A free hex island trading game for 3 or 4 players
Collect wood, brick, grain, wool and ore from the hexes your stalls touch. Trade with the bank, at the jetties and with other players. Build roads and inns, and race to 10 points. Play alone against bots, or send a link to your friends. You do not need an account.
Fair stones, checked after the game
Before the game, you see a fingerprint of its secret seed. After the game, you see the seed itself, so you can check every throw of the stones. Verify a game.
How to play
The island is 18 hexes in five columns, in the sea, with 5 jetties on the coast. Woods give Wood, the Clay pit gives Brick, Fields give Grain, the Meadow gives Wool, and the Mine gives Ore. Each hex has a number from 2 to 12; the dots under it show how often the two stones make it.
Setting up
Stalls stand on corners, where hexes meet. Roads run along the sides of the hexes. The seed picks who starts. From that player, each player places a stall and a road beside it, in turn, and then a second stall and road in the opposite order; the same player takes the first turn of the game. Your second stall gives you one good from each hex around it. A stall always needs one empty corner between it and any other building.
Your turn
- Throw the two fortune stones (each shows 1 to 6). Every region with their sum gives its good: 1 for each stall on its corners, 2 for each inn.
- Trade. Offer goods to one or more players (they accept or decline), or trade 4 of one good to the bank for 1 of any other. With a building at a jetty, the bank takes 2 of that jetty's good.
- Build what you can pay for, then pass the stones to the next player.
What things cost
| Build | Cost | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Road | 1 Wood, 1 Brick | joins your network; roads carry your stalls further |
| Stall | 1 Wood, 1 Brick, 1 Grain, 1 Wool | 1 point; gives 1 good |
| Inn | 2 Grain, 3 Ore | replaces a stall: 2 points; gives 2 goods |
| Tale | 1 Grain, 1 Wool, 1 Ore | a card from the tale deck |
The Tollman
On a 7, nothing is given. Every player with 8 or more goods hands back half of them, rounded down. Then the player who threw sends the Tollman to a hex: it gives nothing while he stands there, and the player takes one good at random from someone with a building on it.
Tales
- Night watch
- Send the Tollman to a hex, and take a good from a player there.
- Road crew
- Build two roads for free.
- Market day
- Take any two goods from the bank.
- Rumor
- Name a good. Every other player gives you all of that good they hold.
- Renown
- One point. Keep it hidden until the end.
The deck holds 25 tales: 14 Night watches, 5 Renown, and 2 each of Road crew, Market day and Rumor. You may play one tale a turn, but not one you bought this turn.
Points and the end
- A stall is 1 point, an inn 2, a Renown tale 1.
- Longest road: 2 points for the longest chain of your roads with no gap, if it has 5 roads or more.
- Town watch: 2 points for the most Night watches played, at least 3.
- The game ends the moment a player, in their own turn, holds 10 points, and that player wins. If nobody has done so after 30 turns each, the most points wins.
At the online table
- Your pieces wait on your side of the table. Pick one up (tap it), and the places where it may stand show a ring: tap a ring, then set it down. Or drag the piece straight onto a ring.
- To trade, tap your piles of goods to put them on the mat, and tap what you ask for. Offer it to the players, or give 4 of one good to the bank for 1 of another.
- While another player has the turn, you can plan ahead: pick up a piece and tap a dashed ring, or lay out a trade on the mat. Nothing is played until your turn; then one tap sets your plan down.
- Tap the tray to throw the stones (on a keyboard, press R). Drag the board to move it, pinch or use the zoom button to zoom.
- “All my moves” lists every move in words, so you can play with a keyboard or a screen reader.
- Every hex, jetty, tale and throw comes from a secret seed. You see its fingerprint at the start and the seed at the end. Verify a game.
Playing online for the first time?
Our guide compares the ways to play online, with steps for each. Read the guide to playing online.