Mammalath Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Gameplay
• Game End
• Mammalath Plus (The Advanced Game)
• Credits

Components

• 36 pieces shaped like animal heads, 6 each of 6 animals (red armadillos, orange badgers, yellow cougars, green deer, blue elephants, and violet foxes)

• 18 white tokens and 18 black tokens.

Setup

Arrange the 36 animal heads on the inner 6x6 board. Each player takes the 18 tokens of her colour.

Determine who will go first by any means except thermonuclear warfare (a coin flip is preferred).

Gameplay

Players take turns doing one of three actions on their turn:

• Place a token of your colour: Place a token on a space (either one with an animal or one where the animal has been released). Tokens can't be placed on other tokens.

• Release a type: Release all the animals of one type (for example, all of the foxes) by removing all the heads of that type from the board. The animals thus released can be on spaces with or without tokens (leave the tokens there).

• Release a line: Release any three consecutive animals in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line. The animals thus released can be on spaces with or without tokens (leave the tokens there). Empty spaces may not be in the line of three.

The swap rule: On the first player's first turn, they must place a token. On the second player's first turn (only), they may replace the first token with one of their own if they think the opening move is too strong.

Game End

The game ends when one of the following happens:

• A player captures three consecutive spaces in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal row, at least one of which still contains an animal, and loses. Capturing means 'having a token of your colour on that space'.

• A player captures three consecutive spaces in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal row, none of which have animals, and wins. (If you fulfill the winning condition and the losing condition at the same time, you still lose.)

• One player plays all of their tokens (without making a winning or a losing formation). The game ends in a draw.

Mammalath Plus (The Advanced Game)

The optional expansion Mammalath Plus adds two of each animal from the base game, plus eight each of two new animals (white giraffes and black hippopotami), for 64 animals altogether. It also includes 14 white tokens and 14 black tokens. Make these changes from the base game:

• Setup: Arrange the animals in the entire outer 8x8 board.

• Each player gets 32 tokens instead of 18.

• The winning and losing conditions are a line of four tokens rather than a line of three, or four tokens in a 2x2 square, and the draw condition is one player playing all 32 of their tokens without winning or losing.

• Release a line: Release a line of four animals, not a line of three. You may also release four animals in a 2x2 square.

Note: due to production constraints the additional animals are of the same colours as the player tokens. However, the tokens are tall enough to prevent lack of clarity. Just remember that the player's colours are not related to the colours of the additional animals.

Credits

Mammalath rules and design by Grant Fikes. Rulebook © Néstor Romeral Andrés and Grant Fikes 2019.

Animal shapes by Ryan Faley (http://redhead64.deviantart.com/). Board art by Néstor Romeral Andrés.