boop the Halls!
boop the Halls! Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents & Set Up
Empty the box and join the four board sections together in the center of the table. On the board, stack the three tiers of the "tree" on top of one another, fitting them into the matching indentations, as shown in the illustration below.
Players take 8 Kittens and 3 Ornaments in the color they choose. For now, the adult Cats wait beside the box.
The player who is first to hum "Last Christmas" begins; you may also determine the first player at random.
Components:
- 4-part game board (the ground level of the tree)
- Three levels that stack to form the tree
- 8 White-Gold Kittens and 8 White-Gold Cats (the Cats start in reserve)
- 8 Black-Red Kittens and 8 Black-Red Cats (the Cats start in reserve)
- 3 White-Gold Ornaments and 3 Black-Red Ornaments
The tiers are numbered from the top down: Level 1 is the small top of the tree, Level 2 is the Decoration level, Level 3 is the next tier, and Level 4 is the four-part board itself.
Object
Place your Kittens on any free space of the tree. Gather three Kittens in a row — horizontally, vertically or diagonally — so that they grow into Cats. Win by either:
Nice: Gather 3 adult Cats in a row, or place all 8 of your Cats on the tree!
or Naughty: Take all 3 of your opponent's Ornaments by booping them off the tree, or by catching them with your adult Cats!
"Booping"
It is not easy to gather three Kittens in a row, because every piece placed on the board "boops" the pieces adjacent to it one space away, including diagonally (see fig. 1a & 1b).
Do not let the tiered construction of the board confuse you. Kittens and Cats can be pushed both down and up. It is sometimes worth looking at the board from above to get a better picture of the situation.
Nothing adds to the atmosphere like sound effects, so meow and boop to your heart's content. :)
Pieces booped off the tree return to their owners (see fig. 1b).
A booped piece does not cause a chain reaction. The pieces it is pushed towards stay in place (see fig. 1b).
When two pieces are already in a line, a piece added into that line does not boop them, regardless of their color (of course, they can still be moved by booping from other directions). (see fig. 2)
A good strategy is creating pairs and breaking up your opponent's pairs. In fig. 2, if it had been the White player's turn and their Kitten had been placed on the board, they would have gathered 3 White Kittens in a row on the diagonal. Breaking up or blocking your opponent's pairs is key.
fig. 1a (Placing): Placing the white Kitten does not create a row of three. Instead, the pieces adjacent to the indicated space are pushed one space away.
fig. 1b (Booping): Pieces can be booped right off the tree! But there are no chain reactions, so Kitten (a) does not move.
fig. 2: After the black Kitten is played, Kitten (b) is booped, but the others do not move, because they cannot be booped into one another. A line of two (or more) Kittens blocks the movement.
Graduating Kittens into Cats
After booping, check whether you have gathered 3 Kittens in a row. If you have (horizontally, vertically or diagonally), exchange them for Cats. (see fig. 3)
Take the Kittens off the board and remove them from the game — best of all into the box lid, since cats love boxes. Then take adult Cats from the reserve in their place and add them to your pool (you do not put them on the board yet). You ALWAYS have 8 active pieces in the game. You may also form a row out of Kittens AND Cats (see "Cats" below).
Optionally, if after your move all 8 of your pieces (not counting Ornaments) are on the board, you may remove any one of your Kittens from the game and take an adult Cat into your pool. Alternatively, if it is the better strategy, you may instead take one of your Cats off the board and leave the Kitten in place.
In the rare case of gathering more than 3 pieces in a row, or of creating several groups of three, you choose which group of Kittens grows up and leave the rest on the board (see fig. 4). Likewise, if you simultaneously have 3 pieces in a row and a total of 8 pieces on the board, you choose which one is applied: the row, or the graduation for having all your pieces on the board.
fig. 3: The White player gathered 3 Kittens in a row. They remove them from the game and place 3 adult Cats in their pool.
fig. 4: When you create more combinations than you can change, choose one of them. Take the corresponding pieces off the board and leave the rest in place.
Cats
Once you have adult Cats in your pool, you decide whether to play a Cat or a Kitten. Cats work the same way, but they CANNOT be booped by Kittens. Cats can boop both other Cats and Kittens.
