Merchants of Sky Islands
Merchants of Sky Islands Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Contents
- Initial sky island tile / 1
- Sky island tiles / 40
- Trading house pieces / 48 (12 × 4 colours)
- Tower pieces / 12
- Harbour pieces / 12
- Resource cubes / 60 (20 × 3 colours)
- Red = Wine, White = Canvas, Blue = Flying Stone
- Score board / 1
- Summary cards / 4
Game Setup
A. Place the initial sky island tile face up in the centre of the table.
B. Shuffle all the sky island tiles face down and stack them to make the sky island draw pile (they may be split into several piles). Place the draw pile where every player can reach it. Return the tiles not used in this game to the box, according to the number of players:
- 4 players: use all 40 tiles.
- 3 players: randomly select 10 tiles and return them to the box (30 tiles used).
- 2 players: randomly select 20 tiles and return them to the box (20 tiles used).
C. Group the tower pieces, harbour pieces and resource cubes by type and place them where every player can reach them. This is called the supply. Place the score board on the table.
D. Each player chooses one colour and takes all the trading house pieces of that colour. Place one of those trading house pieces on the 0 space of the score board.
E. Each player draws 2 sky island tiles from the draw pile as their starting hand. Players keep their hands hidden from one another.
F. The player who most recently looked up at the sky becomes the starting player.
Game Flow
In this game, the active player performs steps ① to ⑥ in order. After that, the turn passes to the player on the left. Each player takes 10 turns. When everyone has taken their 10 turns, the game ends and final scoring is carried out.
① Income
(In the first turn, skip this step, because there is no harbour-equipped trading house yet to produce income.)
The active player takes one resource cube and one victory point for each of their harbour-equipped trading houses on sky islands. The resources and victory points received are of the same colour as the flying ships drawn on the sky island tile where each harbour-equipped trading house stands.
Important: If the supply does not contain the resource, that resource cannot be gained.
Green flying ships give victory points. Each time you gain 1 victory point, move your colour's marker on the score board forward one space.
② Placing a sky island tile
The active player chooses 1 sky island tile from their hand and places it so that it touches at least one edge of an existing sky island tile (including the initial sky island tile). When placing it, all of the following placement rules must be followed.
[Sky island placement rules]
◎ The vertices of sky island tiles must line up with each other. For example, you may not place a tile offset by half an edge.
◎ You may not place a sky island tile on top of an existing sky island tile.
◎ On every edge where tiles touch, island must meet island, or sky must meet sky. Sky may not be placed against island. (Island against sky is not allowed.)
◎ When sky islands are placed next to each other, an enclosed empty hole may be left inside. That is allowed.
《Discarding a hand tile》
Very rarely, it may be impossible to place any tile in your hand so that it touches an existing sky island tile. Only in this case, the active player reveals all of their hand tiles to the other players, and after confirming that none can be placed, chooses 1 tile from their hand and discards it. In this turn, the active player does not place a sky island tile.
③ Gaining resources
The active player gains 1 resource of the same colour as the flying ship on the tile they just placed (green gives victory points). In addition, they gain 1 resource (or victory point) from the flying ship on each tile that touches the tile they just placed by an edge.
Important: If the supply does not contain the resource, that resource cannot be gained.
Example: (picture) After placing the tile as shown, you gain 1 red resource from the flying ship on the placed tile, and 1 white resource and 1 victory point from the flying ships on the tiles touching it by an edge.
《Initial sky island tile》
The initial sky island tile is considered to be four connected sky island tiles for the whole game. Therefore, a flying ship on a part that does not touch by an edge cannot give you resources (or victory points).
《Resources gained on discard》
If the active player discarded a hand tile, they gain only 1 resource (or victory point) from the flying ship on the discarded tile. After that, the discarded tile is returned to the box.
④ Building
The active player may spend the resources they have to build on sky islands. Players gain more resources and victory points by building. Buildings come in three types: trading house (商館), tower (塔), and harbour (港). To build any building, you pay 1 resource each of red, white and blue to the supply.
Important: Building may be done as many times as you have resources during one turn. It is allowed to build the same building several times.
④a. Building a trading house
Place 1 trading house piece from your hand (the pieces you hold) on the island part of any sky island tile, under the following rules. If you have no trading house pieces left in hand, you cannot build a trading house.
[Trading house placement rules]
◎ You may choose any tile other than the one newly placed this turn. A trading house may also be placed on the initial sky island tile, on the sky island tiles of a connected island where another player has built a trading house, or on the sky island tiles of a closed island.
◎ In principle, only one trading house piece can be placed on each island of a tile.
