Habitat Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Understanding the Cards
  • Ranked Cards
  • Realm
  • Event Cards
• Game Environment
  • The Food Chain
  • The Deck
  • The Draw Display
  • The Starving Display
• Game Mechanics
  • Rescuing
  • Territoriality
• Initial Set-Up
• Game in Play
• Playing the Game
  • Basic Rules

Understanding the Cards

Ranked Cards

Rank: A Ranked Card is any card in the game that has a number in the upper right hand corner of the card.

All living things in Habitat are given a number from 1 to 8 which represents their relative level in the ecosystem. The higher Ranked Cards tend to be the larger, more dominant animals while the lower Ranked Cards represent the smaller, more basic organisms.

All cards with Rank 1 are called "Resources" and all cards with a Rank greater than 1 are called "Populations."

Players must collect at least one of each Rank to declare a "Habitat" and win, but to do this they cannot simply place the cards down on the table. The Ranked Cards must be used to create Food Chains so that the Populations can be Supported.

Diet (Colour): All Populations in the game need to be "Supported," or fed, in order to survive. A Supported Population is one that has either a Resource or another Population available to feed on. An unsupported Population is considered "Hungry" but has not yet begun to starve.

Resources: Resources do not need to be Supported and cannot become Hungry. A Resource can stand alone as its own Food Chain or act as the bottom rung of a bigger Food Chain. Resources have a purple title bar with white text and are always Rank 1.

There are 8 types of Resources in the game: Eggs, Invertebrates, Insects, Plants, Aquatic Plants, Seeds & Nuts, Fruit & Berries and Fungi.

The specific Resources that Support an Omnivore or Forager Population are listed on the lower left-hand portion of the Population's card.

Foragers: Foragers are exclusively Supported by Resources, not by other Populations. Foragers have a green title bar with white text.

Carnivores: Carnivores are Supported by Omnivores or Foragers of lower Rank but not by Resources or other Carnivores. Carnivores have a red title bar with white text.

Omnivores: Omnivores are Supported by Resources, Omnivores and Foragers of lower Rank but not by Carnivores. Omnivores have a black title bar with white text.

Carnivores and Omnivores are collectively called "Predators" because they prey on other Populations.

TYPE	CAN EAT
Foragers	Resources
Carnivores	Omnivores, Foragers
Omnivores	Omnivores, Foragers, Resources

Scavengers: Many Populations will Scavenge if they are not otherwise fed. These "Selective" Scavengers can be supported by an uncovered Starving Population in the Starving Display - see Starving Display below. All Scavengers that are able to feed on that Starving Population are considered Supported. Fed Scavengers can stand alone as a Food Chain, independent of Resources.

"True" Scavengers are exclusively Supported by Starving Populations and eat nothing else. In Habitat, North Woods Edition, there is only one True Scavenger: the VULTURE.

All Scavengers may feed on Starving Populations of a higher Rank (Scavenging COYOTES (6), could feed on a Population of Starving BLACK BEARS (8), because some of the weakened bears will have died leaving carcasses for the COYOTES).

Scavengers are further divided into two types based on Realm:

• Aquatic Scavengers: Can be Supported only by Starving Populations in the Aquatic Realm.
• Terrestrial Scavengers: Can be Supported by any Starving Population (including Aquatic animals).

Realm

Each Population exists in one or more Realms: Terrestrial, Aquatic, or Flying. In order for a Predator to prey upon another Population, they must exist in at least one of the same Realms as their prey.

• Terrestrial Creatures: Populations that exist primarily on dry land.
• Aquatic Creatures: Populations that exist primarily in or near water.
• Flying Creatures: Populations that can fly. Predators must have at least this icon in order to prey on a Flying Population.

Additionally, a Predator must also match the Flying Realm to prey on a Flying Population.

Example: BLACK BEARS can prey on DEER because they share the Terrestrial icon. However, a Predator must have the Flying icon to be able to prey on a Flying Population, even if it has other matching icons. BLACK BEARS cannot prey on OSPREYS even though they both have the Aquatic icon, because bears are not Flying Creatures.

Event Cards

Event Cards may be played at any time on a player's turn and have a brown title bar with white text.

Each Event Card's directions for use are written on the card itself and, unless the Event Card's text states otherwise, are placed face-up in the Starving Display once used.

