Components

• 56 Landscape Tiles
• 4 two-sided Starting Tiles
• 1 Navigation Tile
• 4 Ship Tiles
• 32 Clan Houses
• 16 Bonus Tokens
• 12 Discovery Tokens
• 45 Prestige Tokens
• 12 Objective Cards
• 12 Mission Cards and 12 Reward Cards
• 3 Alexis Cards and 15 Expedition Cards
• Instructions

Overview

At the beginning of each Round, each player secretly picks an Objective Card. This card indicates the objective to achieve at the end of the Round and the Prestige Points (PP) that can be earned.

In turn, players must perform one of the 2 following actions:

• Draw and place 1 Landscape Tile

• Draw and place 1 Ship Tile

During the game, the Landscape Tiles will form islands with Resources, Temples and Ports.

When a Ship Tile is placed, all players place Houses on the islands and earn Prestige Points according to their Objective Cards, chosen at the beginning of the Round. Then, players start a new Round.

When the game ends, players receive additional Prestige Points for their Ship Tiles.

The player with the most Prestige Points is the winner of the game.

There are 2 game modes: Normal & Advanced. In normal mode, ignore the rules framed in blue.

Object of the Game

Earn the most Prestige Points for your clan and thus become the most renowned explorer.

Setup

1 Each player picks a color and takes 4 Houses and the 4 Bonus Tokens of his color.

2 The 4 remaining Houses are placed in the reserve.

3 The last player to have been on an island is the First Player. He takes the 4 Starting Tiles (with seagulls) and places them as he wishes, in the center of the table, according to the Tile Placement Rules.

4 Shuffle the Landscape Tiles and create the Reserve Stack, face down.

5 Next to this stack, place the Ship Tiles of the players, colored Ship up. With 2 or 3 players, place the remaining Ship Tiles, next to the others, Grey Ship up. Whatever the number of players, there must always be 4 available Ship Tiles.

6 Place the Navigation Tile, then draw 3 Landscape Tiles in the reserve Stack and place them face up, making them available to all the players.

7 Shuffle the Discovery Tokens, and place them facedown, next to the players, along with the Prestige Tokens.

8 Each player grabs 2 Landscape Tiles in the Reserve Stack without revealing them to the other players.

9 Shuffle the 12 Objective Cards and form a new stack, face down.

10 Each player grabs 1 Objective Card, without revealing it to the other players.

Game Play

A game of Small Islands is played in maximum 4 Rounds. A Round is divided into 3 phases:

1. Preparation: set up for the new Round.
2. Exploration: players place Tiles (Landscape or Ship) in turn.
3. Reward: players place Houses on the islands and earn Prestige Points.

1. Preparation

Draw 6 Landscape Tiles from the Reserve Stack without looking at them and place them face down on the Navigation Tile to form the Navigation Stack.

Then, each player secretly draws 2 Objective Cards in order to have 3 of them, then:

1 Chooses 1 objective card for the current round.

2 Puts aside 1 objective card for the next round (place a house on it as a reminder).

3 Returns the remaining objective card face down onto the stack.

Objective Cards

An Objective Card is composed of a Mission (left part) and a Reward (right part). During the Reward phase:

1 The mission determines the condition that an island must fulfill in order to place a house on it.

2 The reward determines how many prestige points will be earned for each island that receives a house.

2. Exploration

Starting with the first player, and in clockwise order, each player must perform only one of the following 2 actions:

• Explore: draw and place a Landscape Tile.
• Land: draw and place a Ship Tile. This action ends the Exploration Phase.

Explore

1. Take 1 Landscape Tile from the 3 available face-up Landscape Tiles and add it to your hand.

2. Place down 1 of the 3 Landscape Tiles in your hand while respecting the Tile Placement Rules.

3. Optional: If you wish, you can place one of your Bonus Tokens as well (See Bonus Token Placement Rules).

4. Replace the Landscape Tile taken with a new Tile from the Navigation Stack.

   If the Navigation Stack is depleted, replace the Landscape Tile with a new Tile from the Reserve Stack.

Land

This action is only available if the navigation stack is depleted. Then:

• Take the ship tile of your color in the reserve or a grey ship tile (with 2 or 3 players).
• Place the ship tile using the tile placement rules.

If a Ship Tile cannot be taken or placed, then it is not possible to Land. Exploring is the only alternative.

When a player places a Ship Tile, the Exploration Phase is over. Move on to the Reward Phase.

3. Reward

All players place House on islands and win Prestige Point. Starting with the player who placed the Ship Tile and moving in clockwise order, the players perform once, in turn, the Reward Phase.

1. Reveal your Objective Card for the current Round.

   Reveal your Mission and Reward Cards.

2. Mission: You can place one or more Houses on the islands of your choice that fulfill your Mission, while using the House Placement Rules.

   Each player can only place one House per island. Placing a House is not compulsory.

3. Reward: For each island on which you place a House, take the Prestige Points indicated by your Reward (use the Prestige Tokens).

4. Take the Houses from the Reserve in order to have at most 4 Houses.

5. Return the Objective Card you used to the stack of Objective Cards.

   Return the Mission and Reward cards you used to their respective stack.

End of the Round

When each player has performed the Reward phase, if the game is not over:

• Shuffle all the Objective Cards to form a new stack face down.

  Shuffle separately all the Mission and Reward Cards to create 2 new stacks face down.

• The next player in turn, after the player who just placed a Ship Tile, becomes the First Player for the next Round.

• Play a new Round, starting with the Preparation Phase.

End of the Game

The game ends immediately after one of these 3 conditions occurs:

• During the Preparation Phase: if there are less than the 6 Landscape Tiles needed in the Reserve Stack to form the Navigation Stack.

• During the Exploration Phase: at the beginning of your turn, if there are no more Landscape Tiles available face up AND if you cannot place a Ship Tile. Then the players move immediately to a last Reward Phase, starting with you.

• At the end of the Reward Phase: if all Ship Tiles have been placed.

Each player adds up all his Prestige Points:

• Prestige Points gained during the game .

• +The Prestige Points indicated on the Discovery Tokens, if you have collected any through an Objective.

• +1 Prestige Point for each Port located on the 8 Landscape Tiles around his Ship Tile.

  With 2 or 3 players, Grey Ship Tiles do not grant any Prestige Points.

  If a player has not placed a Ship Tile of his color, he obviously does not received any Prestige Points for it.

The player with the most Prestige Points wins the game.

If there is a tie, the winner is, in order:

• The player who has placed the most Houses.
• The player who has the most Ports on the 8 Tiles around his Ship.
• The last player who placed a Tile (Landscape or Ship).

Great Explorer

Hidden inside the heart of Small Islands (look well) there are 2 Stacks of Great Explorer Cards that will allow you to explore the Small Islands in a different way.

To earn the privilege of opening them and discovering their content, you must become a Great Explorer by earning a certain number of Achievements.

Only when you win the game in Normal Mode, check if you fulfill one or several of the following conditions:

• You have 60 PP or more.
• You have 10 PP of Ship or more.
• There are at least 12 islands of 2 Tiles or more.
• You have placed all your Houses.
• You have placed your Ship first.
• You have 4 Discovery Tokens.
• You have played at difficulty level 4 in Solo Mode.

Only after you have completed at least 5 of these achievements, you will be allowed to open the Great Explorer Deck for the Normal Mode.

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