Components

• 1 Whale token Bag
• 1 Town Board
• 1 Whaling Board
• 2 workers in each color
• 2 ships in each color, with white and black sails
• 4 Player Boards, 1 for each color
• Ships wheel (Starting Player) token
• Anchor (Round Marker) token
• 4 Sperm Whale Tokens
• 20 Bowhead Whale Tokens
• 36 Right Whale Tokens
• 16 Empty Sea Tokens
• 20 Building Tiles
• 30 $1Coins
• 20 $5 Coins
• 25 wood tokens
• 30 food tokens
• 20 brick tokens
• Scoring Sheets
• Rulebook

Food, Wood, Bricks, and Money are unlimited. If more pieces are needed, improvise using whatever.

Setup

For each player, add 5 Bowhead Whales, 9 Right Whales, 4 Empty Sea, and 1 Sperm Whale to the canvas whaling bag.

Place the Town Board, Whaling Board, goods and money in the middle of the play area.

Gather the buildings with the number of players shown on the back and all of the bonus buildings. Place the buildings next to the town board.

Players select a color and receive the two workers of that color, the player board for that color (See Player Board: p13) and the two ships depicted on the board, with base in the color and a black or white sail. Ships and workers are kept on the player board when they are not in use.

In turn order, each player also takes $5 worth of goods and resources from the general supply to begin the game with. (Example: 1 brick, 2 food, and $1).

Game Play

In New Bedford, the goal is to accumulate the most points from whale tokens, buildings, and money over 12 rounds. Each round is divided into 4 phases:

Each round starts with an Action Phase, placing workers on action spaces and immediately taking the actions. Building buildings provides more action spaces.

When all players have placed their workers, the Movement Phase begins. Ships move toward the return space. Players pay to receive whales on returning ships or must sell them.

When all ships have finished moving and returning, the Whaling Phase begins. Whale tiles are drawn, and players add them to ships, starting with the ships farthest out.

Once all ships have had a chance to select whales the round ends. In the End of Round Phase, workers return and the first player and round markers advance.

Action Phase

In clockwise order, players place workers, one at a time, on action spaces, until all players have placed both workers. All town spaces and most buildings are actions. Actions are resolved immediately.

When a worker is placed, the player may also make exactly one purchase of either 2 wood or 2 food for $3, before completing the selected action. A reminder of this is shown on the Player Board.

Initially, only actions on the town board and whaling board are available. These actions can be used multiple times each round, with the first player to place a worker on these spaces receiving a bonus.

The buildings make more actions available after they are built. Unlike actions on the town and whaling boards, a building may only be used once per round. The owner may use it for free, but any other player may use it by paying the owner $1.

A player cannot take an action he is unable to perform.

Town Board

Town action spaces are always available and can be used multiple times per round, even by the same player. Every player who uses the space takes the normal action next to the plain worker symbol.

The first player to place a worker on any empty town action also takes the bonus action, shown next to the worker symbol with a 1 on it. The Town action spaces are as follows:

Farm: Add 2 food to your personal supply. The bonus is to receive 1 extra food

Forest: Add 2 wood to your personal supply. The bonus is to receive 1 extra wood

Warehouse: Add 1 brick to your personal supply. The bonus is to receive either 1 extra brick, 1 food or 1 wood.

General Store: Sell goods and take $1 for each or food sold, and $2 for each brick. The bonus is to receive $1 extra in total. The selling price for each good is shown on the Player board.

Town Hall: Build a building, by returning its cost to the supply and placing the building on the player's corner of the board. The bonus is to pay 1 less brick, food, or wood resource. See Buildings. When using the bonus, the player selects which resource he will pay 1 less of.

Buildings

To build a building, the player pays the cost to the general supply from his personal supply, and places the building on his corner of the town board, aligned with the steps around the edge.

The back of the buildings shows the number of players needed to include it in the game. The 3+ buildings are used only in games with 3 or 4 players. The remaining buildings are used in all games.

