We will explain the actions by column, as they appear on the Action board.


+1 Gold

When you take this action, take 1 gold from the general sup- ply and place it in your personal supply.

Note: Every Work Phase, this action space may be occupied by at most one Worker.



Transfer Reserve

In the Fishing Phase, some of the newly caught fish may end up on the "Reserve" space located at the top left of your Harbor board. Some Buildings may allow you to place other goods than fish in your Reserve. When you take this action, move all goods from the Reserve space into your personal supply.

Notes:
  • Every Work Phase, this action space may be occupied by at most one Worker.
  • You may not take the action if your Reserve space is empty.
  • When you take the action, you must empty your entire Reserve-you may not leave any goods on the space. Observe the 12 wood limit on the "Personal Supply" board.

Example: There are 3 fish and 2 wood in your Reserve and 11 wood in your personal supply already. Therefore, move all the fish and 1 wood from your Reserve into your personal supply and return the remaining 1 wood to the general supply.



Serve Fish

When you take this action, you must place fish on the empty plates of the Banquet Table. You may serve as many plates as you like (but at least one)-in numerical order-starting with the smallest empty plate.

The numbers on the plates show how much fish you must spend, placing exactly 1 fish (of those spent) on the plate and returning the rest (of those spent) to the general supply. Then take 1 gold for each newly served plate from the general supply and place it in your personal supply.

Notes:
  • Every Work Phase, this action space may be occupied by at most one Worker.
  • You may not take the action if all plates contain fish already or if you do not have enough fish to serve at least one plate.
  • Fish on the Banquet Table is used to take Elder actions.

Example: There are fish on two plates already. You decide to fill another three plates, which costs you 3+3+4=10 fish. In return, you get 3 gold from the general supply.


Limited Components

Fish, wood, gold, and Forests are supposed to be in unlimited supply. Please improvise if you run out or use the provided multiplication markers (for fish and wood). Everything else is limited on purpose.


Build a Building

When you take this action, build exactly one Building from the display (located on or next to a supply board) or (from Round 4 on) from your hand. Pay the Building cost (wood, fish, gold) shown on the left side of the Building card and place the Building on a free Building space of your Harbor board.

Many Buildings are worth Victory Points and help you develop your fishing company.

  • "A" Buildings have very useful effects but they do not provide a lot of Victory Points (some are even worth negative points).
  • "B" Buildings are usually more expensive but also useful.
  • "C" Buildings are not available until Round 4, which is when you will get a few into your hands.
    Until Round 6, only you can build the Buildings in your hand. They can be worth a lot of Victory Points if you meet their conditions at the end of the game.


Notes:
  • In 2-player games, there are two such action spaces. Every Work Phase, they each may be occupied by at most one Worker. In 3-, 4-, and 5-player games, there is only one such action space, which may be occupied by at most three Workers.
  • You may not take this action if you cannot afford a Building or if you do not have any free Building spaces left on your Harbor board. You may not build on spaces containing a Forest or another Building.
  • Once placed, you may not move or remove a Building from your Harbor board.

Example: The Fish Stand costs 1 wood to build. In this example, you could place it on any of the marked spaces.


Issue a Share

When you take this action, take exactly one Unissued Share that is next to your "Personal Supply" board and turn it to the "Share" side in your color. Place this Share on the "newly issued shares" space of the Action board, located below the "Issue a Share" action space. Then take 2 gold from the general supply and place it in your personal supply.

Notes:
  • In 2-player games, every Work Phase, this action space may be occupied by at most one Worker. In 3-, 4-, and 5-player games, it may be occupied by at most two Workers.
  • You can take this action at most three times during the course of the game, because you only have three Unissued Shares at the start. Once a Share is issued, it remains issued until the end of the game.
  • There is no limit to the number of Shares on the Action board (regardless of color).
  • Note that, during the Fishing Phase, you must place fish on your Shares on the Action board.


Buy All Shares

When you take this action, take all Shares (regardless of color) from the "newly issued shares" space on the Action board, located above the "Buy All Shares" action space, and place them next to your "Personal Supply" board.

To do so, you must pay 1 gold for each Share on the Action board. In Rounds 4 and 5, the total cost is reduced by 1 gold. In Rounds 6 and 7, the total cost is reduced by 2 gold (instead of 1 gold).

Note:
  • Every Work Phase, this action space may be occupied by at most one Worker.
  • You may not take this action if you cannot afford all of the Shares on the Action board. You may not buy fewer Shares.
  • The total cost cannot drop below 0 gold. If you buy a single Share in Rounds 6 or 7, you will not receive 1 gold.

Example: Until Round 3, these two Shares cost 2 gold. In Rounds 4 and 5, they cost 1 gold total. From Round 6 on, they can be taken for free (during the "Buy All Shares" action).



Deforest

When you take this action, remove exactly one Forest from your Harbor board. Then take 5 wood from the general sup- ply and place the wood in your personal supply.

Notes:
  • In 2-player games, every Work Phase, this action space may be occupied by at most one Worker. In 3-, 4-, and 5-player games, it may be occupied by at most two Workers.
  • You may not take this action if you do not have any Forests on your Harbor board.
  • It does not matter how many Forests are on the double space from which you remove one. Removing a lone Forest will free up two Building spaces.
  • You may not remove a Forest without taking the "Deforest" action or using an Elder or Building that explicitly allows you to remove one or more Forests.
  • Observe the 12 wood limit on your "Personal Supply" board. If you already have more than 7 wood in your personal supply, you will get less than 5 wood from this action.
  • You may take this action even if you already have 12 wood in your personal supply, in which case you will just remove the Forest without receiving wood.


