Kerala: The Way of the Elephant Rulebook

Table of Contents

Game Goal
Game Components
Setup
Game Play
- New Round
Further Rules
End of Game
- Scoring
Credits

Game Goal

Each of you builds your own festival grounds out of colored tiles. At the end you want to have only 1 connected area per color, otherwise there are minus points. Each missing color also brings minus points.

There are plus points for every elephant symbol on your tiles.

The game ends when the bag of tiles is empty. Whoever then has the most points wins.

Game Components

5 starting tiles (1 each in 5 colors)
- Fronts
- Backs
100 game tiles (20 each in 5 colors)
- Fronts
- Back
1 cloth bag
1 scoring pad
10 elephant figures (2 each in 5 colors)

You will also need 1 pen, which is not included in the game.

Setup

Each of you receives 2 elephant figures of one color and the starting tile of that color. With fewer than 5 players, put the elephant figures and starting tiles you don't need back in the box.
Each of you places your starting tile face up in front of you. The side with the elephant symbol must be visible. Your festival grounds grows outward from your starting tile.
Each of you stands your two elephant figures on your starting tile.
Depending on the number of players, you must sort out a certain number of the 100 game tiles and put them back in the box:
- With 2 players, sort out 20 tiles of your choice. However, the sorted-out tiles must not be the color of the players' elephants!
- With 3 players, sort out 10 tiles of your choice. However, the sorted-out tiles must not be the color of the players' elephants!
- With 4 players, sort out 4 tiles of your choice. However, the sorted-out tiles must not be the color of the players' elephants!
- With 5 players, you don't sort out any tiles. Here you play with all 100 tiles.

Example: Here 3 players are taking part: Blue, Black, and Red. Accordingly, 10 tiles are sorted out, which must not be blue, black, or red.

Now put all the tiles that were not sorted out into the cloth bag. Place the bag in the middle of the table.
Set the scoring pad aside for the end of the game. You won't need it before then.

Example: Game setup in a game with five players.

Game Play

The game proceeds over several rounds.

The youngest player begins and gets the bag.

When it's your turn, you draw as many tiles from the bag as there are players taking part in the game. If you're playing with five, you draw 5 tiles from the bag.

Example: You are playing with five players and you have drawn these 5 tiles from the bag.

Place the drawn tiles face up in the middle of the table.

You must choose one of the tiles and place it adjacent (not diagonally) to your starting tile. Then move one of your two elephant figures from the starting tile onto the newly placed tile. That ends your turn.

Example: Player Blue chooses the black tile with the 3 elephant symbols, places it adjacent to their starting tile, and moves an elephant figure onto it.

Now the next player clockwise must choose one of the remaining tiles in the middle of the table. They too place it next to their starting tile and move one of their elephant figures onto it.

Play continues around the table like this until the last player of the round has placed the last tile from the middle of the table next to their starting tile and moved an elephant figure onto it. That ends the round.

Whoever among you drew the tiles from the bag in the last round passes the bag to their left-hand neighbor.

New Round

The next round begins. The new "bag owner" again draws as many tiles from the bag as there are players and lays them face up in the middle of the table. They choose a tile first and add it to their festival grounds. The remaining players follow in turn as before. This is how every round proceeds.

Further Rules

Placement Rules

When it's your turn, you choose exactly 1 tile from the middle of the table. You must place this tile next to one of the two tiles on which one of your elephant figures stands. You then move the elephant figure onto the newly placed tile!

Example: Later in the game: Player Blue has taken a green tile with 2 elephant symbols. They place it adjacent to a tile on which one of their elephant figures stands. They then move the elephant figure onto the newly placed tile.

Note: There may only ever be 1 elephant figure standing on a tile at a time. The only exception is your starting tile at the beginning of the game.

Building Over

You may also "build over" tiles again - even several times. The tile to be built over must, however, be adjacent to a tile with an elephant figure on it. You place the new tile on top of the tile to be built over and then move your elephant figure onto it.

Building over tiles can make sense in order to reconnect 2 separate areas of one color back into a single area.

Example: Still later in the game: Player Blue has taken the green tile with 3 elephant symbols. They place it on a tile that is already down (black with 2 elephant symbols). They then move the elephant figure onto the newly placed tile.

