Aqua
Aqua Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Components
- 18 Painting cards (Wave x 6, Lily Pads x 6, Boat x 3, Sea Turtle x 6)
- 2 Player Aid cards (Row Player, Column Player)
- 6 Visitor Tokens
- 1 Rulebook
Game Objective
Players will take turns placing painting cards in the museum, with some cards facing up and others facing down. The objective is to score points by strategically aligning cards with matching icons and numbers in each row or column, plus strategic positioning of sea turtle and lily pad paintings. The player who ends the game with the most points wins!
Game Setup
- Column/Row Player. Decide which player will be the column player, and which will be the row player.
- At the end of the game, one player will score points for how the cards are arranged in columns, while the other player will score for how the cards are arranged in rows.
- It is recommended that the column player sit below the cards, while the row player should sit to the side of the cards, so that each player can best see the cards for their particular scoring setup.
- Player Aid and Visitor Tokens. Give each player one of the player aid cards. Set the visitor tokens off to the side within reach of both players.
- Prepare Painting Cards. Shuffle the deck of painting cards facedown to create a draw deck. Place the draw deck to the side.
- Start Player. Place the top card from the deck faceup in the middle of the table. If the painting card number is odd, place a card facedown below the starting card. The row player will start the game. If the card number is even, place a card facedown to the right of the starting card. The column player will start the game.
- Starting Cards. Deal three cards to each player. You are ready to begin the game!
Gameplay / Turn
The start player takes the first turn, and then players take turns until the game ends. On each turn, the active player must take two actions in order.
- Place a card (see below)
- Draw a card
- After placing a card, a player will draw a card to replenish their hand to three cards.
- If the draw deck runs out, players will continue to play cards from their hand on their turn without drawing new cards.
Place a Card
- The player must place one of the cards from their hand into the display. The card must be placed orthogonally next to a card that's already been placed.
- If the card is placed next to a facedown card (or cards), then the card is placed faceup. Conversely, if the card is placed next to a faceup card (or cards), then the card is placed facedown.
Revealing Facedown Cards
- If a facedown card is ever surrounded on all four sides by faceup cards, then the card is flipped faceup and remains that way for the rest of the game.
- If multiple cards are surrounded at the same time, reveal them simultaneously.
Placing a Boat
- When a boat card is played faceup, the active player places two visitor tokens on the card. That player may then move the token to another card up to three orthogonal painting spaces away.
- Once the player has finalized their token placement, the other player may move the other token using the same guidelines. These tokens will increase the value of that card during the scoring phase of the game (see Scoring).
- If a boat card is played facedown, then the visitor tokens are not placed on the card. The tokens are also not placed on a boat card that is flipped faceup after being surrounded by faceup cards.
Example: The 7 boat card is added to the play area. The active player puts two visitor tokens on the card. The active player then moves one of the tokens to a facedown card three spaces away. The other player then moves the other token two spaces to an 8 sea turtle.
Ending the Game
The game ends when both players have played every card from their hand. After the last card has been placed, all facedown cards are turned faceup. Afterwards, the scoring phase begins.
Scoring and Win
Scoring is based on two different criteria: 1. Set Collection; 2. Lily Pads.
Set Collection
- Players will first earn points based on collections of certain icons and the numbers on the cards.
- Only rows and columns with a total card value between 10 and 20 are considered for scoring.
Wave, Lily Pad, Boat, and Numbers
- Players earn points for sets of matching numbers or icons (wave, lily pad, or boat) in a column / row. The point values are shown in the table below.
| Cards in Set | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Victory Points | 2 | 3 | 5 | 8 |
Sea Turtles
- Turtles only earn points if they are orthogonally adjacent to wave cards.
- For the column player, a turtle card scores 2 victory points if a wave card is either directly above OR below it. It will score 5 victory points if wave cards are both above AND below it.
- For the row player, the scoring rules are the same, except that the cards directly to the left and right of the turtle are considered.
Visitor Tokens
- When scoring for set collection or turtles, any scoring card that has a visitor token is worth an additional point each time that it is scored. Thus, a token could count as part of a set for the card's number AND for its symbol.
- A visitor token on the sea turtle gives the scoring sea turtle one additional point and the visitor token on the adjacent wave does not.
Lily Pads Bonus
- Players earn additional points based on the number of adjacent columns / rows with at least one lily pad.
| Number of Adjacent Columns/Rows | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 (Max) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Victory Points | 2 | 3 | 5 | 8 |
- All columns / rows are considered for lily pad scoring, not just those that were scored for set collection.
- It is possible to score multiple groups of columns / rows.
Win
Players should tally their scores one column / row at a time for sets and sea turtles, then review the entire layout for lily pad bonus scoring. After totaling up all their points, the player with the most wins!
Scoring Example
The example layout is shown graphically in the rulebook. Column and row totals are checked against the 10-20 range: for example, a line totaling 24, 22 or 8 is not scored, while lines totaling 19, 13 or 17 score sets.
- Set Collection: Row player 20 points; Column player 19 points.
- Lily Pad Bonus: Row player scores 5 points (4 adjacent rows); Column player scores 3 points (3 adjacent columns).
- Final Scoring: Row player 20 + 5 = 25 (winner); Column player 19 + 3 = 22.