Mitsuhama
Mitsuhama Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 32 Money Cards: divided into 4 sets, each set consisting of 1000 yen, 2000 yen, 3000 yen, 4000 yen, 5000 yen x2, and 10,000 yen x2.
- 5 Restaurant Cards
- 8 Warehouse Cards (4 sets x 2 kinds)
- 16 Employee Wooden Cubes (4 sets x 4 players)
- 4 Fish Dice: Red (Sea Perch or Mebaru), Yellow (Filefish or Hagi), Black (Sword Fish or Tachiuo), White (Sea Bream or Madai). Referenced by their colors below.
Preparation
- Place the 5 restaurant cards at the center of the table, each of which is randomly placed face up or down. These cards are not flipped during the game. Place the 4 dice near them.
Hint: When you are new to the game, we would recommend that the restaurant cards are placed as follows:
| Restaurants | 2 players | 3 to 4 players |
|---|---|---|
| Takata (たか田) | 7x Yellow, 5x White | 8x Red, 6x Black |
| Kasugano (春日乃) | 7x Red | 4x Yellow, 2x Black, 3x White |
| Hanazono (はなその) | any kinds of 2 sets of 8 fish | 18 in total of any kinds of fish |
| Ishimaru (伊志丸) | 10x Black | 9x White |
| Yamazakura (山ざくら) | 5x Red, 4x Black, 3x White | 4x Red, 4x Yellow, 3x Black, 3x White |
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Each player takes 3 employee cubes of one color and 2 warehouse cards, which are to be placed in front of the player. Also, each player takes a set of 8 money cards as their hand (40,000 yen in total), without revealing them to the other players. In a 2-player game, each player receives an additional 2x 5000 yen card. The remaining cards are not used in the game.
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The remaining employee cubes of players' colors are placed in the center of the table, and players may employ these during the game (see Additional Employee section). Put any cubes of unused colors back into the box.
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The player who went fishing most recently will be the first auctioneer.
Price of Fish
4 kinds of fish will be traded during the game. Any kind of fish is worth 1,000 yen throughout the game.
Course of Play
Players will hold many fish auctions during the game and warehouse their purchases. A player who has the kinds and number of fish demanded by a restaurant can sell them to the corresponding restaurant. One day, or one round of the game, consists of the following 4 steps:
- The auctioneer rolls 4 dice, which show today's fishery result.
- The auctioneer then chooses any number of the dice to form a set which will be auctioned; however, the total number of the pips on the chosen dice must be between 1 and 9 (cannot be 10 or more). The dice not chosen are unused in today's auction. The auctioneer declares a start to the auction (see Auction section for more details).
- Once the auction has finished, the player who has won the fish can sell them to one or more restaurants (see Selling section).
- The player sitting to the left of the auctioneer will be the next auctioneer. These 4 steps are then repeated.
Auction (3 to 4 players)
Once the auctioneer declares the beginning of the auction, players other than the auctioneer freely, i.e. without the player turns, call their total bid for the fish on auction. Players cannot divide the group of dice offered. Once they pass, a player cannot rejoin the auction.
A player can only make a bid that is higher than the last bid. You can raise a bid that you made. If a player has reneged, i.e. bid higher than they can pay, the auction will be held again, but without that player.
When all but one player have passed, the last bid made becomes the final price. The auctioneer decides if they sell the fish to the highest bidder or buy the fish for themselves for that price.
When the auctioneer sells
The highest bidder pays money cards and/or fish to the auctioneer so that their total value will be equal to or more than the price called. The auctioneer takes the money cards into their hand, and any fish into their warehouse (see Warehousing section). Finally, the highest bidder gains fish into their warehouses equal to the pips shown on the corresponding dice.
- You cannot use the same kind(s) of fish for payment as was offered in the auction.
- Even when you use money cards for payment whose sum is larger than your bid, the auctioneer does not provide any change.
When the auctioneer buys
The auctioneer pays money cards and/or fish to the highest bidder, in order to increase the fish in their warehouse(s) by the amount shown on the dice, as in the previous section. The highest bidder receives those cards and/or fish as payment.
