Get Ready to Play the ShipShape Game!

Are you excited to dive into the world of ShipShape? Well, get ready for an adventure like no other! In this game, you’ll become a talented ship captain and set sail on the vast ocean.

How to Play

Here’s all you need to know to get started:

Objective

Your goal in ShipShape is to become the most successful captain by collecting valuable cargo and legendary artifacts. The player with the highest score at the end of the game wins!

Setup

Before you embark on your journey, you need to set up the game. First, place the game board in the center of the table. Then, each player chooses a ship and places it on one of the ports on the board.

Gameplay

The game is played over a series of turns. On each turn, you have three actions you can take:

• 1. Sail – Move your ship to an adjacent port.
• 2. Load Cargo – Collect cargo from ports with markets and load them onto your ship.
• 3. Sell Cargo – Visit a city to sell your collected cargo and earn points.

As you sail from port to port, be strategic in your choices. Some ports may have special abilities or unique items that can give you an advantage!

Game End

The game ends when either all the artifact cards are taken or all the players pass their turn consecutively. At this point, the player with the highest score wins the game and becomes the ultimate ship captain!

Are You Ready to Set Sail?

Now that you know the ShipShape rules, it’s time to gather your crew and embark on an unforgettable adventure. Prepare for a thrilling experience filled with challenges, strategy, and high-seas excitement. Get ready to make your mark as the greatest ship captain of all time!

Back in the late 17th century, there were grand ships sailing the seas, returning to port with all sorts of treasures. As a clever captain, it’s up to me to use my crew wisely and fill my ship’s hold with the best mix of treasures, cannons, and other items to earn gold. The captain who collects the largest bounty will be crowned the greatest sea captain of all time!

The Parts

• 54 Crates
• 18 Holds
• 60 Crew Cards
• 112 Coin tokens
• Instructions

The Goal

Your job is to direct your crew and fill your ship’s hold with the most valuable crates. Skillfully stack three crates on your hold and earn gold, cannons, and contraband visible at the end of each voyage (round) across the seas.

If you’re looking for a fun game that’s easy to play and understand, then you’ll love this one. It’s called “Neptune’s Treasure” and it’s all about collecting coins and outsmarting your opponents. The goal of the game is simple: be the player with the most coins at the end of three voyages.

Setting Up the Game

Here’s how you set up the game.

Step 1: Stack the Crates

First, stack the crates in a pyramid shape on the table. The crates should be arranged in three rows, with each row containing one fewer crate than the row below it. The crates should be placed facedown, so no one can see what’s inside.

Step 2: Ready the Holds

Next, get the hold cards ready. These cards represent the different areas of the ship where you can store your loot. Shuffle the hold cards and place them faceup next to the crate pyramid.

Step 3: Prepare the Bounty

Now it’s time to create the bounty. Shuffle the bounty cards and place them facedown next to the hold cards. These cards will represent the different types of loot you can find during your voyages.

Step 4: Distribute Crew Cards

Finally, deal out the crew cards to all the players. Each player should receive an equal number of crew cards. These cards will give you special abilities and help you get more coins during the game.

And that’s it! You’re ready to set sail and start collecting coins. Remember, the player with the highest total value in coins at the end of three voyages wins. Good luck!

Alright folks, here’s the deal. Each of you will get your very own set of Crew cards labeled 1 to 10. These cards are your secret weapons for bidding during the game, so keep them close and don’t let anyone peek. Make sure you have some space near your Hold for your discard pile, trust me, you’ll need it.

Time to Set Sail!

We’re about to embark on three rounds, or voyages as we like to call them, and each voyage consists of three turns of bidding. Once everyone has placed three Crates on their Hold, that voyage is over and we move on to the scoring (more on that later).

Inspecting the Crate Stack

Now, listen up. You can look at the Crate stack, but you can’t touch it. Take a good look and survey the stack, but no peeking inside the crates. You can even stand up to get a better view, just remember to stay at your table.

Play and Reveal Your Crew Cards

1. It’s time to put those Crew cards to work. Each of you will choose one card from your hand and play it face down. Once everyone is ready, reveal your cards and let the bidding begin!

To begin the game, any cards that have the same value are instantly removed and placed in the respective players’ discard piles. This will help us resolve any lies that may come up later.

Once that is done, we move on to the next step. Going in order from the highest to lowest value of the Crew cards that are still in play, each player chooses a Crate from the top of the stack. The player with the highest bid gets the top Crate, the second-highest bid gets the next Crate, and so on.

The player then places their chosen Crate on their Hold in any way they like. Crates can be rotated or flipped over. After placing the Crate, the player neatly discards the Crew cards face up into their discard pile. It’s important to note that players cannot look through each other’s discard piles.

This process continues until all the players have chosen their Crates. Then we can move on to the next phase of the game.