The player who builds the building is considered the owner. A player may own any number of buildings.

There are two types of buildings. Light colored buildings provide new action spaces, when they are built. Unlike town actions, building actions can only be used once per round, and give no other bonus.

Dark colored buildings are bonus buildings that are worth points at the end of the game. Bonus buildings do not contain an action space.

Buildings with action spaces are marked with the worker symbol. Buildings without the worker symbol have no action. Italicized text indicates effects that apply to the owner without taking an action.

The owner of a building can use its action space for free. Other players can use the building's action space, but must pay the owner $1 before using it.

2+ Buildings: All Games

• Merchant's Bank, 4 brick: Take $5

• Dry dock, 2 brick, 2 wood: Dock and launch a ship for 2 wood, plus the full food cost. This combines the Dockyard and Dock actions.

• Clark's Point Light, 2 Wood, 4 Brick: Move a ship 1 space farther out the whaling track, and into the 1st position on the new space. Other ships retain their relative order.

• Lumber Mill, 3 wood, 1 brick: Sell wood only, but take $2 for each wood sold instead of $1

• Schoolhouse 2 food, 2 wood, 1 brick: Take 2 wood and 2 food. This combines the Forest and Farm actions without the bonus from either.

• Tavern, 3 food, 2 brick: Remove 1 or 2 empty sea tokens that were drawn in the previous whaling phase, and take $4 or $6, respectively. These empty sea tokens are removed from the game.

• Tryworks, 2 Brick, $1: When occupied, each of your ships may return up to 3 Right Whales for free.

• Wharf, 3 food, 2 wood, 1 brick: Launch a ship for half of the normal food cost, rounded up.

3+ Buildings: 3 and 4 Player Games

• Roller Mills, 1 food, 2 brick: Take 4 food Brickyard, 4 Brick: Take 3 Brick

• Cooperage, 4 wood: Take $1 for each whale token on one of your ships.

• Courthouse, 1 brick, 5 wood: Build a building, paying 2 fewer resources. The resources can be different.

• Inn, 2 food, 2 Brick: After all players have taken their actions, but before the movement phase, the player picks up his pieces and places them on any two town board or whaling board action spaces. He may not use building actions. Other players' pieces remain in place.

• Market, 3 Wood, 3 Brick: Sell goods. Take double the cost of the first good of each type sold.. All of these can be earned in the same action.

• Post Office, 2 wood, 1 brick: The owner takes $2 during each end of round phase. Use the action to move the building to your corner of the board, becoming the owner. The building cost does not need to be paid when using the action.

• Chandlery, 2 food, 2 wood, 1 brick: Take $1, 1 food, 1 wood, 1 brick

Bonus Buildings: All Games

• Seamen's Bethel, 5 wood, 5 brick: Earns 5 bonus points.

• Bourne Counting House, 3 brick: Earns 1 bonus point for every 2 Right Whales.

• Municipal Building, 4 food, 4 brick: Earns 1 bonus point for each 2 buildings owned.

• Mansion, $10, 4 wood: Earns 4 Bonus points

Whaling Board

The whaling board contains the dock, the whaling track, the round track, and two additional action spaces which can be used multiple times per round, like town actions.

• Shipyard: Pay 2 wood to prepare 1 ship, placing an available ship on the dock. The bonus is to pay 1 wood less. Ships on the dock can be launched later by using the Dockyard action.

• City Pier: Launch a prepared ship from the dock. By moving it to any space marked with a food cost, and pay the number of food shown. The bonus is to pay 1 food less.

Players may only ever prepare and launch their own ships, and ships can only be launched to spaces with a food cost shown.

Spaces on the Whaling Track are labeled 1st, 2nd and 3rd to track the order in which ships arrive at the space. This order is important for returning ships and selecting whales.

No more than 3 ships can ever be on a space. Players may not take actions that would result in a fourth ship on the space.

