by r3gamer
5) I understand what others say about the theme being at odds with the actual mechanics. I can see that, too. What does drawing expedition cards have to do with managing a spice trade? But, I wish the rules called "progress" in one of the 5 areas on the tech tree differently. If the rules said that one of the actions available is shipping spices with the reward not being money, but instead being able to increase your prestige in one of the 5 areas provided you shipped the correct combination of spices, I think this interpretation makes more thematic sense. It IS what you are actually doing and that is how I taught it.
That is essentially how I taught it last week when I played.... you ship spices, and these are the potential rewards for doing that. The more you ship, the more renown, the better infrastructure to be able to do more...etc.