Game Environment

The Food Chain

Players build Food Chains throughout the game. When a player creates a Food Chain, it is placed on the table in front of the player who built it.

A Food Chain is a stack of Ranked Cards in which each Population is Supported by the Population or Resource below it. The bottom card is always either a Resource or a fed Scavenger because both can be considered Supported with no other cards below them in the Food Chain. Therefore, the minimum requirement for a sustained Food Chain is either a Resource or a fed Scavenger.

With a Resource or Scavenger as a foundation, Populations can be stacked according to Rank, as long as the rules of Diet and Realm are obeyed.

Cards may be inserted into existing Food Chains to create longer ones, as long as these rules are obeyed. If a player had BLACK BEARS feeding on PLANTS and later picked up an ELK card, the ELK could be inserted in between the BLACK BEARS and PLANTS to expand the existing Food Chain. By playing cards of Rank 1, 6, and 8, that player has now become closer to creating a "Habitat" and winning the game.

Example: BLACK BEARS (8) feeding upon PLANTS (1) constitutes a correct Food Chain, since BLACK BEARS are Omnivores and can eat PLANTS, as specified in the lower left-hand corner of the card. BLACK BEARS feeding on ELK (6), which in turn are feeding on PLANTS, also constitutes a correct Food Chain, since BLACK BEARS can eat Foragers and Foragers eat Resources, and ELK specifically can eat PLANTS. Realm rules are obeyed since ELK and BLACK BEARS share the Terrestrial icon.

(The printed rulebook illustrates these two example Food Chains with card images.)

Cards in one Food Chain may be moved to another Food Chain. For instance, if a player has a Food Chain consisting of BLACK BEARS (8) feeding on MICE (2) feeding on INVERTEBRATES (1), and that player draws MINKS (4), the MICE and INVERTEBRATES may be moved to a new Food Chain to Support the MINKS. Since BLACK BEARS are Scavengers, the BLACK BEARS could be left alone to feed on an uncovered animal Population in the Starving Display.

The Deck

The Deck is a face-down pile from which all cards in the game are drawn.

When the Deck is exhausted, reshuffle the Starving Display and the Draw Display together to create a new Deck. Immediately replenish the Draw Display with three new cards.

The Draw Display

The Draw Display consists of three face-up cards to the right side of the Deck.

Cards that are taken from the Draw Display must be replenished immediately from the Deck prior to drawing the next card.

The Starving Display

The Starving Display consists of up to three face-up piles to the left of the Deck.

At the start of the game, the Starving Display is empty. Starving Populations, discarded cards, and used Event Cards are placed in the Starving Display in the Initial Set-Up and throughout the game.

If any of the three spaces in the Starving Display are empty, cards added to the Starving Display must fill up those spaces first. If all three spaces in the Starving Display have at least one card in them, cards added to the Starving Display can be placed on top of any of the three piles.

An incomplete Food Chain is one that leaves a Population unfed. This Population is considered "Hungry." If, by the end of the player's turn, they are unable to feed a Hungry Population in a Food Chain, that Population is moved to the Starving Display and is now considered "Starving."

It should be noted that players may choose to let a Population go unsupported and Starve so they can Support another Population instead.

A Population in the Starving Display is not out of the game - it can be "Rescued" by any player on their turn who can Support it immediately - see Rescuing below.

ONLY THE TOP CARD OF A PILE IN THE STARVING DISPLAY CAN BE RESCUED. When placing a card into the Starving Display, choosing which pile to cover up is important because it prevents the Population beneath from being Rescued or Scavenged upon until the Population on top is Rescued first.

Keep in mind that in order to Rescue a Scavenger as a stand-alone, there must be another Population in the Starving Display on which it can Scavenge.

Discarded Event Cards are never removed from the Starving Display.

When multiple players are discarding a card (such as when POLLUTION or WINTER is played), the order in which they discard into the Starving Display follows the order of play.

Game Mechanics

Rescuing

If a player has a Population or Resource in one of their Food Chains on the table that can Support a Starving Population, that player can Rescue that Starving Population from the top of the Starving Display.

To do this the player simply takes the Starving Population from the Starving Display and places it in a Food Chain where it can be Supported.

