Cook Islands Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Object of the Game
• Contents
• Setup
• Course of the Game
  • 1. Placing a Sea Tile on the Board
  • 2. Using Action Points
  • 3. Drawing a Sea Tile
• End of the Game
• Sample Scoring

Object of the Game

During the game, the players take on the roles of the participants in James Cook's second expedition. Heading for the previously unexplored eastern waters of the Pacific Ocean, the expedition discovers many islands that were unknown until then.

Each turn, the players place sea tiles on the board, enlarging the area on which ships can sail and, at the same time, determining how many spaces an explorer's ship will be able to move. The players try to reach the islands on the horizon as quickly as possible, in order to earn points for building their villages on them, while collecting along the way the treasures found in sunken wrecks. The player with the most points wins!

Contents

• 1 board
• 69 sea tiles
• 7 starting island tiles for a two-player game
• 7 starting island tiles for a three- and four-player game
• 16 treasure tokens
• 1 first player marker
• 1 pirate ship
• 8 explorer ships in 4 player colours (2 per player)
• 48 villages in 4 player colours (12 per player)

Setup

A. Lay out the board.

B. Prepare the appropriate set of 7 starting island tiles (with the blue back), depending on the number of players:

• in a two-player game, use only the tiles that have the two-player symbol printed in the bottom right corner;
• for a three- and four-player game, use the tiles that do not have this symbol.

Place the appropriately selected tiles face down (back side up), at random, on any spaces on the board, following these rules:

• starting island tiles may not be placed in the first row of the board;
• no more than one starting island tile may be placed in any one column.

C. Thoroughly shuffle the sea tiles (with the brown back) and make face-down (back side up) stacks of similar height from them.

D. Next, shuffle the treasure tokens and place them face down on an open space to the left of the board.

E. Place the pirate ship on the island at the bottom of the board, in the Pirate Hideout.

F. Each player receives 2 ships and 12 villages in the colour of their choice. Place the ships in the harbour at the top of the board. From the harbour a ship may sail into any column on the board, so it does not matter where in the harbour you initially place your ships.

G. Each player then takes 3 sea tiles from the top of any of the stacks, without showing them to the other players. Each player checks their tiles: if any of them is a tile showing an island or a sea obstacle (rocks), it must be shuffled back into the stack of tiles and a new one drawn.

H. The player who last sailed a ship – or a randomly chosen player – receives the first player marker.

[Setup diagram on page 3 of the source shows the placement of the starting island tiles, the board and the stacks; the diagram is not reproduced here.]

Course of the Game

Starting with the first player, players take their turns in clockwise order. Each turn consists of three phases:

• placing a sea tile on the board;
• using the action points obtained in this way;
• drawing a sea tile from a face-down stack, so as to again have 3 tiles in hand.

Note! The course of play described below applies to the three- and four-player game. In the two-player game there is a small modification, described on page 7 (see "Two-Player Game" below).

1. Placing a Sea Tile on the Board

At the start of their turn, the player chooses 1 of the 3 sea tiles held in hand and places it on the board. Each sea tile has, in its top left corner, a number that specifies the column in which it must be placed. The tile must go on the first free space – counting from the top – in the specified column. If that column is already completely filled, such a tile may be treated as a tile with any number (a joker) and placed in any column.

Similarly, sea tiles with a question mark printed in place of the number may also be placed on the first free space from the top, in any column.

If a player places a sea tile showing a sunken wreck on the board, they immediately place face down (without looking!) one of the treasure tokens kept beside the board onto it.

On each sea tile, besides the number assigning it to a specific column, there are action symbols, which determine how many actions the active player may carry out in this turn, and special action symbols.

The number of action symbols on a sea tile corresponds to the number of actions the player will have to use (at most 4). Moreover, placing a tile in a column next to a tile with the same number of action symbols directly above it gives the player an additional action point. If the tile above that one also has the same number of symbols, a further action point is gained, and so on.

Example: Adam placed a sea tile with 3 sail symbols. He thus gained as many as 5 action points, because directly above this tile there were two tiles with the same number of symbols.

Example: Tomek placed a sea tile with 3 sail symbols. However, directly above this tile there is a tile with an island, separating the newly placed tile from the previously placed tile with 3 sail symbols. Tomek therefore has only 3 action points to use.

Special actions:

Some sea tiles show special action symbols, which activate at the moment the tile is laid on the board. Immediately after placing such a tile, the player must carry out the corresponding special action:

• Expedition – the player draws an additional sea tile from a face-down stack and immediately places it on the board in the appropriate column. The player gains additional action points equal to the number of sail symbols on the newly placed tile. If the tile placed as a result of the Expedition special action again shows special action symbols, those are ignored.
• Unfavourable Wind – the player moves one of each opponent's ships onto a space adjacent vertically or horizontally, in a direction of their choice.
• Pirate Ambush – the player moves the pirate ship to any space of their choice.

2. Using Action Points

The player may use the action points gained in the phase of placing a sea tile on the board for the following actions:

• A. moving a ship;
• B. retrieving a treasure;
• C. building a village.

Unused action points are lost.

A. Moving a Ship

When moving your ships across the board, the following rules must be observed:

• When leaving the harbour, the player may enter any one of the nine available columns.
• Moving a ship onto an adjacent tile vertically or horizontally costs one action point.
• A ship may not move diagonally, nor through empty spaces on the board (without a sea tile placed on them). The first space in each column is available from the start of the game (no sea tile is placed on it).
• The player may divide action points between their two ships in any combination.
• More than one ship may be on a single sea tile.

