Description
You and your band of scallywag pirates are in deep, deep trouble.
Something you’ve never seen before has been following your ship, seeking revenge, growing stronger with rage.
Perhaps you took one treasure too many, and now fate is closing in.
So hurry while the wind is brave in your sails! Sail from island to island, scouting, fighting, looting for treasure, and spending your loot to live out tale worthy adventures.
GOAL
Be the last surviving pirate with the most points and the best adventure to tell.
GAMEPLAY
Players take action using the map deck to expand the board, move, search for resources, place workers, complete adventure cards, and attack each other.
As each round ends the AI player increases strength and moves in to attack the nearest player.
This forces players to end their turn as far away as possible by either expanding the map or moving.
Resources in hand and large boards will result in shorter rounds making it harder as the game progresses.
Players not eliminated by the AI or other players win. If both survive the adventures determine the victory.
Solo Rules for Haze Islands
These rules change the focus from defeating The Doom to make the game more enjoyable. The revised rules are called “Fleeing Fate”
Fleeing Fate follows all the standard rules, unless they conflict with the rules of this variant.
RULES
- To win, you need at least 20 Adventure icons when the game ends.
- You immediately lose the game when you have lost all 3 pirates.
- When the Doom reaches you and it still has power, you automatically lose the game (unlike the standard rules, according to which you could sacrifice a pirate).
- When the Doom passes a deployed pirate and still has power when it passes by their island, the pirate is removed from the game and the Doom’s power is reduced by 1. (This applies also to the island where the Doom starts that turn.) If the Doom no longer has any power when it passes a deployed pirate, the pirate is unaffected. Note that when you reduce the power of the Doom, you do not modify the Doom’s dice!
- You can recruit a pirate (to replace one lost to the Doom) when you are on an island, then pass a skull test, and, if you passed the test, then pay the cost of the top Doom card (discard that card afterward).
- You can never attack the Doom.
For a greater challenge, you can add the following rule:
During Night Falls, for each single icon Adventure you flip over you have to discard 1 icon of an Adventure you have already gained (i.e. discard a single-icon Adventure, or flip a double-icon Adventure). If you are unable to do this, you lose the game.
Edo’s Haze Islands Game Review
How to Play HAZE ISLANDS
Files
A selection of files from BoardGameGeek. Links will open in a new window or tab.
Fleeing Fate — A Solo Variant
This file offers a simple alternative solo variant for Haze Islands, in which you can never attack the Doom and win only by gathering enough Adventure icons.
>> Click to download PDF <<
HAZE ISLANDS – English Rules
ENGLISH RULES (SCREEN)
The English/Japanese First Edition full colour rulebook for HAZE ISLANDS, the 20-60 minute pirate themed card game for 1 or 3 players aged 10 and over, by Charles Ward with artwork by Vicente Sivera Catalá.
>> Click to download PDF <<
HAZE ISLANDS – Cards
The same cards as the “Haze Islands – Cards (A4)” download but in a 8 card layout (4 cards per page) by Rachel Bruner (lovemyfire).
>> Click to download PDF <<
Special Order Variant
Included are updated Player Aids and a card with the Variant Rules
I found that nobody was ever using Special Orders, with a few notable exceptions when they are used to fight the doom. In other cases, losing a Point at the end of the game is almost never worth it in my experience. This is especially true in Coop, when you HAVE to gather all those points.
This variant adresses this problem, by reducing the points of ALL adventures to 1.
Since this makes gathering Icons even harder, the required amount of icons is reduced, and the Doom weakened a bit.
>> Click to download PDF <<