Movement Phase

In the movement phase, all ships move up the whaling track toward the Return space. Starting with the ships closest to shore, each ship moves one space closer to shore.

Any ships moving into the Return space return to port in the same order as they selected whales in previous rounds.

Returning a Ship

Each whale token shows a cost, called the "lay", in the upper left. When a player's ship reaches the Return space on the whaling board, the lay must be paid to receive the whale tokens on that ship.

Each token for which the lay has been paid earns the number of points shown in the barrel in the upper right.

• Right Whale tokens are worth 1 point, and cost $2. Bowhead Whale tokens are worth 2 points, and cost $4.

• Sperm Whale tokens are worth 4 points, and cost $8.

• Empty Sea tokens have no value and no purchase price, since they cannot be selected.

A player who has taken the Tryworks action can keep up to a total of 3 Right Whales in that round without paying for them.

Any tokens that the player cannot or chooses not to pay for must be sold.

Selling and Buying Whale Tokens

When selling whale tokens, the seller first takes half of the cost of each sold token from the supply. This money can immediately be used for other whales on the same or another ship.

Next, in clockwise order from the seller, each other player can buy one of the sold tokens or pass. The other players take turns either buying or passing, until all of the sold tokens are bought, or all players pass. The selling player may not re- purchase whales he has sold

A buyer pays the full cost of each token to the general supply, and adds the whale to his personal supply, to be scored. Tokens that are not bought by any player are removed from the game.

After all of the whales are taken from a returning ship, the ship piece is returned to the player. Each ship's return, including buying and selling, is performed 1 ship at a time, in order of return, and must be completed before returning the next ship.

Whaling Phase

After all ships move, the whaling phase begins. Whaling is the primary means of earning points in the game.

At the start of the whaling phase, any whaling tokens on the board are returned to the ocean bag. Next, if there is at least one ship on the whaling track, draw 1 token from the bag, followed by an additional token for each ship on the whaling track. No tokens are drawn when there are no ships whaling.

Empty sea tokens might be drawn in addition to the whale tokens. Empty sea tokens cannot be selected or added to a ship. Empty sea tokens can only be removed from the game by using the Tavern building action.

After the correct number of tokens is drawn, tokens are selected by players in order of position on the whaling track. Ships farther from the return space select first. Ships on the same space select in the order of arrival.

The owner of each ship can select a whale from the drawn tokens and place it next to the matching ship on the player board. Players are not required to select a whale token for a ship.

Any whale tokens or empty sea tokens that are not selected during the whaling phase remain out until the start of the next whaling phase.

Since valuable whale tokens are taken but empty sea tokens are returned to the bag, the selection of whales will get worse as the game progresses.

Player Board

Each player has a board to track whale tokens and goods. All information is public, and players may not hide resources, money, or whale tokens.

Workers and ships should remain on the player board when not in use.

Goods should be stored in the upper left portion of the player board. Whale tokens that have been returned should be placed in the lower left. The distribution of whale tokens is listed in the whale token area.

Each player has a ship with a white sail and a ship with a black sail. The right side of the player board is used to track whale tokens on each ship.

Whales selected by the ship with the white sail are placed next to the matching ship symbol on the top half of the board, and whales selected by the ship with the black sail are placed next to the matching ship symbol on the bottom half of the board.

Whales in the holds of ships earn no points until the ship returns and the lay has been paid.

End of Round Phase

After all players have selected whales, the end of round phase occurs. The first player marker moves one player to the left, the round marker moves one space along the round track, and players take their workers back.

The owner of the Post Office also takes $2 in this phase.

End of the Game

The game ends after the 12th round.

Before scoring, the movement phase is repeated until all ships return, so that whales remaining on ships can be obtained.

Ships that did not return during the movement phase of the final round still select whale tokens during the whaling phase of round 12.

The player with the highest score wins.

In case of a tie, tie breakers are, in order, the player with the most whale tokens and the most money. If it remains tied after this, players should mutually enjoy their shared success.

Continue Reading