Food Fight
Food Fight Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 6 Sets of 3 Plates (Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner)
- 27 Battlefield Cards (VP cards)
- 8 The Dog Cards
- 18 Mascot Instants
- 16 Regular Instants
- 121 Food Troops
- 9 Scoring Chips
Object of the Game
Earn 10 Victory Points.
Set-Up
Each player chooses one color of plates and places those three plates in front of him or herself, face down. Remove the unused plates from the play area.
Shuffle The Dog deck and set it aside.
Shuffle the Battlefield deck and place it near The Dog.
Shuffle all other cards into one Main deck.
What Happens Each Day
These are the steps you will take on each Day. If you don't know what any of these terms mean, don't worry! Everything will be explained in detail.
- Reveal three new Battlefields (two in a two- to three-player game)
- Deal nine cards to each player
- Players draft a hand of nine cards
- Each player creates an Army of up to five troops
- Each player puts a plate face down on his or her Army
- All players then reveal their plates
- Fight in order: Breakfast, Lunch, and then Dinner
- The winner of each Meal gets those Battlefield cards
- Discard all cards in hand and in play before starting the next Day
Reveal Battlefields
At the start of each round of play, draw the top three VP cards of the Battlefield deck and place them in the middle of the table for all to see. In two- or three-player games, draw only two VP cards each round. If any of the cards share a name (Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner), set those similar cards right next to each other or stacked up so you can see both VP award numbers.
Victory Points
Battlefields are where your troops (food cards) earn you the VPs you need to win. Each Battlefield card is labeled Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner, and each has a VP value of 1-3—the higher, the better. These cards dictate where the fighting will take place. If two Breakfast cards come up, that just makes Breakfast all the more valuable. One battle is fought each round (called a "Day" from now on) in each of the meals that appear that Day. So if one Dinner and two Breakfast Battlefields are revealed at the start of a Day, a Breakfast battle will be fought, and then Dinner. There will not be a Lunch battle fought that Day, but the Day's Breakfast battle might be worth a lot of points.
Push at Hamburger Hill is a Lunch Battlefield worth 2 Victory Points.
Your Hand of Cards
After the Battlefields have been revealed, deal nine cards from the Main deck to each player. Now that you know where the battles will be taking place this Day (based on the Battlefields), it's time to review your troops.
In your hand of nine cards, you will probably have several food items and perhaps a few Mascots or Condiments (also known as Instants). Food cards are the troops that fight for you, and Instants spice up your troops.
Let's examine a food card to see what everything means.
Card Name: Some cards have powers that refer to other cards by name. If no other name is mentioned, the card's power only applies to itself.
Card Type: Every food card is either a Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner troop.
Yumminess: This is how powerful a troop is in battle—the higher the better.
Art: Just for flavor. Get it?
Special Powers: Most cards have some text under their art. This text is a special thing that the card does. Sometimes it will be a bonus the card always has, but sometimes something special has to happen to make it work. This sample card, Corporal Cinnamon Roll, is a lowly 1 Yumminess, but when it fights at a Breakfast Meal, its special power automatically kicks in, and it becomes a 9 Yumminess instead! Everyone loves Cinnamon Rolls at Breakfast—not so much at Dinner. Since the card doesn't mention another card getting the bonus, this troop gets it for itself only.
Now let's look at an Instant.
Card Name: Instants have names, too. Some cards might reference an Instant by name. Instants never affect themselves, only other cards.
Card Type: This lets you know that this card is an Instant. The type "Instant" means the card can be played pretty much whenever you want. Some Instant cards will tell you specifically when to play them, but most of the time, it's up to you.
Art: Medic Mustard is ready to spice up one of your Lunch troops!
Text: This is the important part of all Instants. With an Instant, you might be able to break the rules of the game or get some great advantage over your opponents. More on how to play Instants later...
Notice that this is a Lunch troop, so Medic Mustard can target it. With Medic Mustard's +3 bonus, First Sergeant Fish Stick's Yumminess increases from 3 to 6 during this battle (hereafter referred to as a Meal).
Boot Camp
Food Fight is played as a drafting game, but for your first game, just use the cards you were dealt to build your Army instead. After spending one game in Boot Camp, move on to the draft rules in "Go to War!"
Here is what a typical four-player game will look like at the start of a new Day. As we progress through the rules, we will show this sample game in action, so you'll be able to see how things should look as you are playing your first game.
