Coral Islands

Coral Islands is a dice game played on a small board. But whilst dice are rolled in the game, it’s less about luck and more about pattern recognition – or perhaps more accurate to say pattern construction.

The board represents the sea bed and the dice the coral that the players collectively ‘grow’ on it. The first die can be placed on any spot, and after that dice must be placed either on top of (-there’s a limit of three dice to each space), or orthogonally adjacent to previously-placed dice. You’ll always have two dice to choose from, and when you place a die on top of another, the die you’re adding must be a higher number: the only exception to this is the single-pip 1 side, which can be placed on anything. Once your die is placed, roll a new one from your stack so you have two distinct numbers ready for your next turn.

Why are you doing this? Off to the side of the board are stacks of Pattern cards, and if you complete one of them with a die you placed this turn, you can claim the card: it’s worth points at the end of the game. The patterns all demand a particular orientation of multiple dice, both yours (the light colour on the card) and any opponent’s (the dark colour). Some cards also give you fish tokens: these can be spent to change the value of a die by one, or – if you have them -you can spend three fish to play your second die on the same turn as your first, potentially grabbing a second Pattern card.

The game continues until all players have placed all their dice, at which point you add up the points value on your claimed cards – and the highest-scoring player wins, with leftover fish the tie-breaker if needed.