Elephant Rally Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Objective
• Components
• Setup
• On Your Turn
  • Play Cards
  • Draw Cards
• On Another Player's Turn
• Elephant Movement
• Board Effects
  • Banana Tree
  • River/Bridge
• Card Effects
  • Charge
  • Magic Carpet
  • Mango Juice
  • Mouse
  • Holy Cow
  • Monkey
  • Prayer
  • Snake Charmer
  • Tiger
• Victory

Objective

Formula E is a race to get your Elephant around the course and across the finish line first. You will play cards to move your Elephant–pushing other Elephants, dodging or charging through obstacles, and seeking beneficial spaces or advantageous positioning. You will also use cards to trigger special events to benefit yourself or hinder your opponents.

Components

• 6 Elephant pawns
• 4 Cobra chips
• 72 cards
• 10 Holy Cow pawns
• 1 Mouse pawn
• 1 Double-Sided Game Board

Setup

• Place the board on the table with the correct side up. The sides are labeled 3/4 players and 5/6 players.
• Place the Holy Cow pawns on the designated spaces on the track.
• Place the Mouse pawn on the first mouse hole ahead of the start/finish line.
• Each player chooses a colored Elephant pawn. Have one player gather the pawns together and blindly draw one. This will be the starting player.
• Starting with the last player and moving counter-clockwise, players place their own Elephant pawns on one of the six arrow starting spaces. The first player is the last to choose a starting space.
• Shuffle the cards and deal six cards to each player. The remaining cards form a draw deck.
• The starting player takes the first turn. Play then continues clockwise.

On Your Turn

Play Cards

You must do ONE (and only one) of the following actions:

• Play one card of any color.
• Play one green card and one yellow card in any order.
• Discard any number of cards from your hand.

You must apply every effect of a played card, if possible (see the Elephant Movement section for exceptions to this rule).

If you played two cards on your turn, you must fully resolve one card before resolving the second card (exception: Charge, Mango Juice, and Magic Carpet must be played in conjunction with a movement card and the two cards are resolved simultaneously).

Draw Cards

Count the cards in your hand at the end of your turn, then:

• If you have fewer than six cards, draw cards until you have six cards.
• If you have six or more cards, do not draw any cards.
• If you drew any cards, discard one card of your choice for each Cobra chip you have (see Snake Charmer and Tiger in the Card Effects section for details).

When the draw deck is exhausted, the discarded cards are shuffled to form a new draw deck.

On Another Player's Turn

The Tiger card is the only card that can be played out-of-turn. Doing so allows you to cancel the effects of one card played by the active player. The Tiger card must be played before the active player starts to resolve the played card–once the card action has begun you cannot cancel it.

Elephant Movement

Playing a green or purple card allows you to advance your Elephant the number of grid spaces shown in the upper right corner of the card.

There are a number of rules governing how your Elephant may move on the track.

• Your Elephant must move the full number of grid spaces shown on the card if possible.
• Your Elephant cannot occupy or pass through a grid space occupied by a Holy Cow or another Elephant.
• Your Elephant cannot move backward (unless a Mouse card is played–see Card Effects section below).
• Your Elephant cannot move diagonal-backward.
• Your Elephant cannot move diagonal-forward (unless a Mango Juice card is played–see Card Effects section below).
• Your Elephant cannot move sideways unless forward motion is impossible.
• When moving forward, your Elephant will push all other Elephants ahead of it in the same lane.
• A Holy Cow is an obstacle that Elephants cannot push (unless a Charge card is played–see Card Effects section below).
• When forced to move sideways, you may choose left or right if there is an option.
• When moving sideways, your Elephant will push all other Elephants it encounters in the direction of sideways movement until forward movement is again possible or no movement options remain.

Board Effects

Banana Tree

If your Elephant ends its movement on a grid space that contains a Banana Tree, you immediately draw additional cards until you have a hand of nine cards.

