Tim set up the game, exactly as in the booklet (although it's possible to use random hexes and numbers for the larger island). There were several holes in the grid. I had somehow thought that the 'hidden' hexes would be placed upside down, but I suppose it would be quite hard to pick them out to turn them over. Instead, they were placed in a shuffled pile at the side, along with some numbers, also upside-down. The idea is to 'explore' from the island, using ships, and then uncover new resources - or possibly more sea.
The booklet says to play to 12 points, so we decided to play to 13.
The rest of the game works as in regular Settlers of Catan, building settlements, cities and roads, with the extra Seafarers rules that allow ships to sail across the sea, and the pirate that can block them as an alternative to the robber. So we started building; I (playing orange, as usual) was the first to build ships and uncover some useful resource tiles, and Richard (playing red) soon followed, although the first one he uncovered - by arriving at the intersection with an empty hex space - was a sea tile:
Tim (playing blue) realised that it was going to be almost impossible for him to start any ships, due to the initial placements, unless he sailed around the back of the main island. So instead he started concentrating on expansion within Catan, and settling on as many trading harbours as possible.
Richard had fairly quickly gained the longest trading route card, with a good number of ships and roads; I eventually gained the largest army card, after buying a few knights, and then built another settlement that took me to 13 points. Tim was only one behind - he had a victory point card hidden, and 11 points on the board. Richard, despite having the longest trading route, and being ahead at the start, had nine points.
I'd quite like to have continued to 14 or even 15 points, but was out-voted.
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