MasterIslands Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Victory Conditions
• Setup
• First Player
• Turn Structure (3 Phases)
  • 1. Discovery Phase
  • 2. Conquest Phase
  • 3. Resupply Phase
• Alternative Ending
• Cooperative Mode (2 Teams of 2, 4 Players)
• Corsair Mode (1 Against 2 or 3, 3 or 4 Players)

Components

• 48 Island cards
• 8 Galleon pawns
• 1 rulebook

Victory Conditions

A player is declared Master of the Isles when they have collected, in total:

• at least 12 Island cards in a 2-player game,
• at least 10 Island cards in a 3-player game,
• at least 8 Island cards in a 4-player game.

Setup

Shuffle the Island cards and deal 3 to each player. These form each player's hand; players may look at their own cards. The remaining cards form a face-down draw pile.

Draw the first Island card and place it face up between the players. Each player chooses a colour, takes the two Galleon pawns of that colour, and places them on this card.

First Player

The player who most recently set foot on an island begins the game.

Turn Structure (3 Phases)

A turn consists of three phases, taken in order: Discovery, Conquest and Resupply.

1. Discovery Phase

The player must perform the following two actions, in the order of their choice. They must play so that they can always perform both of these actions:

• Place an Island card from their hand on a free space that is adjacent* to an Island card bearing one of their Galleon pawns.
• Move one of their Galleon pawns of their choice, horizontally or vertically, by a single Island card.

(*Adjacent means horizontally or vertically, not diagonally.)

If the Island card just placed is the same colour as the adjacent Island card bearing one of the player's Galleon pawns, the player may immediately perform another Discovery phase. Otherwise, the player moves on to the Conquest phase.

Example: the red player places a blue Island card. The diagram (not reproducible as text) marks each possible placement with a green check mark ("oui"), a star ("peut rejouer", the player may replay a Discovery phase) or a red cross ("non").

2. Conquest Phase

If the player can make a line of Island cards of their choice, horizontal, vertical or diagonal, in which:

• the cards are consecutive or not,
• no card bears one of the player's Galleon pawns,
• the values of the cards add up to exactly 10,

the player may remove these cards from the game and keep them face up in front of them. The player then checks the victory conditions. If there are several possible lines, the player takes the line of their choice.

Example: 5 + 4 + 1 = 10. The 3 bearing Galleon pawns cannot be taken. The other 3 is free but useless (= 13).

If the player has not won and cannot take a line, the player moves on to the Resupply phase. A player may never return to the Discovery phase once they have entered the Conquest phase.

3. Resupply Phase

The player draws the number of Island cards needed to bring their hand back up to 3. The player to their left then begins a new turn.

Alternative Ending

When a player draws the last card from the draw pile, the game ends immediately. The player with the most Island cards is declared Master of the Isles. In case of a tie, the player whose Island cards have the highest total value wins. Otherwise, play a new game!

Cooperative Mode (2 Teams of 2, 4 Players)

Players sitting opposite each other form a team. Each player takes a single Galleon pawn of a different colour and places it on the starting Island card.

Players may communicate:

• secretly, when they are on the same Island card,
• aloud, when they are on adjacent Island cards,
• by gestures, in all other situations.

The team that collects at least 12 Island cards in total wins.

Corsair Mode (1 Against 2 or 3, 3 or 4 Players)

Each player takes a single Galleon pawn and draws 3 Island cards, except the Corsair player, who has 2 Galleon pawns but draws no Island cards.

The Corsair wins if they prevent the other players from completing their team's mission: collecting at least 12 Island cards in total within a maximum number of turns, as follows:

• easy mission: 10 turns,
• medium mission: 7 turns,
• hard mission: 4 turns.

Turn order in Corsair mode:

1. In turn order, the players on mission successively perform their Discovery phase(s).
2. The Corsair player makes up to 4 moves with their Galleon pawns, distributed as they choose.
3. The team performs its Conquest and Resupply phases.

The Corsair's Galleon pawns may end up isolated.