The new Battlefields are the first order of the Day. Breakfast is worth 4 VPs and Lunch is worth 2 VPs this Day. There will be no Dinner battle. Do you go for the big points or go where your Army will perform the best? The choice is yours…
Army Building
In order to fight at a Meal, whether it's Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner, you must have an Army of food. An Army consists of up to five food troops. Do not put any Instants into your Army. You may build an Army of fewer than five troops, but doing so will put you at a disadvantage for the Meal. You may use any kind of food you want in your Army—it does not have to match in any way. You can mix Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner troops, so you could have Hot Dogs, Eggs, Dinner Rolls, Spaghetti, and Donuts for Breakfast if you wanted to. On the other hand, there are benefits to building an Army that makes good sense at a Meal.
If you look at the Battlefield cards, you'll notice one of the benefits for sending a Breakfast troop into the Breakfast Meal: Breakfast troops win ties at Breakfast. The same is true for the other two Meals of the Day—Lunch troops win ties at Lunch, and Dinner troops win ties at Dinner. You already saw the gigantic bonus that Corporal Cinnamon Roll gets for going to Breakfast. When choosing which troops to send into a Meal, look for all the bonuses you can muster. The order of your troops will often matter in determining the bonuses you can get, but when plating, you don't put them in any order, because they get shuffled up later.
Any Instants and other troops you don't include in your Army remain in your hand until the end of the Day. During a Meal, you can access your hand to play Instants or find troops to discard to other troops in the Meal.
Plating
When you have chosen up to five food troops to make up your Army, place those cards face down, then decide which Meal they're going to go into. Remember, an Army can go to any of the Battlefields that were laid out, no matter what food types are in it. Just remember that you can't place a Meal plate on your Army if there are no Battlefields for that Meal this Day.
Grab your plate that corresponds to the Meal you want to fight at and place it face down on top of your stack of troops. Don't reveal your unused plate cards, as you don't want to give your opponents any clues about where you're going or not going. Once all players are done plating their Armies, it's time for battle.
Three players revealed Breakfast plates, while one revealed a Lunch plate. Breakfast is the first fight of the Day. After shuffling their Armies and placing them face down again, each player at the Breakfast battle reveals the top card of his or her Army. Since General Cheeseburger is the lowest Yumminess, the player who revealed him has the first chance to play an Instant to improve his Yumminess. But even a Medic Mustard wouldn't be enough to beat Big Bad Bacon.
Reveal Your Plates
All players reveal their chosen plates at the same time, but not the troops underneath—not yet, anyways. If there is only one player who reveals a plate for a Meal, he will fight "The Dog." More on that later . . .
If there are two or more players who revealed plates for a Meal, the fight is on! The fighting each Day takes place in the following order: Breakfast, Lunch, then Dinner. Any Meals that didn't get a Battlefield card this Day are not fought over.
Here is what the play area should look like after Plating, right before combat begins. Each player has put together an Army of up to five troops and has placed one of their plates face down on their Army. The cards players don't plate remain in their hands.
Winning a Serving
Let's say the first battle between two or more players is at Breakfast this Day. Those players who revealed a Breakfast plate shuffle up their troops and place them face down again. Once everyone at Breakfast has shuffled their troops, each of them reveals the top card of their five-card stack. This card versus card showdown is called a Serving.
Compare the Yumminess values of all troops involved this Serving. Add up any bonuses that you may have (like Corporal Cinnamon Roll's bonus) and announce your total to the other players. While other troops in your Army may provide bonuses to your current troop, you are only comparing the Yumminess of your current troop against your opponent's current troop (you don't add all of your troops together).
The player with the lowest Yumminess value on his current troop has the option to play an Instant (like Medic Mustard) or pass. If he passes, the player to his left has the next chance to play an Instant. Continue clockwise until everyone passes or no one wishes to play any more Instants.
If anyone plays an Instant, each player gets another chance to play an Instant or pass. A player can always play as many Instants as he or she wishes, as long as there are targets for all of them. Keep in mind that there are five Servings in a Meal—you don't need to play all your Instants on your first Serving.
When everyone is done trying to milk more bonuses out of their troops, the player with the highest Yumminess receives a scoring chip, not the VP cards. You have to win the whole Meal to get those. If there are two or more troops tied, and just one is a troop of the same kind as the Meal being fought over, that troop wins the tie (the text on the Battlefield card says so). If there are two or more troops tied that are fighting at their own Meal, and neither player can or wishes to break the deadlock, they both receive a scoring chip.
