Cooper Island

About this board game

Cooper Island is a 2019 board game for 1–4 players, with games lasting about 120 minutes. In the age of exploration, players settle a distant island, develop their own part of it, and compete to make the greatest progress over five rounds.

Players explore by placing landscape tiles. These tiles grant resources, which can be used to erect buildings with special abilities. As settlement continues, barriers must be removed to open the island and support further exploration.

• Place landscape tiles to explore your part of the island.
• Gather resources and erect buildings with special abilities.
• Remove barriers to reach more of the island.
• Build valuable statues and use supply ships to obtain supplies from the old world.
• Sail ships around the island to mark your victory points and discover benefits from smaller islands inshore.

The standout feature of Cooper Island is its way of tracking victory points. Rather than simply recording progress on a separate track, players sail with ships around the island. Along the route, these ships reach smaller inshore islands that grant valuable benefits, connecting the game’s scoring system with its exploration theme.

After five rounds, the game ends. The winner is the player who has developed the best and advanced furthest with their ships. The second printing of the German and English editions, as well as the Spanish edition, includes the Solo Against Cooper expansion, which was originally available separately as a bonus item.