Mush! Mush!: Snow Tails 2 Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• A. Set-Up
• B. Play
  • 1. Play a canine card (see 'play cards')
  • 2. May adjust your bonus dice (if balanced) - not first turn (see 'Bonus')
  • 3. Move your sled
  • 4. Use the bonus dice
  • 5. Return hand size to five
  • Race Order
• C. Collisions (not really your fault, obviously.)
  • Dent cards
• D. Race End
• E. Tournament Rules
• F. Buildings
  • Kennels
  • Chapel
  • Bothy
  • Tavern
• G. Reverse Tracks and Tight Corners
  • Tight Corners
  • Race position on a tight corner
• H. Tracks
  • The Lamont Highlands
  • The Fragor Alps
  • Tight Corner Tracks

Components

• Board (double sided)
• 8 wooden sleds
• 8 sled cards
• 8 Dog decks (20 Canine Cards of each colour, numbered 0-5)
• 8 dice
• 4 buildings
• 20 saplings (and bases)
• 32 Dent cards
• 30 white track markers

A. Set-Up

1. Place the board onto a table (yes, it is rather big). For your very first game, use track 1 as described in the tracks section. It will show you how to use the track markers to block off any unused routes.

2. You may place any number of the trees anywhere you wish along the track. Each tree sits on one space. For your first game, only put trees on the straight, and do not put trees directly next to each other.

3. For your first game, keep the buildings in the box. They will be explained later in the rules and you can introduce them before your second game (yes, I know, you want them now…)

4. Put the dent cards in a supply pile to one side.

5. Each player:

• takes a sled, a sled card and a dog deck of one colour. They also take one dice (you may also shake your head that we are now forced to use 'dice' as the singular and sing tales of the golden days when you rolled your 'die').
• places their dog sled card in front of them.
• removes two of the 'number 2' canine cards and places them side by side to the top of their sled card to form the sled and dog team. Optional - If playing with all experienced sledders, players may chose which pair of dogs from their deck to start with (must be a the same number and cannot be zero).
• removes the two 'number 5' canine cards from their deck and places them back in the box (these will be explained later in the 'buildings' section).
• shuffles their remaining deck to form a draw deck.
• draws 5 cards as a starting hand.

6. Randomly determine the players' starting order (you can shake the sleds in your hand and drop them out one by one). Place the sleds in a line beside the board, so you do not forget the order.

7. Each player places their bonus dice onto their sled card. The number depends on your starting position:

• 1st-2nd: Turn dice to 1
• 3rd-4th: Turn dice to 2
• 5th-6th: Turn dice to 3
• 7th-8th: Turn dice to 4

You are now ready. Mush! Mush!

B. Play

Turns are taken in race order. See Race Order below.

For the first round, a player may start his sled on any space directly before the start line. Players start one at a time, so sleds may use the same starting space if they want.

Every round a player does the following on their turn:

1. Play a canine card (or two cards of the same value)
2. May adjust their bonus dice (if sled is balanced)
3. Move their sled
4. Use their bonus (optional)
5. Return hand size to 5 (usually through drawing cards)

1. Play a canine card (see 'play cards')

Canine cards are played from a players hand onto your dogs to adjust the speed and direction of your sled.

You may play one card from your hand onto one dog, OR you may play two cards of the same value, one onto each of your dogs.

Cards played onto a dog cover the card below.

2. May adjust your bonus dice (if balanced) - not first turn (see 'Bonus')

If a player has the same number on both of their dogs, they have a 'balanced' sled. Everything is working in harmony, and they have a few moments to collect their thoughts and make adjustments. A balanced sled is a happy sled.

If a player has no bonus available, they place their dice onto their sled and turn the number to their current position in the race (if you are 3rd, turn it to 3, 5th turn it to 5, and so on) up to a maximum of 6.

Even if you already have a bonus available, you may still turn it to your current position in the race, if it would increase the number (bonuses do not add together, a player can only turn it to correspond to their current position in the race).

You do not have to turn the dice if it would cause your bonus to decrease.

IMPORTANT - A player does not adjust their bonus dice on the first turn. It has already been set during the set up phase.

3. Move your sled

Your sled has forward movement and drift.

Forward movement is calculated by adding the value of your dogs together. This will tell you how many spaces you will move forward.

Drift is calculated by the difference between your two dogs. This tells you how many times you will have to change lanes (and what direction) during your forward movement.

Subtract the slower dog from the faster dog. The result is how many times you must change lanes during your forward movement. You always change lanes towards the side of your fastest dog (if your fastest dog is on the left, you will drift to the left).

When a player drifts, their sled changes lanes during their forward movement. Drift is not optional, but a player can choose when to drift during their turn. You will need drift to get your sled round corners.

A player must start changing lanes when drift remaining = forward movement remaining.

e.g. with a unused drift of 2, a player would HAVE to start drifting (change lanes) when they have only 2 forward movements remaining.

Corners like a dream — Robyn plays a 1 giving her a 4 on the left and a 1 on the right. Her forward movement is 5 (4+1) and she must drift 3 times to the left (4-1) during the five spaces. Shown in the example are two possible options available - a circle route and a star route (there are more available). Both routes move five spaces and both drift (change lanes) three times. Notice how the circle route ends up a space further ahead. It is faster to drift earlier in the corner.

