How to Play

YachtSea is the classic five-dice scorecard game. A game is 13 rounds, and in each round you fill in exactly one box. When all 13 boxes are full, the game is over and your total goes in the log.

A round

1. Roll. All 5 dice.
2. Keep what you want. Tap a die and it lifts out of the water. Tap it again to drop it back in.
3. Roll again. Only the dice still in the water are re-rolled. You get 3 rolls in total, and you can stop after one or two.
4. Score. Tap a box on the scorecard. The number shown in each box is what it would pay for the dice you have. That box is now closed for the rest of the game.

You must score something every round. If nothing fits, you have to put a zero somewhere - choosing where to take that zero is most of the skill in the game.

The boxes

Upper section

Ones, Twos, Threes, Fours, Fives, Sixes. Each pays the total of the dice showing that number. Three 4s in the Fours box is 12.

Lower section

The two rules that decide most games

The bonus at 63

If your six upper boxes add up to 63 or more, you get 35 extra points. That is three of each number - three 1s, three 2s, and so on up the line. Every fourth die of a number is credit toward it, every pair is a debt.

The gauge under the upper section shows how close you are. This bonus is worth more than most single boxes on the card, and new players lose it without ever noticing it was there.

A second YachtSea

Roll five of a kind when the YachtSea box already holds 50, and you score 100 bonus points on top of whatever you put the dice in. There is no limit - every five of a kind after the first pays it again. Then the placement is forced, in this order:

1. The matching upper box, if it is still open. Five 3s must go in Threes.
2. Otherwise any open lower box - and here the dice count as a wild card, so Full House pays its full 25 and both straights pay in full even though five of a kind is neither.
3. Otherwise a zero in an open upper box.

If you took a zero in the YachtSea box earlier, you get no bonus for later ones, but the forced placement above still applies.

Signing the log

When the last box is filled you can put a name against your score. Only signed games appear in the log; a game you finish and walk away from stays private.

The log opens on the top ten. Once more than ten voyages have been signed, a Show all link under the table lists every one of them, and Back to the top ten returns to the short list.

The log row shows what the voyage earned alongside the date: any YachtSeas you rolled, and Upper bonus if you cleared 63. Both show when you managed both.

Picking up where you left off

Your game is saved after every roll. Close the tab, lose signal, come back tomorrow - the same browser on the same device picks up exactly where you were. It is tied to the browser, though, so a game started on your phone will not appear on your laptop.

Keyboard