Hiroba
Hiroba Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 12 Terrain tiles
- 15 koi carp tokens
- 4 individual boards
- 1 scorepad
- 36 double-sided stones
- 4 pebble tokens
Object of the Game
Taking the Sudoku principle as its base, players cleverly place their numbered stones in order to win gardens and koi carp, making sure two stones of the same value never share the same garden, the same row, or the same column.
The game ends when the players have played all their stones. The player with the most points wins the game.
Setup
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Randomly draw 9 tiles and place them face up so as to form a 3-by-3 square. The remaining tiles go back in the box; they will not be used for this game.
Make sure that no Pond space is directly adjacent to a starting point (see Important, below).
For 2 and 3 players, see the specific setup below.
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Place a koi carp token, water side up, on the Pond space of each tile in play, and put the remaining tokens back in the box.
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Each player takes an individual board as well as the 9 stones of their color, and places them on the board's dedicated spaces.
Each player has the following double-sided numbered stones:
Front Back Qty 1 9 x2 2 8 x2 3 7 x2 4 6 x2 5 5 x1 Tips!
- The sum of the front and back of each stone is always 10.
- For clarity, the number 9 is always underlined with a lotus so it can be told apart from the 6.
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The last player to have played Sudoku is named first player.
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Following turn order clockwise, hand out the Pebble tokens as follows:
- With 2 players: 2 for the 1st player, 1 for the second.
- With 3 players: 2 for the 1st player, 1 for the 2nd, none for the 3rd.
- With 4 players: 2 for the 1st player, 1 for the 2nd, 1 for the 3rd, none for the 4th.
The game may begin!
Setup with 2 and 3 players
- With 2 players, flip 4 adjacent tiles to their reverse side (water side).
- With 3 players, flip 2 adjacent tiles to their reverse side (water side).
Careful! The center tile must never be flipped.
Tiles on their water side will not be used during the game.
Important
The game board is made up of tiles, each divided into 9 spaces. The set of all spaces on all the tiles forms the game grid.
Each tile is made up as follows:
- Two gardens of 2 to 6 spaces each;
- One Pond space occupied by a koi carp token;
- On a space of one of the two gardens, a potential starting point for the first turn of the game.
Course of Play
On their turn, the player carries out a mandatory action then, if they wish, an optional action.
1. Mandatory action: place one of your numbered stones
On the first turn, starting with the first player and then proceeding clockwise, each player places one of their stones on the starting point of a tile of their choice.
On subsequent turns, still proceeding clockwise, the players continue to each place a stone on the board on their turn, following these placement rules:
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The player must place one of their stones in the same row or the same column as another of their previously placed stones.
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There cannot be two stones of the same value in the same garden, the same row, or the same column of the board.
Note: unlike traditional Sudoku, it is possible to place 2 stones of the same value on the same tile, as long as they are in different gardens.
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Each stone may be played on the face of the player's choice (front or back), provided the previous rules are respected.
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It is forbidden to place a stone on a space already occupied by another stone, a koi carp token, or a Pebble token.
Be careful when playing your stones! A placement mistake can easily happen. Any mistake not caught during the same turn will not be corrected: the stone stays in place and will be counted at scoring.
Example: It is the red player's turn. They want to place a 7 stone. They are required to play in a row or column where they are already present, and in a row, column, or garden where there is no 7.
2. Optional action: place a Pebble token
At the end of their turn, the player may place a single Pebble token on any empty space of a garden, with no placement restriction, in order to block it and prevent players from placing a stone there.
End of Game and Scoring
The game ends when the players have placed all their stones.
Scoring then proceeds in three steps:
1. Awarding and placing the koi carp
For each pond, the koi carp is won by the player whose sum of stones on the 4 spaces orthogonally adjacent to the pond is the lowest.
In case of a tie, the tied players each take a koi carp token, using the extra tokens from the box.
Players then place each koi carp they own, sand side up, on an empty space of a garden of their choice that they have strictly won (i.e., without a tie). At scoring, the points of that garden will be doubled.
There can only be one koi carp per garden.
Koi carp that could not be placed are worth 1 point per token at the end of the game.
Good to know: Some spaces may be adjacent to two ponds: the stone placed on such a space counts toward both koi carp at scoring.
Example: Here, the purple 1 stone on tile 2 counts toward both koi carp (the one for tile 1 and the one for tile 2).
2. Scoring the gardens
Players score the gardens tile by tile.
For each of the two gardens on a tile, the majority player — the one whose sum of stones is the highest — wins the garden and scores as many points as the garden has spaces. In case of a tie, the tied players each score the garden's points.
Reminder: when a garden contains a koi carp, the garden's points (equal to its number of spaces) are doubled.
3. Final score
Players then add up all the points from the gardens and any leftover koi carp. The player with the most points wins the game.
In case of a tie, the player who has won the most gardens wins. If there is still a tie, the players share the victory.
Worked example
Purple and Black were able to place their koi carp on an empty space of the gardens they strictly won, in order to double the points. They have no leftover koi carp.
Tile 1: Black has the majority on the 5-space garden containing a koi carp, and so scores 10 points (5x2). Purple has the majority on the 3-space garden, and so scores 3 points.
Tile 2: Purple has the majority on both 4-space gardens, each containing a koi carp. They therefore score 16 points (2x4 + 2x4).
Tile 3: Purple and Black are tied on the 6-space garden and so both score 6 points. Since this is a garden they did not strictly win, they could not place a koi carp there to double the points. Black has the majority on the second, 2-space garden and so scores 2 points.
Tile 4: Purple has the majority on both 4-space gardens and so scores 8 points (4+4).
Tile 5: Black has the majority on both 4-space gardens, each containing a koi carp. They therefore score 16 points (2x4 + 2x4).
That makes 33 points for Purple and 34 for Black. Black wins the game.
Credits
- Authors: Johan Benvenuto, Alexandre Droit and Bertrand Roux
- Illustrations: Alain Boyer
- Graphic design: Mélanie Michelot and Fabrice Del Rio Ruiz
- Development: Funnyfox
© 2022 Funnyfox, a Hachette Boardgames brand.