Thin Out

When you take this action, take an amount of wood from the general supply equal to the number of Forests on your Harbor board and place the wood in your personal supply.

Notes:
  • Every Work Phase, this action space may be occupied by at most one Worker.
  • You may not take this action if you do not have any Forests on your Harbor board.
  • Every Forest counts, even if it is covered by other Forests (if multiple Forests are stacked).
  • Do not remove any Forests-just count them.
  • Observe the 12 wood limit on your "Personal Supply" board. You may get fewer wood, if necessary. You may not take this action if you already have 12 wood in your personal supply.

Example: At the start of the game, there are four Forests on your Harbor boards (two of which are stacked). Consequently, the "Thin Out" action would yield 4 wood.


Reforest

When you take this action, take two Forests from the general supply and place them in a stack on a free double space on your Harbor board.

Notes:
  • Every Work Phase, this action space may be occupied by at most one Worker.
  • You may not take this action if you do not have a free double space on your Harbor board. Due to its shape, you may not place a Forest on two vertically adjacent Building spaces.
  • You may not move or remove your Forests just like that.


Build a Ship

When you take this action, build exactly one sloop, one cutter, or one schooner from the Ships and Elders supply board. Pay the Building cost (wood, fish, gold) shown at the top of the Ship tile and place the Ship on free spaces of your Fishing track, as far to the left as possible.

Ships are worth Victory Points and they increase your haul size during the Fishing Phase.

Notes:
  • In 2-player games, during every Work Phase, this action space may be occupied by at most one Worker. In 3-, 4-, and 5-player games, it may be occupied by at most two Workers.
  • You may not take this action if you cannot afford a Ship or if you cannot place one on your Fishing track. You may not place Ships beyond the last space of the track (not even partially). Once your haul size is 12, you cannot add any more Ships.
  • Note that you can build schooners for 8 wood and 8 fish or, alternatively, 4 gold.
  • Sloops will cover two spaces, cutters will cover three spaces, and schooners will cover four spaces of the Fishing track (counting the first space of the track as two spaces).


Example: Here, you build a schooner for 4 gold, placing it to the right of the preprinted catboat. This will increase your initial haul size of 3 fish to 6 fish.



Take an Elder

When you take this action, take exactly one Elder from the Ships and Elders supply board and place him on a free seat in your Elder Council. You may only take a face-up Elder from the top of a stack.

In 5-player games only: If, by taking an Elder, you uncover a face-down Elder, immediately turn this Elder face up.

After taking the Elder, you may immediately carry out the action shown on the Elder card, without placing (another) Worker (see "Using an Elder").

Notes:
  • In 2-player games, every Work Phase, this action space may be occupied by at most one Worker. In 3-, 4-, and 5-player games, it may be occupied by at most two Workers.
  • You may not take this action if there are no Elders left on the supply board or if you already have 5 Elders in your Elder Council. No player may have more than 5 Elders.
  • You may take an Elder and not use his action.
  • You cannot get rid of Elders in your Elder Council.


Example: You cannot take the Contractor as long as the Builder is still available.


Using an Elder

Instead of placing a Worker on an action space on the Action board, you may place a Worker on an Elder in your Elder Council and carry out his action. When taking an Elder on the "Take an Elder" action space, you may use his action right away-without placing a Worker.

In both cases, in order to take the Elder action, you must first take a fish from the Banquet Table, from the largest fish-containing plate possible (with the biggest number), and place the fish on the Elder. For this purpose, there are three fish spaces at the top of each Elder (see illustration). Like in step 1 of the Fishing Phase:

Each time there are exactly 3 fish on an Elder, you must immediately remove the fish as follows:

  • place 1 fish in your personal supply and
  • return the remaining 2 fish to the general supply. (Do not remove the Elder card).


After placing the fish, immediately carry out the Elder action. (The Elder card effects should be self-explanatory).

Notes:
  • You may only take an Elder action if there are fish left on the Banquet Table. You may not instead take fish from your personal supply (or Reserve for that matter). Fish are placed on the Banquet Table via the "Serve Fish" action.
  • You may only use your own Elders. You cannot use Elders in an opponent's Elder Council nor can you use Elders that are still on the supply board-not even for a fee.
  • Every Work Phase, you may place at most one Worker on each Elder.
  • If you take a new Elder and use him right away, you may place a Worker on that Elder later that Round to use him a second time.

Copy An Action

In 4- and 5-player games (and in the solo game), there is an Imitation tile below the Action board that allows you to copy blocked action spaces.

In 4-player games: The Imitation tile shows a single "Copy an Action" space, which may be occupied by at most one Worker every Work Phase. When you take the action, you may use any blocked action space on the Action board.

In 5-player games: The Imitation tile shows three "Copy an Action" spaces. These spaces correspond to the left, middle, and right column of action spaces on the Action board. When taking one of these actions, you may use any blocked action space in the corresponding column of the Action board. Each of these spaces may be occupied by at most one Worker every Work Phase.

Notes:
  • You may not copy an action space that is not fully occupied yet.
  • It does not matter which Workers block the copied action space. You may copy an action space that is occupied by one or more of your Workers.
  • You may not copy the actions on Elders.


Example: Your player color is red and you would like to build another Ship. The "Build a Ship" action space is blocked though. Luckily, the Imitation tile is still unoccupied so you can place a Worker there to copy the "Build a Ship" action.


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