Seafarers: Fog Island, different layout

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:

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.

Seafarers of Catan: fog island (for six)

It was a few weeks since we had introduced Becky to Seafarers of Catan, with the Fog Island scenario. Yesterday afternoon, Richard and Daniel went out sailing, but our friends came over for a game, and asked for Seafarers. We decided on the same scenario, but with random distribution of hexes and numbers.

We had not played with six before. The initial setup wasn't easy, with distinct lack of spaces by the end. Becky (playing red, for a change) went first and took what was, in my view, the best spot available. Marie (playing white) went second; Jörn (blue) third; Sheila (brown) fourth. I was fifth, playing orange as usual, and since there were no obviously good spots, decided on some good numbers on sheep and wood - the resources needed to build a boat. Jacob (green) went last, his favourite position, since it meant he placed both settlements together. I'm not entirely sure why he took one spot with only the wood-8 bordering it - there was a similar wood-8 hex with a wheat next to it that he could have had. But he was determined to set out to sea as soon as possible, and to aim for the 10-gold hex.


So the game started. Since I had no ore, my first strategy was to build towards a useful 9-ore hex. Becky built streets out towards the coast at the back of the board, in the hope of the ore harbour. And picked up the longest street card without really intending to.

The first person to uncover a 'hidden' hex was Jacob...and it was a sea hex. Sheila then set out in boats as well, and uncovered a further sea hex.


Jacob kept on building boats and exploring, and for several moves found nothing but sea. Then finally he uncovered a wood hex, with a useful 5, and built a settlement bordering that and the gold hex he had been aiming for.


However, Becky was still rather significantly in the lead. She had 7 points including the longest street. Even if - as was likely - someone took that from her, she had 5 solid points on the board. Jörn was second with five points; Marie, Jacob and I had four each, and Sheila had three.

I did manage to build enough ships to take the longest route card for a couple of rounds, but Jacob soon took it from me. His line of ships was pretty much invincible from that perspective, although he wasn't doing much other building:


Despite losing the longest route card, Becky now had eight points, since she had built two cities and a further settlement. Jörn also had eight points, and Jacob was close behind with seven. Marie, Sheila and I all had five, so it was still fairly even. Marie and I had been discovering some useful land hexes, as had Jacob by this stage. Sheila had remembered a rule which we had quite forgotten in our last game: whoever turns over a land hex takes an extra resource corresponding to it immediately.

Richard and Daniel arrived home from their sailing trip, and Richard sat with Jacob to give him some advice on strategy. He pointed out that since he had by far the longest route, there wasn't much point extending it further; he needed the resources to build settlements and cities instead, to gain more points. Then Daniel took over advising... and Jacob waited until two 12s had (surprisingly) been rolled. Jörn and I both picked up clay for that, so Jacob, on his turn, monopolised clay and received 15 cards:


With those, he was able to trade with others, and then built another settlement.

However, Becky was maintaining a clear lead by this stage. She had 11 points on the board. She still had building spaces too - lots of them! - so could either build more, or buy cards. We had decided to play to 12 points rather than 14, as we were getting hungry. We had to remember to keep counting points; as so often happens in Fog Island, we were all enjoying the exploration phase and tended to forget about trying to gain points.


Unsurprisingly, it was Becky who won - by picking up a victory point card.


We were greatly relieved, not wanting the game to continue much longer. The camera shook slightly on the last shot, and I temporarily ran out of memory space to take any more, so the final board isn't too clear:


But Becky was the clear winner, and Jacob came second with 10 points.