We don't play Seafarers all that often. Our usual games, preferably with five players, tend to be either regular Settlers of Catan - if we're tired, or don't have very long - or Cities and Knights.
Occasionally we do something different, and have played a few games of Seafarers: Fog Island. But it always slightly niggled me (a) that in a four-person game it was very easy for one player to get completely blocked from sailing; (b) it can be a bit depressing when someone builds a lot of ships and keeps turning over sea tiles; (c) those valuable gold hexes don't have great numbers, and rarely get built to (d) it's easier to win, usually, by ignoring the ships and just building on the regular islands.
A few months ago I stayed for a few days with my brother and sister-in-law, who said that Fog Island is their favourite Catan game. I was happy to play, of course - and then very surprised to see that their layout was rather different from the one I was used to. Instead of an island on one side and blanks on the other, there were two smaller islands with 'fog island' going down the middle:
Only two face-down sea hexes is a huge benefit. Another niggle eliminated by this version.
My brother usually wins, but in one of the games we played, my sister-in-law (playing orange) creamed:
If anyone zooms the picture and counts, it should be noted that they play with the 'harbourmaster' card, given when someone gains three harbour points. My sister-in-law had that, and the 'longest route', as well as the buildings shown on the board.
I tried to print the photos I'd taken showing this different layout, but it didn't work.. then, today, we decided to play with my son and daughter-in-law. They suggested I email my photos to their iPad, so we could use them to lay the game out as in the instructions. They decided to follow the exact scenario as shown for four players - with the oddity of two 8s next to each other.
It was quite tricky choosing starting settlements. I started (playing orange); Becky came second (playing blue); Daniel (playing brown) was third; Richard (playing red) was last. We all thought Richard made an error in building where he did on the right-hand island, with no clay at all. Better would have been to ignore the 2 sheep hex and build on the 5/6 coastal intersection with a ship rather than a street:
However, important though the starting positions are, there's always some luck in the rolls of the dice. Daniel, who did start with a coastal point and a ship, was quick to sail out; his first two turned over hexes were ore and wheat, with reasonable numbers, so he quickly built on the intersection:
Becky quickly built out from the other island and was also lucky in her discoveries. She had (and kept) the longest route from an early stage. Daniel discovered the first gold hex, with a 9 number token, which gave him a good selection of resources of his choice after he had built there:
Since Daniel and Becky's six-month old son was asleep, we borrowed his Primo (baby Lego) man to take over from the robber for a while:
I decided I'd build streets around the island to build settlements rather than sailing; Richard would love to have built boats but never had the chance. At least twice he was caught by the robber on his turn, just when he'd collected sufficient cards to do something useful.
I thought Daniel was going to win after he gained the 9-gold hex, but once again Becky's strategy, combined with a little luck, meant that she was the winner:
We didn't use the harbourmaster, but she had the longest route and also a victory point.
Occasionally we do something different, and have played a few games of Seafarers: Fog Island. But it always slightly niggled me (a) that in a four-person game it was very easy for one player to get completely blocked from sailing; (b) it can be a bit depressing when someone builds a lot of ships and keeps turning over sea tiles; (c) those valuable gold hexes don't have great numbers, and rarely get built to (d) it's easier to win, usually, by ignoring the ships and just building on the regular islands.
A few months ago I stayed for a few days with my brother and sister-in-law, who said that Fog Island is their favourite Catan game. I was happy to play, of course - and then very surprised to see that their layout was rather different from the one I was used to. Instead of an island on one side and blanks on the other, there were two smaller islands with 'fog island' going down the middle:
They said that they place the hexes and numbers randomly from those allowed. The instruction guide showed a rather strange layout with two 8s next to each other:
Even more surprisingly, there's a different layout again for a four-person game:
There are the same number of unknown/fog tiles in each, but one of the Catan islands is bigger in the two-person game.
This meant that the selection of hexes and numbers also depends on whether the game is for three or four players. Here are the lists from the instruction guide. First the 'face-up' hexes and number tokens:
It's notable that here are no gold hexes at all in the face-up ones. So that's one of my niggles sorted.
Only two face-down sea hexes is a huge benefit. Another niggle eliminated by this version.
My brother usually wins, but in one of the games we played, my sister-in-law (playing orange) creamed:
If anyone zooms the picture and counts, it should be noted that they play with the 'harbourmaster' card, given when someone gains three harbour points. My sister-in-law had that, and the 'longest route', as well as the buildings shown on the board.
I tried to print the photos I'd taken showing this different layout, but it didn't work.. then, today, we decided to play with my son and daughter-in-law. They suggested I email my photos to their iPad, so we could use them to lay the game out as in the instructions. They decided to follow the exact scenario as shown for four players - with the oddity of two 8s next to each other.
It was quite tricky choosing starting settlements. I started (playing orange); Becky came second (playing blue); Daniel (playing brown) was third; Richard (playing red) was last. We all thought Richard made an error in building where he did on the right-hand island, with no clay at all. Better would have been to ignore the 2 sheep hex and build on the 5/6 coastal intersection with a ship rather than a street:
However, important though the starting positions are, there's always some luck in the rolls of the dice. Daniel, who did start with a coastal point and a ship, was quick to sail out; his first two turned over hexes were ore and wheat, with reasonable numbers, so he quickly built on the intersection:
Becky quickly built out from the other island and was also lucky in her discoveries. She had (and kept) the longest route from an early stage. Daniel discovered the first gold hex, with a 9 number token, which gave him a good selection of resources of his choice after he had built there:
Since Daniel and Becky's six-month old son was asleep, we borrowed his Primo (baby Lego) man to take over from the robber for a while:
I decided I'd build streets around the island to build settlements rather than sailing; Richard would love to have built boats but never had the chance. At least twice he was caught by the robber on his turn, just when he'd collected sufficient cards to do something useful.
I thought Daniel was going to win after he gained the 9-gold hex, but once again Becky's strategy, combined with a little luck, meant that she was the winner:
We didn't use the harbourmaster, but she had the longest route and also a victory point.
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