1. Set the Game Board in the middle of the playing area, and place the Round Tracker on the space labeled 1. (The displayed board is for 3-4 players. Use the reverse side for a 2-player game.)

2. Give the Start Player marker to whomever most recently won glory in battle. (Alternatively, select a start player at random.) In a three-player game, also give the first player the Honor Ship token. The Honor Ship token functions as an extra Longship pawn for the player controlling it.

3. Give each player:

1 Favor token

1 Longship pawn and 1 score tracker

(In a two-player game, give each player 2 Longship pawns)

1 Player Board

4. In clockwise order, the Start Player takes 4 Food tokens, the second player takes 5 Food, the third player takes 6 Food, and the fourth player takes 7 Food.

5. Each player places their score tracker at the 0 marker on the Glory track.

6. Separate the Sea Journey, Sea Battle, Village Spoils, Keep Spoils, Reaver, and Prophecy cards. Shuffle each deck separately then place them on their corresponding spaces on the Game Board.

7. Each player takes 2 Reaver cards from the deck. Players roll the dice indicated on the top left of each of these Reaver cards and place them on their Player Board. Then each player decides whether to Rally, Specialize, or Promote them according to the Recruit Reavers rules in the Recruit Reavers section. (Read that section fully before beginning your first game.)

8. At each Action Location, fill the spaces with cards according to the number of players (see the Additional Game Setup section for more details).

9. Sort the Territory tiles by type and shuffle them. Then, place them on their corresponding spaces.

10. Roll 2 of each color Crew dice, and place them in their corresponding spaces within the Trade with Villages Action Location.

11. Place the Ship Upgrade tokens at the Raid Villages Action Location on their corresponding spaces.

12. Place the Dice, Food, Favor, Terror, Wall, Farm, and Tower tokens in a supply accessible to all players.