African Park
African Park Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Aim of the Game
In African Park, each player is a ranger, responsible for an African nature reserve and who needs to repopulate it by collecting wild animals. He should make the animals in his own reserve as comfortable as possible. This means that he should consider the right habitat, and the various demands of each new animal and the other animals already present in the reserve. During each game round, the players have to choose a new animal: they try to choose animals that give prestige to the reserve without creating problems. So, a player would, if possible, choose a peaceful elephant for his own reserve and leave the dangerous and hungry crocodile for the other players. Animals acquired and housed in the best way will earn victory points for the player. Animals housed in an area that is not wide enough will become "depressed" and will earn 0 victory points. Players will lose points if their animals are not happy in the reserve or are eaten by other animals. The player who is best able to place the animals in the reserve will obtain the highest score and be the winner of the game.
Contents
80 playing cards:
- 68 Animal Cards
- 12 Territory Cards
Card Description
Territory Cards
Each player will create his own nature reserve by choosing 3 different territory cards. Each nature reserve is divided into 4 fenced areas with differently-sized enclosures (2 spaces, 3 spaces, 4 spaces and 6 spaces, for a total of 15 available spaces). The spaces are identified by blue symbols and brown symbols. Only one animal can be placed in each space.
Blue spaces are crossed by a river and may be occupied by any kind of animal. However, river spaces are the right habitat for aquatic animals. Brown spaces are land spaces. Aquatic animals cannot be placed on land spaces.
There are 3 different kinds of territory cards:
- 3 SPACE Area
- 2 SPACE Area
- 6 SPACE Area
- 4 SPACE Area
The diagram in the rulebook labels a Land space, a River space and gives a Territory card overview.
The cards are double-sided and show different territories on each side.
Animal Cards
Animals are represented by the Animal Cards. An example of an Animal Card is shown in the rulebook, with these parts:
- Animal silhouette: the colour identifies the group the animal belongs to.
- Number of players: for example, a card marked for 3 or more players can only be used if there are 3 or more players.
- Minimum enclosure area required by the animal (minimum number of spaces in the area).
- Point value of the animal.
Animals are divided into 4 groups:
- Carnivores
- Herbivores
- Pachyderms
- Aquatics
Game Set Up
The youngest player is the Head Ranger and plays first. The other players follow clockwise.
Nature Reserve Set Up
First, each player creates his own nature reserve by taking 3 territory cards: 1 card with 2 and 3 spaces, 1 card with 4 spaces and 1 card with 6 spaces. To do that, the territory cards are divided into 3 small decks: one deck with cards with 2 and 3 spaces, a deck with cards with 4 spaces, and a deck with cards with 6 spaces. Each deck is shuffled.
Starting with the Head Ranger and proceeding clockwise, each player draws 3 cards (1 from each deck). He looks at both sides of the cards, considers the number and position of the river spaces and, then chooses one side, according to his strategy. Now the reserve is ready. The player cannot change or turn the territory cards during the rest of the game.
In a game with 2 or 3 players, territory cards not chosen are put back into the box.
Each player places the 3 chosen territory cards in front of him on the game board. A little space should be left between the cards (about 8 cm).
Animal Deck Set Up
The number of animal cards to be used for the game depends on the number of players. In a 4-player game, all the animal cards are used. In a 2- or 3-player game, a reduced deck is used: some animal cards are left in the box.
Cards are divided as shown in the table on the right. The symbol on the upper right corner of the animal cards and the colour of the back of the cards (violet, orange and green) will help this.
Player-count table (symbols are graphics in the rulebook):
| Number of players | Card to use | Animal cards |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | two-star symbol | 42 |
| 3 | two-star and three-star symbols | 57 |
| 4 | two-, three- and four-star symbols | 68 |
Card backs are printed in different colors corresponding to the number of players.
- Example: For a 3-player game, only the cards showing the two-star and three-star symbols are used. Cards showing the four-star symbol are left in the box and are not used.
The deck of animal cards is shuffled and placed animal side down in the middle of the table.
How to Play
A game is divided into rounds. At the beginning of each round, the Head Ranger draws a number of animal cards equal to the number of players. The chosen animal cards are placed on the game board with the animal side visible.
Starting with the Head Ranger and proceeding clockwise, each player chooses one of the drawn animals and tries to fit it into his own reserve.
When all the players have chosen and placed (or tried to place) an animal into their own reserve, the round ends. The Head Ranger passes the title of "leader" to the player on his left, who becomes the new Head Ranger: now a new round can begin.
The game ends when, at the end of a round:
- the 15 spaces of the nature reserve of (at least) one player are occupied (the nature reserve is full), or
- there are no more animal cards available for the next round (the deck is completely depleted).
The game ends and victory points are evaluated.
Placing an Animal into a Reserve
a. Card Layout
Animals can be placed on 1 of the available free spaces of the reserve. The Free Spaces are identified by the lowest free symbol (brown or blue) on each territory card. At the beginning of the game, 6 free spaces are available in each nature reserve.
When an animal is placed on a space, the corresponding animal card must cover the symbol of the space itself. The spaces are occupied from the bottom space to the top space. The new available free space is the space (if any) above the animal card.