However, even if a tile already has a trading house piece, if that tile has several separated islands drawn on it with empty space between them, then 1 trading house piece may be placed on the island of that tile that does not yet have a trading house piece.
Example: (picture) Red trading house on the left is OK. A second trading house on the same island is NG.
④b. Building a tower
Take 1 tower piece from the supply and place it next to one of your own trading houses that is on an existing sky island tile (including the initial tile), under the rules below. (A trading house with a tower next to it is called a "tower-equipped trading house".) If there are no tower pieces in the supply, you cannot build a tower.
[Tower placement rules]
◎ You cannot place a new tower on a "connected island" that already has a "tower-equipped trading house".
Important: This rule applies only at the moment the tower is placed.
If two different connected islands each have a tower-equipped trading house, you can later place a new sky island tile to join those connected islands into one larger connected island.
Example: (picture) NG: You cannot build two towers on one connected island.
If two different connected islands each have a tower-equipped trading house, you can later place a new sky island tile so that two towers come to exist on one connected island. This is possible.
Example: (picture) OK: after the tile is placed, two towers exist on one connected island.
[Gains on tower placement]
Immediately after placing a tower piece, count the trading house pieces of all players on the connected island where the tower was placed. Gain victory points equal to that number. Harbour and tower pieces are not counted. Be careful not to forget to count your own trading houses.
④c. Building a harbour
Take 1 harbour piece from the supply and place it under one of your own existing trading houses. (A trading house with a harbour under it is called a "harbour-equipped trading house".) If there are no harbour pieces in the supply, you cannot build a harbour.
A harbour piece may be attached to any one of your trading house pieces that is not already a "harbour-equipped trading house".
One trading house piece may be both a "harbour-equipped trading house" and a "tower-equipped trading house".
⑤ Stock disposal
After the active player has finished all the building they want to do, they may pay 3 resources of the same colour from their hand to the supply, to take 1 resource of any colour from the supply. (They may not exchange for a colour that is not in the supply, or for 1 victory point.) You may do this exchange more than once if you wish.
After that, count the resources in hand. If you have 4 or more, you must choose up to 3 resources to keep in hand and return all the other resources to the supply.
⑥ Refilling your hand
The active player draws 1 sky island tile from the draw pile and adds it to their hand. In the 9th and 10th turns the draw pile is empty, so you do not refill your hand. (Only in the 10th turn does your hand hold 1 tile.)
Game End and Final Scoring
When every player has taken 10 turns, the game ends. At this point, sky island tiles should be neither in the draw pile nor in anyone's hand.
When the game ends, for each connected island, compare which player has the most influence on it. Influence on a connected island is determined by the kinds and number of buildings on it:
- Trading house only, or harbour-equipped trading house: 1 influence per piece.
- Tower-equipped trading house: 2 influence per piece.
- (A trading house with both a harbour and a tower also counts as 2 influence per piece.)
Scoring for each connected island:
- A player with sole first place in influence gains victory points equal to the number of tiles making up that connected island × 1.
- A player with sole second place in influence gains half (rounded down) of the first-place player's victory points for that island.
- Players in third place or lower gain no victory points from that island.
After the influence on a connected island has been checked, it is recommended to remove all the buildings from that connected island.
Example: This connected island consists of 5 tiles. Influence: yellow 3 (1 tower-equipped trading house + 1 trading house), red 2 (2 trading houses), blue 1 (1 harbour-equipped trading house). Yellow, in sole first place, scores 5 victory points. Red, in sole second place, scores half of 5, rounded down, which is 2 victory points. Blue is third, so blue scores no victory points from this connected island.
Ties and special cases:
- If several players share first place, each of them scores the same as a sole second-place player would. Players who did not reach first place score no victory points.
- If the sole first-place player has several players in second place, all of the second-place players score no victory points.
- A player with 0 influence on a connected island gains no victory points from it, regardless of rank.
Closed islands: If the connected island is a closed island (閉じた島), the number of tiles making up the island is doubled when calculating victory points. Players in third place or lower still gain no victory points.
Example: This closed island consists of 6 tiles (it has an empty hole inside, but it is still treated as a closed island). Influence is yellow 3, red 2, blue 1, the same as in the previous example. Because it is closed, the island is treated as 6 × 2 = 12 tiles. Yellow, in sole first place, scores 12 victory points. Red, in sole second place, scores half of 12, which is 6 victory points. Blue is third, so blue scores nothing from this closed island.
Winning the game: The player with the largest total of victory points from all connected islands plus victory points gained during the game is the winner. If several players share the highest total, those players share the victory.