Passing

You have 2 chances during the game to pass. If you pass, you do not take any of the tiles in the middle of the table. You lay one of your two elephant figures on its side. Once you have laid down both elephant figures, you can no longer pass. Passing means that tiles remain in the middle of the table at the end of a round.

Clear these tiles away and put them back in the box.

Important: Even with elephant figures lying on their side, you can still move them from tile to tile.

The Tiles

Tiles with 1, 2, or 3 elephant symbols

Tiles with elephant symbols are worth as many points at the end of the game as the number of elephants shown on them - so 1, 2, or 3 points.

Special tile "colored arch"

At the end of the game, there should be a tile adjacent to the colored arch that matches the color of the arch. That earns you 5 points. However, there are no minus points if a tile of another color, or no tile at all, lies there.

Example: A black tile lies adjacent to the black arch. This would be worth 5 points at the end of the game.

Special tile "move elephant figure"

When you place such a tile on your festival grounds and move your elephant figure onto it, you may immediately move one of your two elephant figures to any tile.

Note: The elephant figure shown on this tile does not count as an elephant symbol and is therefore also not worth any points at the end.

Example: Player Blue has placed a "move elephant figure" special tile at the bottom right of their festival grounds. They move an elephant figure onto it. They then move an elephant figure from one tile to another.

Special tile "move tile"

When you place such a tile on your festival grounds and move your elephant figure onto it, you may immediately move one tile (or an entire stack of tiles) of your festival grounds. The tile to be moved must not, however, be completely built around, and there must be no elephant figure standing on it. Furthermore, moving it must not separate your festival grounds into 2 parts. So no gap, and no purely diagonal connection between tiles, may result.

Example: Player Blue has placed a "move tile" special tile at the bottom left of their festival grounds. They move an elephant figure onto it. They then move a stack of tiles to another spot. They would not have been allowed to move the tiles marked with a black X, because a) they are completely built around, b) an elephant figure stands on them, or c) the festival grounds would otherwise have been separated into 2 parts.

End of Game

Is the bag empty? Then the game ends and scoring follows. To simplify scoring, you can note your points on a sheet from the scoring pad and then add everything up.

Scoring

Each of you scores your own festival grounds. Take your two elephant figures off the tiles and place them next to your festival grounds - standing elephant figures are placed standing beside it, lying elephant figures lying down. Check whether you have only 1 connected area of each color. Remove every tile (or stack of tiles) in surplus areas from your festival grounds and turn it over. You may decide for yourself which area counts as surplus and which remains untouched. For every tile that you had to remove from your festival grounds and turn over, you receive -2 points. For removed stacks of tiles, every tile in the stack counts -2 points. Then put the removed tiles back in the box. If removing tiles splits your festival grounds into several parts, that doesn't matter. All parts of your festival grounds are scored.

Exception: Of your player color (the color of your elephant figures), you are allowed to have 2 areas!

Check whether you have at least 1 tile of every color on your festival grounds: for every missing color you receive -5 points. For every elephant figure that you did not lay down in order to pass, you receive +1 point. For every special tile with a colored arch that is adjacent to a tile of the matching color, you receive +5 points.

Count, for each color, how many elephant symbols you see on the tiles of your festival grounds. Every elephant symbol is worth +1 point. Elephant symbols on tiles that were built over do not count.

Whoever has the most points wins the game. In case of a tie, the tied players share the placement.

Note: Sometimes over the course of the game you cannot avoid having several areas of one color. Don't worry - that doesn't necessarily mean you lose because of it.

Example: For their festival grounds, Player Blue receives the following points: -6 points for tiles in surplus areas of one color. They have all 5 colors on their festival grounds. There are no minus points for that. They still have 1 standing elephant figure. That's worth +1 point. They have 2 tiles with a colored arch that are adjacent to the matching color. That's worth +10 points. In addition they get +6 points for the blue elephant symbols on their festival grounds, +11 points for the purple ones, +3 for the black ones, +8 for the green ones, and +4 for the red elephant symbols. In total, Player Blue has thus scored 37 points.

Credits

The Designer:

Kirsten Hiese was born in 1965 and is actually a trained master florist. In 2004 she came to game design through her children. Since then, 16 of her games have already been published by various publishers. She lives with her husband and their three children in Porta Westfalica. Kerala is her first game with Kosmos publishing.

Kirsten Hiese and KOSMOS thank all playtesters and rules readers.

Illustration + Graphics: Antje and Claus Stephan

Editing: Ralph Querfurth