When I was an exchange student in Germany, the host family had Hanse: Die Expedition[1] on their computer, which they explained to me but I also had to kind of feel my way through, not being completely fluent in German. You'd play as a merchant, sending out salt to other ports to trade for goods. Each turn was a year, and it would go through many generations, the goal being to contribute enough from your profits to build a cathedral.

Other things I remember:

- When you'd die, you'd pick an heir from your kids. They would be described as (sometimes you were supposed to understand as) being skilled at either fighting, exploring, or trading. If you didn't have an old enough one to pick, you'd have to pay a lot for some godparent to take over in the interim.

- You could raise capital by selling shares in your operation, but the more shares outstanding, the more interest (Zinsen) you'd have to pay. (You could also buy them back, but they'd be more expensive when you had a good year.)

- If you couldn't pay your obligations, you'd lose a turn to the Schuldturm (debtor's prison, lit. "debt tower").

- You could send explorers to find more lucrative ports, Novgorod being a good one.

- Depending on the weather, you might lose ships. Sometimes you wouldn't want to send any out, in which case it would warn you, "Keine Koggen auf der See! Zug wirklich beenden?" ("No cogs[2] on the sea! Really end turn?")

- You would get random events each turn, one of them being a soothsayer that would offer to predict your fortune. They would then give you the option to pay for extra advice, which would always be "Don't trust charlatans!"

- As your empire expanded, you'd be promoted in rank, some of the higher ones being Senator or Patrician.

- There would be battles, as nobles would sometimes attack your ports.

[1] https://www.mobygames.com/game/9273/hanse-die-expedition/

[2] A kind of ship used back then (also mentioned in the article as replacing the Knarr): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cog_(ship)?useskin=vector