Daniel has a dog value 4 on his left and 2 on his right. His forward movement will be 4+2 giving him a total of 6. So he will be moving forward 6 spaces. Because his sled is not balanced he also has drift equal to 4-2=2. He will have to change lanes twice during his forward movement. His fastest dog is on the left side of his sled, so he will change lanes twice to the left while moving six spaces in total. He decides to drift on his third and last movement to expertly manoeuvre through the trees.

Let's drift again — When drifting, a player changes lanes during his forward movement. You cannot jump squares when drifting. When changing lanes you move to the first space that moves your sled forward (as judged by the front edges of the spaces). In some cases, this may only be slightly forward. Remember, you always drift towards the side of your fastest dog.

On the straight, drifting will cause a diagonal movement. On a corner, you might not gain much distance during drifting, but you will always move forward at least a little. Make sure you do not jump to a space that is not connected with the one you are on.

4. Use the bonus dice

After moving, the player may choose to use his bonus dice movement. Your sled does not have to be balanced to use your bonus.

The player moves forwards (without changing lanes) up to the number on their bonus dice. They may choose not to take all of their bonus if they wish, but the bonus dice is still considered to have been used fully.

Once used, the bonus dice is placed to the side of the sled, ready for the next time your sled is balanced.

Using the bonus — Ruaridh has moved his sled, and now decides to also use his bonus dice. Although his bonus could give him 4 spaces, this would cause him to crash into red, so he decides to only use 3 spaces. Even though it was not used in full, the bonus is now spent. The dice is placed to the side of the sled, ready for the next time he gains a bonus.

5. Return hand size to five

Draw cards to bring your hand size to five. If you have taken dent cards during your turn, you may not have to draw any cards, or may even have to discard some to return to a hand size of five.

Discarded cards are placed at the bottom of the pile under either dog.

If you need to draw cards and have no more in your draw deck, pick up all your canine cards played EXCEPT the two top (the ones currently in play). Shuffle them to create a new draw deck.

Once a player has completed their turn, the player who is next in the race order starts their turn.

Race Order

Race order is determined in the following order:

1. Who is ahead on the track. On corners, some spaces have small buds at the front. This is a visual aid to help you see which spaces are level along the track. Lines with matching coloured buds are on the same level.
2. Out of the tied sleds, the sled currently travelling fastest takes their turn first. (The speed of the sled is determined by the two dogs on the sled added together).
3. If still a tie, look to which side the finishing flag is positioned at the finish line. The sled towards the side of the finishing flag takes their turn first.

Example: blue goes first as he is furthest ahead. Yellow and black are tied for track position. Black has 3 and 4 dogs on his sled, while yellow has a 2 and a 1. Black goes before yellow because he is travelling faster. After the yellow sled, green goes next as he is next furthest along the track. The red and orange sleds are tied for track position AND both are travelling at the same speed. Looking at the finish line, the flag is on the right when crossing the line. This means that the orange sled goes first as it is the furthest to the right. Red goes last.

C. Collisions (not really your fault, obviously.)

Turn signals do not come as standard on huskies, we did not include all those dent cards for fun (well, yes, for fun, but you know what we mean…).

Players are not forced to avoid collisions, and may do so for tactical reasons or if the mood so takes them.

Collisions may prevent a player taking all of their required drift, but remember that a player MUST start drifting when drift remaining = forward movement remaining.

When colliding with an object the player does the following:

Side of track / track marker / building

• The sled remains in the space it was in before it made contact.
• The player takes a dent card and puts it into his hand.
• The player immediately finishes their turn by returning their hand size to 5 if required (their hand may already be at 5 after taking the dent card).

Example: Iona, clearly driving beyond her limits, swerves too soon for the corner and hits the side. The sled stops in the space directly before the collision (solid green circle) and she takes a dent card into her hand.

A tree

• On entering the space containing the tree, the tree is removed from the game.
• The player takes a dent card and continues their turn – hitting a tree does not stop movement, and a player may hit more than one tree during their turn. They still have to take a dent card for each tree hit (Hey - hit as many as you like!).

Example: Glenn merrily crashes through two trees during his turn. The trees are removed and Glenn receives a dent card for each tree into his hand.

Another sled

• The active player's sled remains in the space before it hit the other sled.
• The active player subtracts 1 from their bonus dice and turns the dice to show the new value. If the result is zero, the dice is removed from the sled. If a player does not have a bonus available, they ignore this step.
• There is no penalty for the sled which was hit.
• The player immediately finishes their turn by returning their hand size to 5.

Example: Glenn takes great pleasure in ploughing into the back of Iona's sled. His sled remains in the space it occupied directly before he made contact (solid yellow circle). He reduces the bonus dice on his sled, from a 4 to a 3.