When the first Serving is over, flip the next card of your Army stack and place it next to your previous troop. Fight on! Continue revealing troops and having them battle one at a time, even if one player already has enough scoring chips to win the Meal. Some cards can still affect the game even though the outcome of the Meal has been decided.
How to Play Instants
Medic Mustard reads: "Your Lunch Troop has +3," so you must have a Lunch card as your current Serving to play it. The bonus only applies to your current troop, not any past or future Lunch troops. The Meal a troop is fighting at does not change what kind of troop it is—if Corporal Cinnamon Roll is fighting at Lunch, for example, that does not make him a Lunch troop.
You can't target other players' troops with your Instants. Once a Serving is over, keep any Instants you played near your troops, but do not mix them in with your Army. Some cards count the number of Instants you have played, so don't discard them until the Meal is over.
Combining Bonuses
When you have multiple bonuses or effects that benefit a troop, they are ordered in such a way as to give you the maximum benefit. For example, some cards allow you to double your next troop's Yumminess. If you then play a Medic Mustard on that troop, the +3 from that card is also doubled. You don't "lock in" the doubling when you flip the troop and then fail to double any future effects.
Notice that this is a Lunch troop, so Medic Mustard can target it. With Medic Mustard's +3 bonus, First Sergeant Fish Stick's Yumminess increases from 3 to 6 during this battle.
Mascots
These lords of the food universe are powerful and crazy characters that can greatly aid your Army. Each one is a one-of-a-kind in the Main deck, so if you can get your hands on one in a game, chances are it will come in handy. However, they usually work better if you build your Army around them. Mascots are Instants, just like Medic Mustard is. Some mascots dictate a particular time or event when you may play them. Here's an example:
The mascot Toast Master General says to "Play during plating," so you'll need to play this card before players reveal their plates.
Big Bad Bacon won the first scoring chip, but the battle rages on. General Cheeseburger boosts First Sergeant Fish Stick from a 3 to a 7, as Fish is a Lunch troop. First Sergeant Fish Stick won the second scoring chip. Now on to serving #3. Tech Sergeant Toast doubles the Yumminess of your next troop if it's a Breakfast troop, which Private Pancake is, so he becomes an 8. However, Mean Burrito is boosted by General Cheeseburger, also to an 8! Breakfast troops win ties at Breakfast, so the Toastified Pancakes will win the tie. However, if Mean Burrito's commander has any Breakfast troops in hand, he could boost the Burrito by discarding them (the Burrito's game text says so). Sadly, he does not—but he does have a Medic Mustard handy. Playing it raises Mean Burrito to an 11, beating all other troops in the serving, as the other players decline to play any Instants of their own.
Here's a really great Army that you might one day be lucky enough to find in this order. But can you figure out the total Yumminess of your troops each serving? Answers below…
- Serving #1: Pretty easy. It's a 6 with no bonuses.
- Serving #2: General Donut adds 4 to the Pancake's 4 for a total of 8.
- Serving #3: Tech Sergeant Toast is also an 8.
- Serving #4: Private Pancake is doubled by the Toast, but not before you add up his other bonuses. Base Yumminess 4, +4 for the General, and +8 for one other Pancake in your Army is 16, but doubled, it becomes 32. Nice!
- Serving #5: Base Yumminess 4, +4 from the General, and an additional +8 for each other Pancake in your army is +16, for a total Yumminess of 24.
Winning a Meal
Once all the Servings of a Meal have been completed, check to see if one player has more scoring chips than any other player.
- If there is just one player with the most scoring chips, he or she wins the Battlefield cards for that Meal.
- If there are multiple players tied for most scoring chips at the end of a Meal, The Dog solves the tie (see below).
If no players choose to fight at a Meal that had Battlefield cards, put those Battlefield cards on the bottom of the Battlefield deck.
When any player has 10 or more Victory Points, the game ends immediately. Proceed no further. This can even happen mid-Meal.
End of a Day
Discard all the cards that were played during the Day. Discard any cards remaining in your hand. Don't reshuffle the Main deck until it runs out of cards. At the end of the round, all players discard all of their remaining cards in hand and place their plates face down again in preparation for the next round.