Here’s a tip for bidding and crate selection: When it’s your turn to bid, choose a Crate that you like. But don’t forget to think about what others might want too! Take a moment to look at the Crates that are still available in the stack. Keep in mind that Crates can be flipped and rotated, so try different positions to find the best fit for your Hold. You might be surprised at the clever solutions you come up with!

Once all the players who are not tied have taken and placed their Crates, those who are tied must select a new Crew card from their hand and reveal them at the same time. Any cards that are tied are discarded once again. If there are any players who have tied twice but have not yet chosen a Crate, they do not play any more cards. Instead, they select and place a Crate from the stack based on the highest to lowest-numbered Hold.

Down to Only One Card!

If a player finds themselves with only one Crew card remaining in their hand at any point, they must collect all their discarded Crew cards to replenish their hand.

Scoring a Voyage

After all players have taken three Crates, the current voyage concludes. Their ships then arrive in the harbor, where they earn a reward for the items in their Holds.

When I play this game, I need to add up the values of the Gold, Cannons, and Contraband that I can see in my Holds. I look at them from the top and only count the values of the Crates that are not covered by other Crates.

After adding up the values, I can earn Coin tokens based on the cargo rules for the voyage.

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1. Gold: When we’re done counting the value of any rats we have in our Hold, we all get coins based on our total Gold value.

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2. Cannons: We also get coins for our Cannons. But here’s the tricky part: whoever has the lowest Cannon value doesn’t get any coins. So, let’s say I have 13 Cannons, you have 12 Cannons, and Chris has only 3 Cannons. In that case, I’ll get 10 coins, you’ll get 9 coins, and Chris won’t get any coins for his Cannons.

Banned Goods: We all get some money based on how valuable our banned goods are, except for the person who has the most valuable banned goods. The Royal Navy takes away their banned goods and they don’t get any money. If there’s a tie for the most valuable banned goods, none of those people get any money for their banned goods.

Hey there, matey! Let me tell you about the Full Ship Bonus. If you manage to fill up all your Hold spaces with cargo, without leaving any empty spaces, you’ll get a fantastic reward – 8 bonus coins! Now, keep in mind that the Gold, Cannons, and Contraband spaces on your Holds count as filled spaces and provide their respective values. However, any spaces with rats don’t count towards fulfilling the Full Ship Bonus. So, make sure to keep those furry critters away!

Now, it’s important to note that sometimes, a voyage can be quite the adventure, and you might end up with a negative score. But fear not, me matey! You can never have fewer than 0 coins, and you won’t lose any of your precious booty at the end of a voyage.

Arr, the Start of the Next Voyage!

When it comes to starting a fresh voyage, there are a couple of things you need to do. First, ye need to discard any used Crates. Once that’s done, ye can go ahead and build a new stack of Crates from the ones ye haven’t used yet, just like ye did during setup. Get everything shipshape and ready for the next adventure!

When I embark on my next voyage in ShipShape, I get to make some exciting decisions. It all starts with randomly selecting a number of Holds equal to the number of players. If there are three players, I choose three Holds.

Now, here’s where things get interesting. The player who has the most coins gets to pick the highest-numbered Hold. If there’s a tie, we look back at the previous voyage and see who had the lower numbered Hold. That player gets to take the higher numbered Hold this time around. The same rule applies for the second highest numbered Hold, and so on.

All good things must come to an end, and so does the game of ShipShape. After three voyages, it’s time to count up the coins and determine the winner! The player with the most coins emerges victorious and claims the title.

But what if there’s a tie? Well, in that case, we look at the third and final voyage. The player with the highest numbered Hold in that voyage wins the tiebreaker.

Now, let’s talk about playing ShipShape with just two players. It may seem a bit lonely, but fear not! We have a solution. We introduce a third player, Cap’n Happen Stance. Don’t underestimate Cap’n Happen Stance – they may be a dummy player, but they can still compete!

When we start the game, Cap’n Stance will get a Hold and a set of Crew cards. These cards are shuffled and placed face down in a draw deck. The Cap’n acts just like any other player, but there are a couple of differences:

1. Each turn, the Cap’n will blindly draw a Crew card from the top of their deck.
2. The Cap’n always has to place their Crate in the same orientation it was taken from the Crate stack, even if it’s not the best move for them.

But watch out for Cap’n Happen Stance! He may not be the sharpest player, but he’s crafty . . . and he can still win if you don’t keep an eye on his tricks!

Playing with Six Players

When we have six players, each voyage will be played by two groups of three players. Each group will have its own stack of nine Crates.

As I play and solve Crew cards, I only compare my cards with the other two players in my group, and I only choose crates from the stack assigned to my group.

But when it’s time to score at the end of each voyage, all six of us compare our Holds to figure out how many coins we get from Gold, Cannons, and Contraband.

Once a voyage is over, the groups change around the table so that each group has a different mix of players for the next voyage.

Tip for Smart Smugglers: If you want to enhance your Shipshape game with 5 players, try using Cap’n Happen Stance and the alternating group rules from the 6-player version!