SeaFall Hints & Tips – Game 1

This is one in a series of posts regarding the Legacy game SeaFall. You can access my other SeaFall posts Here. This post contains Spoilers up to the end of the Prologue game. Including the last entry in the Captain’s Booke, which I quote immediately below.

Captain’s Booke Entry 404

“Records are unclear as to why all the leaders of the provinces chose to sail west into the seas, nearly at the same time. It was many winters before all hope was lost that they would ever return. Each province is sure that the other was responsible for the loss of their leader. The fragile peace that had lasted so long was shattered and raids between the provinces started. The heirs to the province were raised to assume leadership when their day came.

Long years passed.”

A New Generation

The Prologue game of SeaFall takes place many years before the game proper begins, and as such, it is appropriate that the original choices for leaders are destroyed by the players. The original leaders sailed away, lost forever(?), and thus their heirs take the throne, to lead the provinces through the SeaFall campaign. After the players learn the basics of the game in the Prologue, they learn that you never know what might happen in a Legacy game.

It also makes thematic sense to add province raiding in Game 1. The peace has gone, replaced by mistrust, and a little more competition is introduced into the game. So let’s examine exactly how that works.

Raiding a Province

Province Space

All the Provinces start with a Garrison of 1 (black circle), which means you take 1 dice from your dice pool when raiding another players Province. They also are all rated as a dangerous site (red shield), so fortune tokens cannot be used, and it has a defense rating of 5, so the attacker needs to roll 5 successes to avoid taking any damage on their flagship. They can still succeed with a lower number of successes, but they take damage equal to the difference between the number of successes they rolled, and the defense of the Province.

So far that’s the same as Island raiding, but there is one main difference when raiding a Province. If a raided Province has ships in its own harbour, they each act as a further garrison that needs to be over come. 2 ships in their home harbour mean 2 more dice get removed from the attackers Dice pool.

But at the end of the endeavour, if at least one success is rolled, and their flagship doesn’t sink, they get to plunder the Province.

Plunder

Province Board

A Province has several sites that can be plundered, and they are all designated by a number in an oval in the top left corner of each location. The number of successes rolled, indicate the max value of a site that may be plundered. So with 3 rolled successes (after taking damage, because the Province defense value is 5) the Fields, the Warehouse or the Council Room may be plundered.

However, when plundering a Province site, you must place Enmity tokens equal to the plunder value of that site. If you do not have enough Enmity, you may not plunder that site. Enmity on a site shows that it cannot be raided again this year, and the Enmity moves to the At War With section during the next Winter/at the end of the game. The specifics are below:

  • Fields – You get the gold generated by that field. Not only that, but the raided player does not get get to harvest that field for income at the next Winter phase. Place Enmity tokens on the field. It does not get harvested at the next Winter.
  • Warehouse – Take half the goods from that warehouse, rounded up, so if there are 3 goods, you get 2. Place 3 enmity tokens on the warehouse.
  • Council Room – You remove an Advisor from the Council Room. You may dismiss it, or place it in your Council Room refreshed. Place 3 enmity tokens on the Council Room.
  • Vault – Gain half the gold, rounded up, so if there is 9 gold in the Vault, you get 5. Place 4 Enmity tokens on the Vault.
  • Treasure Room – You may choose one card from the Treasure Room, and add it to your Treasure Room. Lower the other players Glory, and increase yours, by the amount shown on the card. Place 5 Enmity tokens on the Treasure Room.

Library

  • Structure – Plunder value varies (and is in the top right of the tile), depending on the cost of the Structure. The Enmity is placed on the building site, so no other Structure can be built there that year. The Structure is returned to the Sideboard exhausted (face down), so no-on else can build it this year. You take either 1 of the relevant goods from the supply (Wood in the case of the Library) or half the Structures cost in Gold.
The Effect of Enmity on Future Raids

Once you place Enmity on an opponents Province, it effects future Raids between your 2 Provinces. Enmity can give a bonus, to the defender or the attacker, depending on where it is in the Provinces.

Defender Bonus

A dice is removed from the Raiders Dice Pool, for each Enmity token of theirs that is anywhere in the region they attempt to Raid. So if you have Raided a Province Warehouse, and left 3 Enmity on that site, you will lose 3 dice from your Dice Pool the next time you try to Raid them. This makes it progressively harder to raid the same Province, because they are ready for you, and they hold a grudge.

Attacker Bonus – At War With

Only Enmity in an At War With section can add dice to a Dice Pool for a Raid. Enmity placed in a Province makes it harder for them to Raid you again, but it won’t help you Raid them back until after Winter, when the Enmity is moved to At War With. Each Enmity token in the At War With section of your Province, adds a dice to your Dice Pool when you attempt to Raid them. Thematically, defense against someone who has Raided you is easier, but retaliation takes a bit of time to get organised.

Exchanging Enmity – At War With

If you successfully Raid a Province, when you have their Enmity in your At With With section, you return their Enmity to their Home Enmity before placing any of yours on the Plundered site. This allows you to retaliate, for free. For example:

  • Year One – Red Province successfully Raids Green Province, Plunders their Warehouse, and places 3 Enmity on it.
  • At Winter – Red Enmity Tokens move from Greens Warehouse to Greens At War With.
  • Year Two – The 3 Red Enmity tokens in Greens At War With adds 3 dice when Green Raids the Red Province.
  • A Successful Raid means Green Plunders Red’s Vault, returns their 3 Enmity tokens, and places just 1 on Reds Vault.
Permanent Enmity

At the end of a game, any Enmity tokens in play may become a Permanent sticker affixed to one of the six spaces at the bottom of each region. The rules for this are clearly explained in the end of Game steps starting on page 20, so I’ll just say that from this point on, it’s important to remember that Enmity tokens given out in a game, may affect future game, in the following two ways.

