How to Play

Trails of Tucana

1-8 players 15-15 min 7.4 Board Game Geek Rating

Players draw trails on personalized Tucana island maps by connecting terrain spaces revealed through card flips. Each player's village locations are randomized, creating unique puzzles. Victory comes from linking matching harbors and connecting sights to harbors, with bonus points for first connections. Strategic route planning matters since terrain card distribution varies.

Published 2019

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Return red bonus cards

Put the red bonus cards back in the box (only used in the special bonus variant)

Distribute player materials

Each player takes one pencil and one scoring sheet, placing it with the Isla Petit side face up

Designate the mayor

Choose one player to be the mayor who will reveal terrain cards during the game

Shuffle terrain cards

The mayor shuffles all 27 terrain cards and places the deck face down in front of them

Prepare setup cards

The mayor shuffles the setup cards and places the top card face up in the center of the table

Assign village letters

The mayor reads aloud the letters on the setup card clockwise starting from the top letter

Remove setup cards

Return all setup cards to the box after assigning letters

Set up blue bonus cards

Place blue bonus cards face up in the center sorted by letter pairs (A-A, B-B, etc.)

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Reveal terrain cards

The mayor draws two terrain cards from the top of the deck, places them face up, and announces the two terrain types (which may be identical)

Draw a route segment

All players simultaneously draw one route segment on their scoring sheet

Use wildcard terrain

If a card shows the wildcard terrain symbol, each player individually decides what terrain type it represents for them

Handle impossible situations

If you cannot legally connect two hexes matching the revealed terrains, you draw nothing this round

Cover previous cards

Each round, cover the terrain cards from previous rounds before revealing new ones

Continue until deck runs low

Repeat the process until only one card remains in the deck (end of round)

Score sights when connected

When you connect a sight (obelisk, book, toucan, yeti, or sea monster) to any village with a route, circle the left point value next to that sight type in the scoring area

Score second sight connection

When you connect a second sight of the same type to any village, circle the right point value and immediately draw a bonus route segment connecting any two adjacent hexes

Trigger chain reactions

If a bonus route segment connects another second sight of a different type to a village, immediately draw another bonus route segment

Connect sights to any village

A sight can connect to any village regardless of whether that village is already connected to another sight of the same or different type

Score village pairs

When you connect two villages with the same letter (a "village pair"), circle the point value next to that letter in the village scoring section

Claim first-player bonus

The first player to connect a specific village pair takes the corresponding blue bonus card and writes those bonus points in an empty bonus field

Handle 5-8 player bonus cards

When the first bonus card for a letter pair is claimed and discarded, the second card (with lower value) becomes available for the next player to connect that pair