How to play Hearthsea

The goal

Two to six players settle the same island. Each of you builds roads, settlements and cities, collects resources when the dice hit your terrain, and trades for what you’re missing. Points come from what you build and from a few special cards and titles.

The first player to reach 10 victory points on their own turn wins a Classic game. Seafarers is played to 13.

The island and its resources

The board is made of hexes. Each land hex is a terrain that produces one resource, and each carries a number token from 2 to 12 (the desert has none). Settlements and cities sit on the corners where hexes meet, and roads run along the edges between corners.

Some numbers come up far more than others. Two dice make 7 most often, then 6 and 8, then 5 and 9, and so on out to 2 and 12, which each turn up once in 36 rolls on average. The dots under each number token show how likely it is.

Setting up

Before the first roll, everyone places two settlements and two roads in a snake order:

1. Going around the table, each player places one settlement on an empty corner and one road touching it.
2. Then, in reverse order (the last player goes first), each player places a second settlement and road.
3. Your second settlement collects its starting resources straight away: one card for each land hex it touches.

The distance rule applies from the start (see Building), and the robber begins on the desert.

Your turn

Turns pass clockwise. Each one has three parts, always in this order:

1. Roll. Roll both dice. Every hex showing that number produces: each settlement on one of its corners collects 1 of its resource, and each city collects 2. This applies to every player, not only the one who rolled. A hex with the robber on it produces nothing.
2. Trade. Trade with other players or with the bank. See Trading.
3. Build. Spend resources on anything you can afford, as many times as you can afford it. You may also play one development card.

When you’re finished, end your turn and the dice pass to the next player.

Rolling a 7

A 7 produces nothing. Instead, three things happen in order:

1. Every player holding more than 7 resource cards discards half of them, rounded down. With 9 cards you discard 4.
2. The player who rolled moves the robber to any other land hex. That hex stops producing until the robber moves again.
3. That player steals 1 random resource card from one opponent who has a settlement or city on a corner of the robber’s new hex.

Building

Resources go back to the bank when you spend them.

Where you can build

A road goes on an empty edge connected to one of your roads, settlements or cities. A settlement goes on an empty corner that touches one of your roads, and it must obey the distance rule. A city can only be built by upgrading one of your own settlements.

You have a limited supply: 15 roads, 5 settlements and 4 cities (and 15 ships in Seafarers). When a settlement becomes a city, that settlement goes back into your supply.

Trading

On your turn, after rolling, you can trade in two ways.

With other players

Offer any mix of your cards for any mix of theirs. They can accept, refuse or counter. Players can only trade with whoever’s turn it is, never directly with each other.

With the bank

Trade 4 of one resource for 1 of any other. If you have a settlement or city on a harbor, you get a better rate:

• A 3:1 harbor lets you trade 3 of any one resource for 1 of any other.
• A 2:1 harbor names a resource. You trade 2 of that resource for 1 of any other.

Development cards

The deck holds 25 cards, shuffled face down. You can play one development card per turn, at any time during your turn, but never on the same turn you bought it. A knight may be played before you roll.

Knight 14 cards

Move the robber and steal one card, exactly as after a 7, but nobody discards. Played knights stay face up in front of you and count toward largest army.

Victory point 5 cards

Worth 1 point. Keep it hidden. It counts the moment it would win you the game, even on the turn you bought it.

Road building 2 cards

Place 2 roads for free. In Seafarers they can be ships, or one of each.

Year of plenty 2 cards

Take any 2 resources from the bank.

Monopoly 2 cards

Name a resource. Every other player hands you all of theirs.

Longest road

The first player to build an unbroken road of at least 5 segments takes the Longest Road title, worth 2 points. Branches don’t count; only the longest single path does. If someone builds a longer road, the title and its 2 points move to them. An opponent’s settlement built in the middle of your road breaks it in two.

Largest army

The first player to have played 3 knights takes the Largest Army title, worth 2 points. Anyone who later has more knights played than the current holder takes it over.

Seafarers: ships and isles

Seafarers uses every Classic rule, plus the ones below.

Building ships

A ship costs Wood Wool and goes on a sea edge: between two sea hexes, or along a coast. It must connect to one of your settlements or cities, or to the end of one of your ships. A chain of ships works like a road at sea, and a settlement can be founded on any coastal corner it reaches.

Moving ships

Once per turn you may move one ship. It must be the last ship of an open route, one whose far end doesn’t finish at your settlement or city. You can’t move a ship you built this turn, or one on an edge of the pirate’s hex. Picking it up and placing it elsewhere must still follow the normal ship rules.

New isles

The first time you build a settlement on a new island, you earn 2 bonus points on top of the settlement’s own point. On New Shores that means each outer isle; on Four Islands, each island other than the one or two you started on. Every player can earn this bonus once per island.

Fog

On the Fog Islands map, part of the sea is hidden. When you place a road or ship next to a fogged hex, it’s revealed. If it turns out to be land, it gets a number, and you take one card of whatever it produces. Open sea gives nothing.

Five and six players

With five or six players the island grows a wider frame of land and harbors, the bank holds 24 of each resource, and the development deck grows to 34 cards with more knights. Turns are shared: after a player finishes their turn, the player three seats to their left takes a short extra turn to build. During that extra turn they may trade with the bank and harbors but not with other players, and they may play one development card.

Table settings

Before a game you can change:

• Points to win. Set it too high and the board can run out of room before anyone gets there, so the game warns you.
• Discard limit. On a 7, anyone holding more cards than this discards half. The standard limit is 7.
• Friendly robber. The robber and pirate can’t be sent against a player with two points or fewer.
• Balanced dice. Rolls are drawn from a shuffled set of all 36 combinations, so totals come up close to their true odds over a game.

Winning

Points come from:

• Settlements, 1 each, and cities, 2 each
• Victory point cards, 1 each
• Longest Road (or longest trade route) and Largest Army, 2 each
• In Seafarers, 2 for your first settlement on each new island

The game ends the moment a player reaches the target during their own turn: 10 points in Classic, and in Seafarers 14 on New Shores, 13 on Four Islands and 12 on Fog Islands. You can change the target before a game. If you reach the target on someone else’s turn, you win once your own turn comes around and you still have it.