Fisch & Flausch
Fisch & Flausch Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Components
- 6 Snappers
- 1 Start Cat, with the deal of starting cards printed on the back
- 42 Toys, 6 each with the values 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13
- 16 Normal Fish, 2 each with the values 2, 6, 8, 12, 14, 18, 20 and 24
- 4 Nasty Fish, with the values 4/-6, 10/0, 16/6 and 22/12
- 3 Fishbones
Goal of the Game
Over 18 rounds you bid with your cards, face down, on fish of greater or lesser value. The player with the highest bid gives their bid cards to the player with the second-highest bid, who in turn passes on their cards. This continues until the lowest bid is finally knocked out and a new fish appears. The player with the most points at the end wins!
Setup
Shuffle all 23 fish and then, without looking at them, return 5 cards to the box. Place the remaining 18 cards as a face-down fish deck in the middle of the table. Depending on how many players there are (2, 3 or 4-6), each player receives the yellow toys shown here, plus 1 or 2 Snappers:
- 2 players: 2× Toy 1, 2× Toy 3, 2× Toy 5, plus Toys 7, 9, 11 and 13, and 2 Snappers.
- 3 players: 2× Toy 1, 2× Toy 3, plus Toys 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13, and 1 Snapper.
- 4-6 players: Toys 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13, and 1 Snapper.
All remaining toys and Snappers go back into the box. Whoever likes cats best receives the Start Cat and begins the first round.
Gameplay
The game lasts 18 rounds. In each round you carry out the following 3 steps:
- Reveal a fish. Turn over the top fish from the fish deck. You will bid on this fish in this round.
- Place bids. Whoever has the Start Cat places a bid for the revealed fish first. The others then follow clockwise around the table. A bid always consists of at least 1 point card (Toy/Fish) and is placed face down in front of you. The other players can therefore only see how many cards each person has bid, but not their point values.
- Distribute bids. Now reveal all bids. The player who bid the most points, i.e. who laid down the highest total of points, receives the fish. The player with the second-highest bid receives the bid cards. The player with the third-highest bid then receives their bid cards, and so on. All received cards (Toys, Fish and Snappers) are always taken into hand and can be bid again in later rounds. The cards of the lowest bid overall are finally placed on an open discard pile, and the corresponding player receives the Start Cat. That player then begins a new round.
Important: If several players reveal a bid with an identical point total, the bid that sits closer to the Start Cat in playing order always counts as the higher bid.
Special Cards
Nasty Fish
Nasty Fish always have 2 different point values printed on their card. The higher value applies during the game, i.e. when you use the Nasty Fish as a bid. The lower value applies only at the end of the game, when points are counted. During the game, Nasty Fish are therefore clearly better than at the end.
Fishbones
Fishbones are always worth 0 points. In addition, you may not use them as a bid. So you will not get rid of them!
Snappers
Each of you starts with 1 Snapper (or 2 in a two-player game). Snappers may be bid together with at least one point card (Toy/Fish), but never alone. If, after the bids are revealed, only one person has bid a Snapper, that person may immediately choose any card from the discard pile and take it into hand. The chosen card does not increase the current bid. However, if two or more Snappers were bid (even by the same person!), nobody may take a card from the discard pile; the Snappers then have no effect. In every case the Snappers belong to the respective bid and are therefore passed on normally, or placed on the discard pile if they belong to the lowest bid.
End of Game
After the bids for the last fish have been distributed and the lowest bid has been placed on the discard pile, the game ends. You now simply add up the points of all your cards. The player with the highest point total wins. Remember that Nasty Fish count only with their lower value, and that Fishbones and Snappers are worth 0 points.
If there is a tie, the player with the fewest Nasty Fish wins. If the tie still persists, the player with the fewest cards wins. Otherwise, you share the victory.
Example Round (4 Players)
The 20 fish lies face up. Ginny bids a Nasty Fish with value 16. Kimba bids two Toys with a total value of 14 (11+3). Carlos bids a Toy with value 1 and a Snapper. Yoshi also bids a Toy with value 1.
Carlos is the only player at the table to have bid a Snapper, and therefore immediately takes a card of his choice from the discard pile into hand (step 1 in the original diagram).
Now the distribution of the bids can begin:
- Ginny has the most points and receives the 20 fish (step 2).
- Kimba has the second-highest bid and therefore receives Ginny's Nasty Fish (step 3).
- Carlos and Yoshi have bid the same amount, but Carlos sits further forward in playing order, because Ginny has the Start Cat. His bid therefore counts as higher, and he receives Kimba's two Toys (step 4).
- Yoshi has the lowest bid and receives Carlos's Toy. His points have unfortunately not improved overall, but he at least also receives Carlos's Snapper (step 5).
- Yoshi's bid Toy is finally placed on the discard pile (because it is the lowest bid overall) (step 6), and he receives the Start Cat (step 7).
Variant: Twin Fish
In this variant, all the rules apply as described. However, when you count points at the end of the game, you receive 10 bonus points whenever you have two fish with the same point value. Of course, this does not apply to Fishbones and Snappers.