A new animal card should partially cover any other animal cards in the same column. The coloured silhouette on the bottom of the card must remain visible and will help the player to place new animals into the reserve.
- Example: The new available free space is the space above the hippopotamus card. The hippopotamus is placed onto a river space in the 3-space area. The card exactly covers just the blue symbol.
- Example: A zebra is placed onto a land space in the 3-space area. The card covers the brown symbol. The hippopotamus card is not completely covered: the silhouette remains visible. In the next round a zebra is placed in the available brown space. The 3-space area is full.
- Example: When all the spaces in an area are covered by cards, the area is full. No additional animals can be placed into that area.
- Example: A leopard is placed on the 2-space area. One free land space is available in the 2-space area.
A blue or brown line of dots helps to correctly position the cards.
b. Common rules
Animals must be placed in the nature reserve according to the following common rules:
- An animal must be placed in an area with a number of spaces equal to or greater than the number of spaces shown on the bottom left corner of the animal card. (example: gnu can be successfully placed in a 4 or a 6 space area).
- An animal can also be placed in an area with 1 space less than the spaces shown on the bottom left corner of the animal card. In that case, however, the animal suffers (the area is not wide enough!) and becomes "depressed". The victory point value of the card becomes 0 (example: gnu may be placed into a 3 space area).
- An animal can never be placed in an area smaller than the areas described above (example: gnu cannot be placed into a 2 space area).
- If the animal can be placed in the reserve without violating the rules, it has to be placed. For example, it could happen that a player is forced to place a carnivore in an area containing herbivores. As consequence, all the herbivores in the area will be eaten by the carnivore!
c. Specific rules
Each group has specific rules, in addition to the common rules described above.
Carnivores
- Only one type of carnivore can be placed in a given area (lions and leopards cannot be placed in the same area).
- They eat all the herbivores present in the same area.
Herbivores
- When a carnivore or a crocodile is placed in an area containing herbivores, all the herbivores present in that Area are eaten.
- It is not possible to place a herbivore in an area that already contains a crocodile or a carnivore (the herbivore would be eaten).
- Herbivores of the same kind in the same area constitute a Herd. A herd gives additional victory points (bonus) as shown in the table below.
Herd bonus table:
- 2 identical: + 1 point
- 3 identical: + 2 points
- 4 identical: + 4 points
- 5 identical: + 7 points
- 6 identical: + 12 points
Pachyderms
- Only one type of pachyderm can be placed in a given area (rhinoceroses and elephants cannot be placed in the same area).
- The rhinoceros and white rhinoceros are considered to be of the same kind.
- Pachyderms are very big. Consequently, there is a limit to the number of pachyderms in an area as shown in the following table:
| Max number of pachyderms in the same area | Pachyderms allowed |
|---|---|
| 3 space Area | 1 pachyderm (depressed). Only 1 pachyderm can be placed in a 3-space area (depressed). |
| 4 space Area | 2 pachyderms |
| 6 space Area | 3 pachyderms |
Aquatics
- Only one type of aquatics can be placed in the same area (hippopotami and crocodiles cannot be placed into the same area).
- Aquatics can only be placed on River spaces (blue).
- Crocodiles eat any herbivores present in the same area.
Impossibility to place an Animal (dead animal)
It may happen that an animal cannot be placed in the reserve without violating one or more rules. In that case, the animal is not placed and, consequently, dies. The card remains face-down close to the territory cards of the player (in the "cemetery"). At the end of the game, the player will subtract the value of the dead animals from his score.
Eaten Herbivores
It may happen that one or more herbivores are eaten by a carnivore or by a crocodile. This happens when a carnivore or a crocodile is placed in an area containing one or more herbivores.
In that case, the cards of the eaten animals are placed face-down close to the territory cards of the player (in the "cemetery").
Eaten animals leave some free spaces in the reserve. If there are other animals in the same column as the eaten animals, the surviving animals are shifted down to the lowest free spaces of the column in order to fill the gaps.
- Example: The player is forced to place a lion in a 6-space area. The lion eats the zebras. The zebra cards are removed and they are placed face-down into the "cemetery". The lion card is shifted down, to the lowest free space in the column.
End of Game, Victory Point Distribution
At the end of the game, victory points are evaluated. The winner is the player with the highest score. In case of a tie, the winner is the player with the fewest animals in the "cemetery".
Victory point summary:
| Description | Victory points |
|---|---|
| Animal correctly placed | Victory points shown on card (example: a gnu placed in a 4 or 6-space area is worth 2 victory points) |
| "Depressed" animals | 0 point (example: a gnu placed in a 3-space area) |
| Herd of herbivores correctly placed | some additional points, depending on the size of the herd (see specific rules) |
| Herd of "depressed" herbivores | 0 additional points |
| Eaten herbivores and other dead animals | negative victory points (example: -2 for a gnu that is dead or eaten) |
- An example of player victory points distribution is shown in the rulebook (3 space area: 24 points; 4 space area: 12 points; 6 space area: 13 points; 2 space area: 1 point). Its per-animal values are shown as graphics in the source and are not reproduced here.