Amoeba (2019)
Amoeba (2019) Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 84 unique amoeba tiles
- Dice
- Nucleus figures (4 colours, 10 in each colour)
Goal
Score the most points, based on the amoebas you control when the game ends.
Setup
Turn all amoeba tiles face down and make draw piles of them. Each player draws three amoeba tiles. Each player also chooses a colour and takes the ten nucleus figures in that colour.
The youngest player begins.
How to Play
On your turn, roll the dice and place the indicated number of tiles (1, 2 or 3). New tiles must always be placed so that they touch tiles already on the table (except the first tile of the game).
Amoeba tiles may lie directly against each other, with the corners touching, or they may lie offset relative to each other. The blue and pink fields on a tile must be placed so that they match the corresponding fields on other tiles: pink against pink, and blue against blue.
Diagram captions: "Tiles can be placed directly against each other, or offset. Pink must lie against pink, and blue against blue." / "Not an amoeba that one can claim ownership of. Too small." / "An amoeba." / "Not an amoeba. Unfinished."
You can never place a tile so that blue and pink touch each other.
After placing, draw up to three tiles again. Play then passes to the left.
Building Amoebas
Amoebas are built by combining the pink shapes on the tiles. An amoeba is complete when its pink field is completely surrounded by blue on all edges. You can then claim ownership of the amoeba by placing one of your nucleus figures on it.
You cannot claim ownership of an amoeba that is smaller than two segments. An amoeba consisting of only one segment will drift away and is not worth anything to anyone.
Splitting an Amoeba
By splitting up an opponent's amoeba, you can take the largest piece and secure the points for it.
You split an amoeba by placing a tile on top of it that divides it in two. An amoeba must have a size of at least four segments before it can be split, and after the split each part must consist of at least two segments. You therefore cannot split a four-segment amoeba into one part of three segments and another part of one segment.
You may also place a tile that splits an amoeba into three parts. In that case you take ownership of the two largest parts.
Amoebas may be split several times during the game, as long as each result is an amoeba consisting of at least two segments.
When you split an amoeba, move the owner's nucleus figure onto the smallest part and place your own nucleus on the largest part.
Diagram captions: "This tile splits the opponent's amoeba." / "Whoever split the amoeba takes the largest half."
You cannot split your own amoeba, and you may only add one extra storey of tiles to an amoeba. Amoebas can only be built up and split; you cannot connect two amoebas to make one large amoeba out of them.
There is one exception: when you split an amoeba, this is allowed even if it would result in one of the amoeba's parts being joined with another complete amoeba. In that case you become the owner of the merged amoeba.
End of the Game
The game ends immediately when all the tiles have been placed, or when no player has any nucleus figures left to place. Players then add up their points by counting the segments in each of their amoebas. Each segment is worth 1 point. The player with the most points has won the game.
Diagram captions: "Yellow gets 8 points." / "Blue gets 4 points."
In case of a tie, the tied player with the largest amoeba wins.