Ex.) A 4-player game. Abigail rolls the dice with the following results: 4 for red, 3 for yellow, 2 for black, and 1 for white. Since the total of pips are 10, all of the dice cannot be selected; Abigail chooses the red, yellow and white dice, whose pips total 8.
Benjamin calls 11,000 yen, Chloe and Daniel have passed. Abigail would not like to sell those fish to Benjamin, so she has decided to pay 11,000 yen. She pays a card of 10,000 yen and a card of 2,000 yen, as she doesn't have a 1,000 yen card or any fish; Benjamin doesn't return 1,000 yen in change. Finally, Abigail increases the following fish in her warehouse: 4 red fish, 3 yellow fish and 1 white fish.
Hint: If you aren't confident how much to bid during the auction, keep in mind that 1 fish is worth 1,000 yen!
When everyone passes
The auctioneer has the right to buy their fish for any price they desire, or to simply pass. The money cards used for this purchase are removed from the game. If the auctioneer passes, no one gains the fish auctioned and they are thrown back to the sea.
Warehousing
The fish you have received are tracked by placing the employee cubes on your warehouse cards. On each warehouse, you can only place 1 cube.
- When you use fish for payment, you may choose a kind of fish that the player you are paying cannot fully receive.
- If you would receive more fish than the maximum capacity of your warehouse (i.e., 12), you only receive up to the limit of your warehouse.
- If you don't have enough employee cubes, you can move any of your cubes from another warehouse to track the newly received fish (but the fish of the previous type would be thrown away). You may alternatively choose not to receive new fish.
Ex.) Chloe purchases 4 black fish from Daniel for 3,000 yen, by paying 3 red fish (worth 3,000 yen). Daniel already has 11 red fish, so he can receive only 1 red fish.
Chloe receives 4 black fish into her warehouse, but she has only 2 employees who are placed on the red and white fish warehouses, so she decides to move a cube from the red warehouse to increase black fish by 4.
Auction (2 players)
In a 2-player game, after the auctioneer rolls the dice, the opponent makes a bid only once or passes. When the bid is made, the auctioneer chooses to sell or buy. If the player passes, the auctioneer chooses to buy for any price as desired or to pass. If the opponent reneges, they are regarded as having passed. The other rules are the same as for a 3-to-4-player game.
Selling
Only when you receive fish in the auction can you sell the fish from your warehouses to fulfill the demand of the restaurants.
Once you sell (decrease) the fish from your warehouses, choose 1 employee cube from your supply (either on or near the warehouses) to put on an empty space (at the highest price) of the restaurant card. At the end of the game, the amount of money shown on that space will be paid.
- You can sell to two or more restaurants at the same time, but you can sell to each restaurant only once.
- If you gain fish from an auction payment, you may sell immediately after the winner has had a chance to sell.
- If a warehouse runs out of fish, you can put the employee cube away and use it for the next purchase.
- When you place an employee cube directly from the warehouse into a restaurant, any remaining fish stored at that warehouse are thrown away.
- You can always bring an employee back from a restaurant. Once you have done so, the other cubes on that restaurant are moved to the spaces with a higher price. Moreover, you must pay the same combination of fish again if you want to put a cube back into the same restaurant.
Hint: If you sell fish to a restaurant, you "lose" an employee; that is, as the game progresses, you will be unable to sell to restaurants which demand too many kinds of fish! The problem of which restaurants you should sell to first and which ones last is worth considering throughout the game.
Additional Employee
During the game, you can employ the fourth employee cube at any time for 10,000 yen. Payment can be made by money cards and/or fish. Any money cards paid are removed from the game and any fish are just thrown away.
End of the Game
The game ends at the end of the day when a predetermined number of cubes are placed on the restaurants: 6 cubes for 4 players, 5 cubes for 3 players, and 4 cubes for 2 players.
Each player sums up 1) the total amount of money cards in hand, 2) the total amount of fish stored in their warehouses, and 3) the price shown on the restaurants with their cubes. The player with the highest total value of money wins the game. If tied, they share the victory.