Esels-Rennen Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Setup
• Goal of the Game
• Playing the Game
• End of the Game
• Score
• Optional Points System

Contents

• 1 game board
• 3 donkey markers in red, green and yellow
• 6 cards showing donkeys on a podium

Setup

Each player draws two cards, or only one card if there are more than 3 players. The remaining cards are set aside face down. Players may look only at their own card(s).

Goal of the Game

Make the donkeys finish the race in the order shown on your card, or in the order shown on one of your finishing cards.

Playing the Game

All donkeys are placed on the starting spaces (the ones without any arrow), one donkey per space.

Each player turn consists of two phases:

1. Move any donkey of your choice forward to a free adjacent space in front of it.
2. The space reached by the donkey that has just moved contains a coloured arrow. The arrow indicates the movement for the donkey of the matching colour. The player takes the donkey of that colour and moves it one space in that direction. That space in turn indicates another donkey and a direction, and so on. Continue in this way until a donkey ends on an arrow of its own colour, OR until a donkey cannot advance because the space is already occupied by another donkey.

End of the Game

(Heading as printed in the source. The paragraph below contains the special movement rules, arrival rules and the mid-race rule; the end condition itself is under "Score".)

As long as all three donkeys are still in play, you may move a donkey backwards during your first phase if it is on a starting space that is a "sand" space. All movements of phase 2 proceed as usual. You may not "reculer écarter" the donkey that moved last during the turn of the player before you. (Translator's note: the source sentence is garbled at this point, with two verbs run together, "reculer" (move back) and "écarter" (push aside). The rule as printed is kept here; the intended meaning is not certain.)

If a donkey has reached the end (one of the last four places), it is placed immediately on the podium, and the sequence of movements continues normally.

If only two donkeys remain in the race and one of these donkeys lands on a space with an arrow of the donkey that has already arrived, the turn also ends.

Score

The game stops when the second donkey reaches the finish. The winner is the player whose card shows the order of arrival. If no player has the correct top three, everyone has lost.

Optional Points System

To play several races, the following points system may be used:

• if your card shows the correct donkey in first place: 2 points
• if your card shows the correct donkey in second place: 1 point
• if your card shows the first two donkeys swapped: 1 point

Add up the points at the end of each race.

If a player has 2 cards (when there are 3 players or fewer), only the points of the better card are counted.