Animal Upon Animal: Crest Climbers
Animal Upon Animal: Crest Climbers Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Info
A wobbly stacking game for 2 - 4 animal-piling players aged 4 - 99.
- Author: Klaus Miltenberger
- Illustrations: Michael Bayer
- Length of the game: approx. 15 minutes
Game Idea
Together you build an animal pyramid. One by one you try to stack your animals on top of each other, without any of them falling off. However, it's not as easy as it seems as the die indicates how many animals have to be stacked onto which part of the animal pyramid. The aim of the game is to be the first to stack all your animals on the animal pyramid.
Contents
- 1 mountain panorama
- 4 Saint Bernards
- 4 cows
- 4 marmots
- 4 squirrels
- 4 goats
- 4 snakes
- 4 pine trees
- 1 die with symbols
- Set of game instructions
Preparation of the Game
It is best to play on a flat surface. Place the mountain panorama in the center of the table. This is the base for the pyramid. Each player gets one animal of each kind and one pine tree. (The same applies for the pine trees as for the animals from now on).
Get the die ready.
How to Play
Play in a clockwise direction. Whoever can yodel best, starts and rolls the die.
What Appears on the Die?
A dot
Take an animal from your provision and stack it carefully on the mountain panorama. You may also stack your animal on top of any animals that have already been placed there.
Two dots
Take two animals from your stock and pile them carefully one after the other on the mountain panorama or on animals that have been stacked there already.
The hand
Choose any one of your animals and give it to another player. This player now has to pile the animal carefully on the pyramid.
The question mark
The other players now choose which of your animals you have to stack on the pyramid.
The mountain panorama
Take an animal from your stock and put it next to one of the ends of the mountain panorama so that both pieces touch. Thus you enlarge the surface used for piling animals. From now on you can stack any new animal onto the one you have just added. If there is already an animal to the left or to the right of the mountain panorama the new animal has to touch one of them after it has been placed.
Important Animal Upon Animal Rules
- You can only use one hand for stacking.
- Have all the animals fallen off the pyramid without anybody intervening? In this case all the animals that have fallen off are placed back in the box.
Then it's the turn of the next player.
What Happens If the Animal Pyramid Collapses Completely or in Part?
Oh dear! Your stacking attempt ends immediately.
- If in the process of stacking, one or two animals fall off, you have to take back one or both animals. If more than two animals have fallen off, they are placed back in the box.
- If the whole pyramid collapses, you have to take two of the animals that have fallen off. The rest are placed back in the box. Place the mountain panorama in the center of the table once again.
End of the Game
The game ends as soon as a player is left without animals. He or she wins and is elected crest climber of the day.
Variation for Animal Stacking Experts
Experienced players also take the following supplementary rules into account!
- If you are less than four players you distribute the remaining animals at random between you.
- If animals fall off the pyramid, the piling player has to take up to five animals.
- If it is the turn of a player who is left with just one animal the die isn't thrown, but the player takes the animal and stacks it immediately onto the pyramid.
If You Want to Pile Animals on Your Own
How many animals can you stack on the mountain panorama without the pyramid collapsing?
The Author
Klaus Miltenberger was born in 1963 in Aschaffenburg/Main and grew up surrounded by many animals, on a small farm in the woods of Spessart. After finishing his training as a chef, he studied education, psychology and sociology at the Ludwig-Maximilian's University in Munich. He lives in Munich where he works in the field of pedagogy and inventing games.
He has already invented the original version of the prize winning game Animal upon Animal.
The Illustrator
Michael Bayer, born in 1971 in Friedrichshafen, next to beautiful Lake Constance. Since early childhood he has absorbed the variety of shapes nature offers and still enjoys their benefits.
He completed his graphic design and illustration studies at the polytechnic of Münster (Westphalia). After a short detour into publicity, he has worked since 2001 as a freelance illustrator for the "Hafenstrasse 64" studio community in Münster.
Michael Bayer has already illustrated the whole Animal upon Animal series.