If your row of 3 pieces contains both Cats and Kittens, you still take all 3 pieces off the board and exchange the Kittens for Cats (see fig. 5). Both the older Cats and the newly grown Cats land in your pool.
fig. 5: There is no obstacle to Cats helping to form a row of 3. Take all 3 pieces off the board. Here, 2 Kittens turn into Cats and, together with the Cat from the row, land in your pool.
Ornaments
Golden Rule: If you have no Ornament on the tree, you must begin your turn by placing your ornament on the tree.
Ornaments let you win — or lose — the booping duel in a new, Naughty way.
Each player begins the game with 3 Ornaments in their color. At any one time you may have only one Ornament on the tree. Per the Golden Rule above, if your Ornament is not on the tree at the start of your turn, you must begin your move by placing it on the board — this includes the start of the game!
Ornaments must be placed on any free space of the Decoration level (the second level from the top). The hoomans hang them high, as if out of reach of paws. Ha, silly hoomans.
In the rare case that there are no free spaces on the Decoration level, place the Ornament on any free space of a lower level.
After hanging the Ornament, the player continues their turn by the standard rules, placing a Kitten or a Cat on the board.
Ornaments can be booped by Kittens as well as by Cats, in the same way, on the same level or to a lower level. They cannot travel upward — in that case the Ornament stays in place. (That is also why an Ornament will never be found at the top of the tree.)
Booping your opponent's Ornament off the tree: When a player boops an opponent's Ornament off the board, they take it and place it in their victory area (the corner nearest them, with the gold ribbon). Taking all 3 of your opponent's Ornaments wins you the game!
Booping your own Ornament off the tree: You may boop your own Ornament off the tree so that it does not fall into your opponent's paws. In that case it simply returns to your pool. This can be an important defensive tactic.
The Ornament must be placed on one of the 8 spaces of the second level.
Ornaments cannot be booped upward. They can, however, be booped on the same level, downward, or knocked entirely off the tree. Ornaments can be knocked off the tree from any of the indicated spaces on levels 3 and 4.
Cats Can Pounce on Ornaments!
If a Kitten would be booped onto a space holding an Ornament, the boop is blocked and the Kitten does not move.
This Kitten stays in place, because the Ornament blocks the movement.
Things get a little more complicated once Cats come into play. If an adult Cat is booped onto a space with an Ornament, it pounces on the Ornament and catches it; the Cat then returns to its owner's pool. If you caught your own Ornament, it also returns to your pool. But if you pounce on your opponent's Ornament, you take it!
So be careful not to place your Ornament next to your opponent's Cat — unless you plan to boop the pieces to safer places during your turn.
Booping a Cat onto an Ornament means catching it — the Cat returns to its owner's pool, and the Ornament goes to its owner's pool or to the victory area.
Notes for Clever Cats
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The two upper levels of the board can be very tempting, because they are far from the edges of the board and it is harder to boop the pieces placed there off it. But do not be afraid to push your own pieces off the tree — sometimes playing them anew from your reserve is the better strategy for the turns to come.
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Gathering 2 pieces in a line is only one of the tactics for collecting 3 Kittens in a row. You can also try the clever strategy of arranging the animals in an "L" shape and then booping your own piece right into the middle. Be careful — the three-dimensional tree board means this is not always easy to spot.
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Once you have Cats, consider placing them ALL on the tree, especially if your opponent does not have any yet. Kittens cannot boop them, so they will be stuck in place for a while.
Winning
Nice: You win when, at the end of your turn, you have gathered 3 Cats in a row (horizontally, vertically or diagonally), or all 8 of your Cats are on the tree.
Naughty: You win when you have taken all 3 of your opponent's Ornaments.
IMPORTANT: A win is only checked after all booped pieces have completed their movement.
Variants
Does the three-dimensional playing field bother you? Try playing on the flat board alone. (Remember that Ornaments cannot be booped towards the center of the board.)
Prefer just booping? Play without the Ornaments.
Credits
Design: Scott Brady. Graphics / Illustration: Curt Covert.
(C) 2024 Smirk and Dagger Games. All Rights Reserved. Smirk and Dagger Games, 30 Lyrical Lane, Sandy Hook, CT 06482.