  • They increase the price of goods and upgrades bought at an Island, +1 for each Enmity.
  • They increase the Garrison of a region, +1 for each Enmity.

It is important to keep these things in mind, when considering Raiding any region.

Game 1 Length

Other than the ability to Raid players Provinces, the only other change from the Prologue will be the length of the game. Game 1 has a target of 11 Glory to end the game. This will give you extra turns to achieve things than you had in the Prologue, though probably only twice as many. It is unlikely you finished the first year in the Prologue game, and it will be unlikely you will finish the second in Game 1. Making plans for 9 or 10 rounds will allow you to make the most of the Game.

The main reason for this is the Milestones that are available for Game 1. Apart from The Dream of an Empire Milestone, which will kick off Game 1, there is:

  • The Finest Treasures (2 glory) – Have treasures totaling 3+ glory in your treasure room
  • The Continent Awakens (3 glory) – Have three structures
  • An Island Revealed (3 glory) – Explore the highest numbered site on an island
  • Darkness Stirs (3 glory, unlock) – Raid a site with 6 difficulty without sinking

The general Glory earning plays of Exploring, Raiding, Building, Upgrading and Buying Treasures, will average a Glory every other turn. Someone will be above average in their earnings, and the Milestone Glory will allow them to earn Glory at better than 1 per turn. Hence, 11 Glory earned, in 9 or 10 rounds. Game 1 will almost certainly be won by the player that achieves 2 of the available Milestones. If you are playing with 4 or 5, then it is possible that you will all be focused on different Milestones, and this will extend the game, but this would be the exception.

Milestones

First Game Milestones

When a Milestone is claimed, remember to fill in the details on the back of the Rulebook. Include the Player, the Milestone name & the amount of Glory earned (as this might be needed for a tie break). Adding which Game the Milestone was claimed in might also be of interest. Also, it is important to note that only 1 Milestone can be claimed on a turn. If you complete The Finest Treasures on the same turn as any of the other Milestones, you get to choose which Milestone you wish to claim.

All unclaimed Milestones carry over from game to game. And as you have all the available Milestones in play at any time, the only way to get new ones is by unlocking a Chest, which you do by completing the Darkness Stirs Milestone. The upshot of this, is that if you do not complete the Darkness Stirs Milestone in Game 1, but you do complete the other 3, then that will be the only Milestone available in Game 2. This will mean Game 2 will play exactly like Game 1, but it will be a longer game.

This also means I can’t make a Hints & Tips post for Game 2, because it will be very different depending on whether a new Chest has been unlocked or not. So, my posts will be titled by Chest unlocks going forward.

The only important thing to know about claiming the Darkness Stirs Milestone, and unlocking Chest 1, with the Ship on it, is that none of the new contents get added when you complete the Milestone, but are added at the end of the game. This is clearly spelled out in the Log entry when you read it, but future Chests are added immediately, so I thought it was important to spell out.

Event Deck

I will just highlight that there is no discard pile for any of the decks in the game. The treasure cards are available for anyone to see, and damage and Advisors are returned to the bottom of their respective decks during the game. This also holds true for the Event deck, as it says on Page 12, under 3. Resolve the Event Card. The only card not in the Event deck at any time, is the current active Event. And, of course, the hidden events that are in black bags in the Storage Chest.

There are originally 4 of these bagged Events, and during the game you will receive instructions to reveal them, and add them to the Event deck. They get added immediately, and shuffled with all the Event cards, except for the active one. This means, that it is possible for the same Event card to come up multiple times in a year.

End of Game

The game ends at the end of a round, when at least one of the players has the required Glory (11 in Game 1). Now that you can Raid a Province, and remove a Treasure or Building, it is possible for someone to reach the target Glory on their turn, and then drop below it by the end of the round, by losing something that gives them Glory, like a Treasure or a Structure. The game would then continue, until a round finished with a player having the target Glory.

Once the game is over, you get to complete the End of Game steps starting on page 20. The rules are pretty clear, but I will just quote one section for clarity. “Within each step, the order is from the lowest game glory to the highest game glory.” This won’t make much difference to the steps, except for 2. Train Advisors. The player who finished last in the game (Ties are always settled in favour of the person with the least prominent Title in the game) gets to choose which Retired Adventurer they want, to help train their advisor. They then keep that Adventurer, and pass the rest to the player who finished second last.  The important thing for this step, is that no Retired Adventurer can be used twice in one game.

The last step is to reassign Titles according to Campaign Glory, which will be the same as Game Glory after Game 1. Ties are again settled in favour of who has the least prominent title, and this is clearly laid out in the example in the Rulebook on page 21. If there is a tie for reassigning Titles, the player who currently has the lower Title, picks which one they want.

It is at this point, that you would unlock Chest 1 to see what it contained, if you completed the Darkness Stirs Milestone.

Player Aid

This is the Player Aid for Game 1. This is a 2 page document, that should be printed double sided, and a copy can be given to all players, to allow quick look up for the actions in the game. The differences between the Prologue and Game 1 are highlighted in green. The game has been out for 2 years now, so if you come across something you’re unsure of, a Google search, including the name SeaFall, should get you an answer. The Rules Forum at BGG has a lot of questions already answered Here, and Becq at that Forum has created the The Captain’s Log, which holds a lot of rule clarifications, as posted by the game designers Rob Daviau and J.R. Honeycutt.

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