your direction. Building next to your own companies helps them grow, but placing next to someone else’s might set you up to benefit from a future merger. It’s a bit like playing real estate poker, with everyone bluffing a little and hoping their timing is just right.

Later in the game, the city gets crowded. Every move becomes more important, and triggering a stock event at the right moment can be a game-changer. These events let you bid for useful bonuses like extra cards, extra turns, or even new building opportunities. It’s all about knowing when to act and when to wait. Timing really is everything.

Tactics and Timing

There’s not a lot of luck in Chartered, and that’s part of what makes it so satisfying. The deck of building cards is big because every single spot on the board has a matching card. If you’re looking for a specific location, you might have to dig for it, or pay extra to refresh the market. It’s not random, it’s just tough luck if someone else snags the card you wanted first.

Smart players spread their investments and try to stay involved in multiple companies. Betting it all on one firm can pay off, but if your opponents decide to drive that company’s value down with a broken roof or a well-timed merger, you might be left watching your profits vanish. And yes, broken roofs are real in this game. It’s a way to sabotage a company’s value by placing a deliberately shoddy-looking roof on top of someone’s hopes and dreams. Just don’t forget to sell your shares first. No one wants to go down with the ship.

At the start of the game, you’ll get two action cards. Normally, after building a warehouse, you’d go straight into trading stocks, but if you’re feeling a bit more devious, you can choose to spend some cash and play an action card instead. Just discard one and pick one of the two effects. Maybe you trigger a stock event, maybe you drop a broken roof and tank someone’s company value. Either way, it’s a powerful little move that can shift the game if you play it at just the right time.

One particularly sneaky moment is when you know a merger is about to happen. If you’re holding stock in the smaller of the two companies, and the merger goes through, your shares are gone for good. Timing your sales before that happens can save your entire strategy.

Board Setup and Replayability

Each game of Chartered starts with four separate board tiles that you arrange to form the city. Because the tiles are modular, no two setups play the same. Some layouts will make it easier to expand a company, while others might naturally lead to tighter board control or more frequent mergers. It mixes things up just enough to keep every game feeling a little different.

Final Thoughts

We really enjoyed how much Chartered gives you to think about. The rules are simple enough to teach quickly, but the strategic depth is solid. There’s a lot of tension in choosing when to grow your own companies and when to invest in someone else’s. It might feel wrong, but sometimes helping a rival succeed is actually the smartest move.

Mergers, when timed well, can completely shift the balance of power. And the stock events? They’re chaotic in the best way. Whether it’s a bidding war for an extra turn or a building card that gives you the edge, these moments keep everyone on their toes.

One thing we liked a lot was the hidden stock information. It really adds to the mind games. You can’t be sure who’s invested where unless you’re paying close attention to every trade and move. And if you’re not watching closely, you might end up targeting the wrong company with your broken roof or your clever little merger trap. Oops.

This isn’t a game for players who dislike indirect interaction. While you won’t be attacking each other directly, you will absolutely mess with each other’s plans. That said, it’s all done through clever timing and smart plays, so it still feels fair and strategic.

If you enjoy games with a strong economic theme, lots of room for tactical planning, and just the right amount of table talk and surprise swings, Chartered fits right into that medium-weight Eurogame space. It’s all about reading the board, reading your opponents, and playing the market like a pro. And if you’re the kind of player who likes to trigger a stock event right when it hurts the most… well, we see you.

📝 We received a copy of the game from Jolly Dutch Productions, but all questionable investment advice is entirely our own.