If you have any Cobra chips, discard one card of your choice for each Cobra chip you have.

Being pushed onto a Banana Tree does not earn you any card draws. If your Elephant is already on a Banana Tree and does not move during your turn, you do not receive any bonus card draws.

River/Bridge

An Elephant cannot be pushed onto a Bridge grid space or into a River grid space. A pushed Elephant will stop on the grid space before the Bridge or River and become an obstacle that cannot be pushed, like a Holy Cow.

An Elephant stopped at a Bridge or River may be pushed onto the Bridge or River with a Charge card (see Card Effects section below).

The player who controls the stopped Elephant may move it normally on that player's turn.

Card Effects

Charge

To play the Charge card, you must also play a movement card. The Charge card allows your Elephant to push both Elephants and Holy Cows ahead of it in the same lane, up to the value of the movement card (see Bridge/River above).

Magic Carpet

To play the Magic Carpet card, you must also play a movement card. The Magic Carpet card allows your Elephant to fly over any Elephants and Holy Cows in the same lane.

Your Elephant must move the full value of the movement card and the grid space on which it lands must be unoccupied. Your Elephant cannot change lanes and cannot land outside of the grid spaces. If the Elephant cannot meet one or both of these requirements, the Magic Carpet card cannot be played.

Mango Juice

To play the Mango Juice card, you must also play a movement card. The Mango Juice card allows your Elephant to move forward or sideways as usual or diagonal-forward onto unoccupied grid spaces up to the value of the movement card. Your Elephant does not push other Elephants when moving diagonal-forward.

Mouse

When you play the Mouse card, you may move the Mouse pawn up to six grid spaces following these rules:

• Moving the Mouse from one mouse hole to another mouse hole counts as one grid space.
• The Mouse may not move diagonally.
• The Mouse may move through grid spaces occupied by Holy Cows as if the Holy Cows were not there.
• When the Mouse enters a grid space occupied by an Elephant, its movement ends.

As soon as the Mouse enters a grid space occupied by an Elephant, that Elephant moves three grid spaces backward, pushing any Elephants and Holy Cows in the same lane.

If the full amount of backward movement is blocked by the lane ending, the frightened Elephant moves sideways until backward movement is again possible or until it has moved all three grid-spaces.

After scaring an Elephant, move the Mouse to the nearest mouse hole.

Holy Cow

When you play a Holy Cow card, you may move any number of Holy Cows on the track up to a total of eight grid spaces.

• Holy Cows may not move diagonally.
• Holy Cows may not move into a grid space occupied by an Elephant or another Holy Cow.
• You need not move all of the eight allowed grid spaces.
• You may not take some Holy Cow movements, play a green card, and then take the remaining Holy Cow movements.

Monkey

When you play the Monkey card, take two cards at random from the hand of another player.

If you steal a green card and have not yet played a green card on this turn, you may play the stolen green card immediately.

Prayer

When you play a Prayer card, you may look through the discard pile, take one card of your choice, and add it to your hand.

You may not look through the discard pile until after you have played the Prayer card.

If you choose a green card and have not yet played a green card on this turn, you may play the chosen green card immediately.

Snake Charmer

When you play a Snake Charmer card, give a Cobra chip to a player. Each Cobra chip forces the player to discard one card each time they draw cards.

If all four of the Cobra chips are already in front of players when you play a Snake Charmer card, choose any Cobra chip already in play (including your own) and give it to a different player.

Tiger

You may play the Tiger card as a yellow card on your turn or as a red card on another player's turn.

When played on your turn, the Tiger card allows you to discard all of the Cobra chips that have been played against you.

When played on another player's turn, the Tiger card cancels the effect of one card played by that player. The Tiger card must be played before the active player starts to resolve the played card–once the card action has begun you cannot cancel it. The cancelled card still counts as played, but it has no effect at all.

Victory

The first Elephant to complete one lap and cross the red finish line (or to be pushed across the red finish line) wins the race.