Rescuing a Starving Population may then reveal the next card below it in the pile in the Starving Display, making it immediately available for Rescue.

Territoriality

This is a special action that a player can perform only at the beginning of their turn, instead of drawing two cards.

Territoriality allows a player to expand the area of the forest that they control by using one of their Populations to take another player's Resource, as well as other cards it may be Supporting.

Territoriality is critical to preventing other players from achieving a complete Habitat before you.

To exert Territoriality, a player chooses a Population from their hand, which is called the "Bully," and then selects the Food Chain they wish to take over.

The restrictions to exerting Territoriality are:

• Only Food Chains built on a Resource are vulnerable to Territoriality.
• The Bully must be of higher Rank than the highest Ranked Card in the desired Food Chain and must be played from the player's hand.

If the Bully can feed on the top card of the Food Chain (obeying Diet and Realm restrictions), the entire chain is stolen to Support the Bully. If, however, the Bully cannot feed on the top card, then the Bully scares off Populations which it cannot feed upon, starting with the highest Ranked Card and descending until one that it can feed on is found. Once a Population that the Bully can feed on is reached, any cards below, including the Resource card, are moved to the Bully's owner's forest and now Support the Bully.

The Populations the Bully scared off are left under the control of their owner, but now must be Supported by some other means to avoid Starving by the end of their owner's next turn.

Special Territoriality Rule: Resources made abundant by the Abundance Event Card can Support two Food Chains. Territoriality may only be used if the Bully is Ranked higher than every Population in both Food Chains. If so, then the Bully will take control over the cards underneath it in the first Food Chain in the normal fashion and the entire second Food Chain comes along as well (intact).

Example: Matt has COUGARS (8) in his hand. He notices that Joe has WOLVES (7) feeding on DEER (5), feeding on FRUIT & BERRIES (1). At the start of his turn, instead of drawing cards, Matt uses Territoriality by playing COUGARS as his Bully. COUGARS scare off Joe's WOLVES because COUGARS cannot eat WOLVES. COUGARS can, however, eat DEER and so both DEER and FRUIT & BERRIES are moved to Matt's forest to Support his COUGARS. Joe's WOLVES are left Hungry and embarrassed.

Initial Set-Up

1. Shuffle the cards and place the Deck in the middle of the table.

2. Draw three cards from the Deck and place them face up to the right of the Deck to create the Draw Display.

3. Deal each player six cards face-down.

4. Players must now either play cards on the table in front of them or discard cards to the Starving Display to bring their hand size down to three cards. Event Cards cannot be played at this point. This is done simultaneously but players should leave their hand, cards in play and discarded cards all face-down until all players have made their decisions. This ensures that all players have no knowledge of the other players' decisions.

5. Shuffle all the cards discarded to the Starving Display, face-up in approximately even piles. If at least three cards were discarded to the Starving Display then there must be at least one card in each space.

6. Play begins with youngest player and proceeds clockwise. Players may only act on their turn.

Game in Play

Illustration: a sample two-player mid-game layout showing Player 1's and Player 2's hands, Food Chains, the Starving Display, the Deck and the Draw Display.

Playing the Game

On a player's turn, the following steps are taken in this order:

1. Draw Cards OR Exert Territoriality.

Draw Cards - the player may either draw

a. Two cards from the Deck,

b. Two cards from the Draw Display and immediately replenish the Draw Display with two cards from the Deck or

c. One card from the Deck and one from the Draw Display and immediately replenish the Draw Display with a card from the Deck.

Exert Territoriality: see Territoriality above.

2. Perform Actions.

A player may perform any of the following actions in any order:

a. Play Ranked Cards from your hand to create and/or modify Food Chains

b. Use an Event Card

c. Rescue Starving Populations

3. End Turn

a. Move all your Hungry Populations to the Starving Display.

b. Discard cards from your hand to the Starving Display to bring your hand down to three cards. The player decides both the order and piles in which to discard the cards.

Basic Rules

• Players can play as many cards as they like on their turn.
• Cards may not be traded or given to other players.
• Once a card is played it cannot be taken back into a player's hand.
• Higher Ranked Cards can only be Supported by lower Ranked Cards, and only if they share the appropriate Realm and satisfy Diet restrictions.
• Some cards are marked with special additional restrictions written in bold, which must be obeyed.