The Dog
The Dog is the ultimate problem solver. He'll eat anything. There are three situations in which The Dog will appear:
- When your Army is the only Army at a Meal, The Dog shows up to try to eat your troops. But you don't want to be eaten by The Dog! Being eaten by people is your goal. Another player should shuffle The Dog deck and reveal cards one at a time just as if The Dog deck was another Army. The Dog loses all ties during these Servings. If The Dog wins a serving, he gets the scoring chip. If you don't beat The Dog three out of five times, you don't get the Battlefield cards for the Meal. If The Dog wins, put those Battlefield cards on the bottom of the Battlefield deck.
- The Dog can also be summoned through card effects. The Dog then acts like another participant in the Meal and will play a card off the top of his deck during each serving of the Meal (just like above). If The Dog wins a serving, he gets the scoring chip. This can easily result in a player winning a Meal with fewer than three scoring chips. If The Dog and a player are tied for the most scoring chips at the end of a Meal, The Dog loses the tie.
- After the Meal is over, if two or more players are tied for the most scoring chips, shuffle The Dog deck. Each player tied for the most scoring chips draws a card, and the high card wins the VPs for the Meal.
Instant cards can't target The Dog's cards, but there are cards that reference The Dog.
Reshuffle The Dog deck after each Meal in which he is used.
Let's assume Breakfast is over and move to Lunch. All of the cards involved in the Breakfast battle were discarded. The Battlefield VP cards went to the victor. Since no one has 10 VPs yet, you're ready to start a brand new Day of battle!
Go to War
After playing one game using the Boot Camp rules, you're ready to draft an Army and wade into battle! When you draft, you start with a nine-card hand, but instead of building your Army right away, you choose one and only one card from your initial hand of nine. When you have chosen a card, place it face down underneath your plates, so it doesn't get picked up by another player. Then pass the remaining eight cards to the player on your left. You will soon receive eight cards from the player on your right. Pick one of those cards, and then pass the rest. Keep going until everyone again has nine cards again. Now, build your Army and start fighting.
Drafting is an exciting way to put together an Army, as you never really know what cards you're going to be passed next. For example, you might want to try drafting a lot of Pancakes, but if your opponents scoop them up, you're out of luck. Look at what you are passing, as some of those cards will make it back to you. You might see some combinations that other players don't. It can be a lot of fun and very rewarding when you see your plan come together and you build an Army that can dominate the field. Plan ahead and win the day!
Continue drafting each Day until a player scores 10 points. Alternate passing cards left and right each Day.
Other Card Effects
Some troops have powers that call for discarding other cards. You can use powers like this whenever you can play an Instant, but you can also use them only once during a Serving. This means that if you wish to discard any cards, you must discard them all at once. Once you pass, you can't discard any other cards this Serving. These discards come from your hand, not your Army.
If a troop "joins" another troop, it shows up like a food sidekick. It adds all of its Yumminess to the troop it joined. If it has any special powers, those work as well. You can target the newly joined troop with Instants, too—just treat it like you flipped two troops that Serving. If either of the troops is native to the Meal you're fighting at, you're eligible to win ties there.
Some text refers to a card's "printed" Yumminess. That means you look at the number in the upper corner of the card and don't add any bonuses to it, etc. For example, Corporal Cinnamon Roll has a printed Yumminess of 1.
Some cards tell you to draw the top card of the Battlefield deck. If the card does not say to add it to the Meal, you keep the card. If that card puts you to 10 or more VPs, you win!
FAQ
Q: When can I discard troops to boost up my Mean Burrito or Corporal Taco? A: These discards are played like Instants. If you want to discard cards to them, you must decide how many you want to discard and discard them all at once. You can't discard one now and then another one later during that same Serving.
Q: My first troop revealed at a Meal was a Locked and Loaded Spud. I flipped a General Chicken off the deck. Does he affect the rest of my troops this Meal? A: Yes! And he boosts your serving to a 12 (2+6+4).
Q: My Locked and Loaded Spud revealed a Sergeant Spaghetti, so it joined my Serving. I now want to play a PhD Pepper. Does it add 3 to both of my Dinner troops this Serving? A: No. PhD Pepper is a targeted effect, so you may only target one of your Dinner troops.
Q: In a four-player game, two people are fighting at Lunch and two are fighting at Dinner. Can we just fight them out at the same time, since we can't affect the other Meal? A: You can, though it is often fun to watch the fireworks at Meals you aren't involved in. When you fight them out simultaneously, keep in mind that if a Lunch player (in this Lunch/Dinner example) collects his 10th point, he wins the game, even if a Dinner player also collected enough to win, as Lunch happens before Dinner.