How To Play Flotsam Fight

Flotsam Fight is a fun card laying game about strategically placing your cards onto boats so that you can play more cards than your opponents. Each round only a number of boats are available depending on the number of players present, 1 boat per player. Each game consists of 3 rounds with varying amounts of turns.

Setup

Set the 8 boat chips in the middle of the table. Shuffle the 64 treasures (from now on called cards) and deal 10 cards to each player, unless you are playing with 6 players than it is 8 cards per player. Any remainder cards are placed nearby and become the draw deck. The starting payer is the last player who has gone to the seaside or determine however you wish.

Gameplay

Each round of Flotsam Fight, a number of boats numbered between 3-10 will be available to place cards on, the number of boats available is determined by the number of players in the game. In a 2-player game 2 boats will be used and in a 5-player game 5 boats will be used. After the first round, the preceding rounds are started by the player who earned the fewest points in the last round.

Each player either plays 1 card or passes, if a player passes then they are done until play continues (after all but 1 player passes). Each card can only be placed onto a boat which can divide the card, card #35 can only be placed in boat 7 or 5, because 35/7 = 5 or 7 *5 = 35. This might sound like a math game, but fortunately the designers placed the eligible boats on the side of the card. Players may only place cards onto boats equal to the number of players, if the amount of boats are already equal than no new boats may be used. When you place a card onto a boat, you activate it by flipping it over (front and back are the same number, but one side is white, and one side is blue). Each card also needs to be higher than the previously placed card on the boat.

Play continues until all but 1 player has passed their turn. For example, in a 3-player game when 2 people pass then the round ends. A player is allowed to play their last card if they have exactly 1 card remaining in their hand. Pause the game, remove all cards from all boats and keep separate from the draw deck, and flip the boats to their inactive side. Play resumes with the last player who played a card. If a player has exactly 1 card remaining, then they draw 2 cards from the top of the deck set aside at the start of the game. If the draw deck is empty, then shuffle the boat cards used from previous rounds.

The round ends after 1 of the players have played all of their cards. The player in Flotsam Fight who ended the round receives the +2-score counter. The other players will determine where they rank now based on the highest value card left in their hand. Whoever has the lowest valued card amongst the players receives the +1-score counter. Whoever has the highest valued card amongst the players receives the -1-score counter. The next round will start with whoever received the -1-score counter.

Ending The Game

Flotsam Fight ends after 3 rounds and whoever has the highest score counters wins. In the case of a tie the player with the most +2-score counters wins, if there is still a tie the player with the higher rank in the last round is the winner.