Sometimes Luck, Sometimes Misfortune

On their journey across the Pacific Ocean, the players may encounter various obstacles that make it harder to reach their chosen destination. Sometimes, however, luck smiles on them and they meet favourable winds or reach an undiscovered island before the others.

• Storm on the horizon – an experienced sailor will easily recognise an approaching storm and will do everything to escape it. When entering a tile with the storm symbol, the player gains one additional action point to escape the approaching danger!
• Fog – entering a tile with the fog symbol ends the movement of that ship for this turn. If the player has any action points left, they may spend them by moving their other ship.
• Sea obstacles (rocks) – stretches of ocean hide plenty of dangers in the form of rocks! Players' ships may not sail through them and must make a detour in order to continue their journey.
• Undiscovered islands – if a ship is on a tile adjacent along one of its sides to a face-down island tile, that island is revealed without spending an action point.
• Pirate ship – if a player's ship is on the same tile as the pirate ship, leaving it will cost an additional action point. If, however, the player has a treasure token showing gold among their resources, they may use it to bribe the pirates and move the pirate ship to any tile according to the rules described below (see: Retrieving a Treasure). The player may then freely move onto an adjacent tile, spending one action point.

Example: Tatiana's ship is on the same tile as the pirate ship. Tatiana placed a sea tile with 3 sail symbols, which gives her 3 actions. However, to move her ship standing on the tile with the pirate ship she must spend as many as 2 actions. She uses her last action to move her second ship onto an adjacent tile.

• Supply Route – a player who has built more than one village may move between the islands on which they stand in a single move, at the cost of one action point.

B. Retrieving a Treasure

When, during their voyage, a player comes across a tile with a sunken wreck on which there is a treasure token, they may retrieve it for one action point. A player may retrieve a treasure only if one of their ships is on the same tile as the treasure token. After retrieving a treasure, the player looks at its contents in secret from the other players and then keeps it face down among their resources. A treasure token may be used in one of the later turns. No new token is placed on the wreck from which a treasure was retrieved; it remains empty until the end of the game.

There are three kinds of treasure in the game:

• Discovery points – at the end of the game, these treasure tokens give the player additional victory points equal to the value shown on the token.
• Gold – gold treasure tokens may be used to bribe the pirates. At any moment during their turn, a player may discard this token in order to move the pirate ship to any sea tile on the board. Unused Gold tokens are worth one point at the end of the game.
• Wind in the Sails – thanks to a token with favourable wind, the player has additional action points to use. The number of action points available is determined by the number of sail symbols shown on the token. After using a Wind in the Sails treasure token, it must be discarded onto a separate pile.

Remember! During their turn, a player may use only one Gold token or one Wind in the Sails token. Discovery tokens remain face down among the players' resources until the end of the game.

C. Building a Village

If during a player's turn their ship enters a tile with an uncovered island on which there are still free spaces, they may build a village on it, provided they have a sufficient number of action points available. On each island, the smallest number, marked in red, specifies how many action points must be spent to build a village there. A village is placed on the highest-scoring free space. This means that although every player building a village on a given island must spend the same number of action points on it, the player who reaches the island earlier will take a better, higher-scoring space for the end of the game.

Each player may place only one of their villages on each island. Of course, not every island tile will have room for every player's village, so it is better to hurry! Particularly bold travellers may even aim to place a village on an island occupied by the pirates, thereby earning a substantial number of points!

Additionally, some islands are richer in a particular kind of fruit than others. Island tiles with these islands show a fruit symbol (banana, dragon fruit, coconut). Building villages on islands where the same kind of fruit grows will bring additional points at the end of the game.

3. Drawing a Sea Tile

After using their action points, the player draws a sea tile from one of the face-down stacks, so as to again have 3 sea tiles in hand. If the player draws a tile with an island or a sea obstacle, they must immediately place it on the board, on the first free space from the top in the appropriate column (see: Placing a Sea Tile on the Board). In exchange, they draw another tile from a stack, so as to finally have 3 sea tiles in hand. The turn then passes to the next player.

Two-Player Game

In the two-player game, after using their action points, the player first draws one sea tile from a stack and places it on the board in the appropriate column, and only then draws a tile into their hand. Action points and special actions on the tile placed in this way must be ignored.

End of the Game

The game ends at the moment all 6 columns on the board are completely filled, in any combination. The player who placed the last tile in the sixth column may finish their move. Then the players to the right of the first player also take their turns, so that every player has taken the same number of turns. Then the points gained are counted:

1. Points for villages on islands with specific fruit

• for a village on 1 island on which a given fruit grows – 1 point;
• for villages on 2 islands on which the same fruit grows – 3 points;
• for villages on 3 islands on which the same fruit grows – 6 points.

2. Points for villages Remove your villages from the board one by one, adding up the points shown beneath them.

3. Points for collected treasure tokens If, at the end of the game, you have treasure tokens among your resources that have a printed number of points, add those points to your score. Unused Gold tokens are worth one point. Unused Wind in the Sails tokens give no points at the end of the game.

The player who has gained the most points wins the game. In the event of a tie, share the well-deserved victory.

Sample Scoring

1. Paulina, playing the red pieces, begins adding up her points. She checks whether her villages stand on any islands with fruit.

   A. She has villages on 2 islands with bananas, which gives her 3 points.

   B. She also has villages on as many as 3 islands with coconuts, so she gains 6 points.

   C. She also has 2 more villages on islands without fruit – she will count the points for those in the next step.

2. She lifts her pieces one by one and counts the points gained: for her villages Paulina thus gains 31 points in total (9 for building villages on islands with fruit and 22 for the places taken on the islands).

3. In addition, she has 2 Discovery Points tokens, worth 5 points in total, and 1 unused Gold token worth 1 extra point. She therefore ends the game with 37 points!