China Moon
China Moon Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 1 Game Board
- 15 Frog Markers, three per player
- 17 Lotus Flower Tokens: 5 yellow, 5 pink, 5 white, 1 black and 1 blue
- 1 Rulebook
Set Up
Each player chooses a color and takes the three corresponding Frog Markers, placing them on the starting space, in the lower left-hand corner of the game board.
3 Lotus Flowers (1 pink, 1 white and 1 yellow) are placed at random on the three spaces numbered "1, 2, 3" in the winner's circle (the island in the center of the game board).
The Blue Lotus is placed on space "4" in the winner's circle.
The Black Lotus is placed on the last Lotus Flower space (marked by 3 black Lotus Flowers) on the lily pad race course.
The remaining lotus flowers (4 each of pink, white and yellow) are placed at random on the 12 other Lotus Flower spaces.
Starting the Game
The oldest player starts, by moving 3 frogs of his/her choice, in succession, according to the rules set forth below. Play then proceeds clockwise around the table.
Movement of Frogs
On his turn, a player MUST move 3 different frogs in succession. He can move EITHER his own frogs OR frogs belonging to other players. Among the 3 frogs moved, at least one must belong to another player.
The player whose turn it is advances the first frog of his choice 2 spaces. The player then advances a second frog of his choice 2 spaces in the same manner. Finally, the player advances a third and final frog, of his choice, 2 spaces.
The moves must be made one after the other.
All movement must be forward; a frog can never move backwards.
Only one frog may occupy a space (lily pad). Occupied lily pads are not counted when moving. A movement of one lily pad may therefore consist of hopping over one or more other frogs in order to reach the first free lily pad.
Special Spaces
Lotus Flower Spaces: When a frog ends its movement on a space that is occupied by a Lotus Flower Token (including the Black Lotus), the owner of the frog (not necessarily the player that moved the frog) takes the Lotus Flower Token and places it, face up, in front of himself.
Silly Frog Spaces: When a frog ends its movement on a Silly Frog space, the owner of the frog (not necessarily the player that moved the frog) MUST give one of his Lotus Flowers to another player and take from that player a Lotus Flower of another color in exchange. The owner of the frog chooses the exchange he makes, but he MUST make the exchange, even if he doesn't want to. (From the French rules:) If the exchange is not possible because only one player has lotus flowers, nothing happens.
Rebound Spaces: When a frog ends its movement on a space depicting a Spring, that frog immediately moves two spaces again. (From the French rules:) If there is a lotus flower on this space when the frog arrives, it takes it before moving the two additional spaces.
Butterfly Spaces: When a frog ends its movement on a space depicting a butterfly, that frog tries to catch the butterfly and is momentarily distracted, losing interest in the beautiful Lotus Flowers. The owner of this frog (not necessarily the player that moved the frog) abandons one of his lotus flowers (of his choice), which is then placed on the first free space behind the butterfly.
Note: The Black and Blue Lotus Flowers can be abandoned or exchanged in the same manner as any of the other Lotus Flowers.
Ending the Game
The first frog to arrive in the winner's circle collects Lotus Flower #1 for its owner. The second frog collects #2, and the third frog collects #3. The fourth frog collects the Blue Lotus, and the game immediately ends, even if there are other flowers left on the game board.
Note: When landing on the ending space (the winner's circle), it is not necessary to use all of the frog's movement points to arrive on the space. A frog may move one space instead of two in order to land on this space.
Winning the Game
The player with the highest total points (as shown below) has created the most beautiful bouquet, and wins the game.
Counting the Points
Each player adds up their points as follows:
- The first yellow, white or pink lotus in their bouquet is worth 1 point. The second of the same color is worth 2 points, and so on.
- In addition, the player possessing the Blue Lotus gains 4 points, and the player with the Black Lotus loses 2 points.
Therefore the scoring looks like this:
| Lotus flowers | Points |
|---|---|
| 1 single White, Yellow or Pink Lotus | 1 |
| 2 flowers of the same color | 3 |
| 3 flowers of the same color | 6 |
| 4 flowers of the same color | 10 |
| 5 flowers of the same color | 15 |
| Blue Lotus | 4 |
| Black Lotus | -2 |
The player with the highest total wins the game.