The South Seas edition of Carcassonne is part of a new series “Around the World” – allowing players to further discover the world and introduce new elements to the gameplay. In this new world there are clear blue waters flowing around many islands all connected by a network of bridges. Those inhabiting these islands collect local produce produced by nature – fish from the sea, bananas from the trees and shells from nearby bridges. Merchant ships regularly dock at the islands in search of new cargo, where they handsomely reward those that have supplies that they require.
One of the biggest differences to the original game is instead of scoring points when you complete an item of the game – bridge, island, sea region or market is you gain the products on those tiles:
- On the islands you gather bananas to the exact number of banana images shown on your completed island tiles
- In the Seas you catch fish to the exact number of fish images shown within your completed sea region
- From bridges you gather shells to the exact number of shell images shown within your completed bridge
- From markets once built you can gain ships. This works just like monasteries in the original edition, where you need 8 tiles to surround the market tile to score points. However these points are not scored immediately instead you are given ship tokens. In this case only without having to pay for the products shown on it.
For each turn you are collecting your local produce and then you can decide whether to deliver them to a ship. Each ship has a value in points, which are scored by collecting the different products shown on the ship card. Whoever achieves this wins the ship.
The game finishes once all the land tiles have been exhausted or all the ships have been supplied. The winner is then who has scored the most points and is crowned King of the South Seas. It is for 2 to 5 players, ages 8 and upwards, where the averaging playing time is 35 mins.
Liking the sounds of this new challenge to Carcassonne? Available to pre-order here
For the latest board game news and releases follow us on Twitter and or Facebook. Plus you can subscribe to receive our latest blogs via RSS feeds.
Like our blogs? Please Retweet, Like or G+