Dent cards

• Dent cards go into your hand and count towards your hand size. Dent cards cannot be played, but merely take up space in your hand. They simply reduce your available options.
• There are only 4 dent cards available per sled for a reason! If you ever have to take a fifth dent card, your sled is in serious trouble. You must stop immediately to make serious repairs.
• Your turn ends as soon as you take the fifth dent. Return all dent cards to the pile at the side of the board. Draw 5 new canine cards from your draw deck to make a new hand.
• You may only rejoin the race again when your sled is in last position at the start of a round (if the race finishes before this, you are still allowed to count your current position).
• Exception: In a two player game, when you take a fifth dent card, you immediately finish second for this track.

D. Race End

• The race ends during the round when one player crosses the finish line.
• The round continues until the player in last position has taken their turn.
• No dent cards are taken once your sled has crossed the finish line, but you still have to stop if you hit the side of the track. You cannot travel beyond the available track.
• The positions are now calculated by race position (as under Race Order) – this includes the track past the finish line (note that the sled first across the finish line could still have been overtaken during the round, and may not finish first).
• If playing a single race, the winner may talk about the brilliant manouevers which won the race for them. The losers may mask their poor card management by whining about how if only card X had come out 7 turns ago they would have won, and if only there were tournament rules available.

Example: Moving first, yellow crosses the line. This means that the race will end once the round is over. Blue manages to cross the line too and gets a bit further down the track. Green does not manage to cross the finish line. The race has finished with blue in first place, yellow second and green in third.

E. Tournament Rules

A tournament is played over three races. Decide which three tracks you will use before you start.

Points are awarded for each race. Positions are scored for finishing as follows (it does not matter how many sleds are racing):

1st=10, 2nd=7, 3rd=5, 4th=4, 5th=3, 6th=2, 7th=1, 8th=0

Set up for the second and third races depends on cards in play, so do not tamper with your draw deck or card display at the end of a race.

At the end of a race:

1. Place any dent cards in your hand back into the supply.
2. Collect all canine cards from under your two dogs (leaving the two cards currently in play). Shuffle them, then add them to the bottom of your draw deck.
3. If you have not done so already, draw back up to a hand size of 5.
4. Set up the next track.
5. The next race begins in reverse finishing order from the last race (last in the last race goes first, second last goes next, and so on).
6. All players turn their bonus dice to reflect their starting position at the start of a race: 1st-2nd: Turn dice to 1, 3rd-4th: Turn dice to 2, 5th-6th: Turn dice to 3, 7th-8th: Turn dice to 4.
7. Play continues as normal (play a canine card, etc).

At the end of three races, the player with the highest combined score over the three races is the winner. Ties are broken in favour of a player's finishing position for the final race.

F. Buildings

The inhabitants of this snowy landscape are eager to help their sledding friends. Buildings along the way give a variety of bonuses to a weary sled team, but can also present a challenge to steer around.

Do not put buildings onto the track for your first race; get the hang of steering your sled and managing the cards in your hand first.

The kennels, chapel and cottage are placed onto the track, taking up four spaces. The roundhouse is placed at the side of the track, with the door lining up with a row of track spaces. Where to place buildings is a choice between all players, but guidelines are given for each below.

• Buildings are always placed on straights and not on corners.
• Use two or three buildings for each track. A building can be used more than once during a tournament (on different tracks).
• Hitting a building with your sled is a collision (see C. Collisions).

Place the Kennels / Chapel / Bothy on the straight, so that it covers four spaces. It can go anywhere except the edge of the straight. This allows sleds to pass by both sides. If it was placed touching the side, it would create a space that a sled cannot get out of.

The trigger spaces are the eight spaces that touch the building orthogonally (not diagonally).

Kennels

• Single race – Place somewhere on the first third on the track
• Tournament – Anywhere on first two tracks, near start on final track

Remember those two 'number 5 canine' cards you removed from your deck during set up? Here is how you get those mean half-wolves into your deck.

After finishing their turn in one of the trigger spaces, a player may pick up their draw deck and shuffle one of their 'number 5' canine cards into the deck. This happens at the very end of their turn (after returning hand size to 5).

If playing a tournament, any number 5 cards remain in your deck for remaining races (you do not have to remove them – a dog is for life, not just for Essen).

If you already have both number 5 cards in your deck, the kennels have no effect. Stop visiting them. Please.

Chapel

• Single race – Middle onwards
• Tournament – Middle onwards any track

There are those who would treat their sled with less respect than it might deserve. We are in the business of forgiveness.

After finishing all their movement (this includes bonus movement) in one of the trigger spaces, a player may discard all dent cards before returning their hand size to 5.

Bothy

• Single race – Anywhere on the track
• Tournament – Anywhere, any track

Refreshments available!

When finishing their movement in one of the trigger spaces (including bonus movement), a player may discard any number of canine cards in their hand before returning their hand size to 5. Remember, you are not allowed to discard dent cards.

Tavern

• Single race – Anywhere on the track
• Tournament – Anywhere, any track

The clang of cow bells from drunken revelers spur your team on.

When finishing your turn in one of the trigger spaces, increase your bonus dice by 2 (up to the maximum of 6). If you do not have an available bonus, set the dice to 2 on your sled.

Place the tavern at the side of a straight, so that the front door is pointing across a row of spaces. Any space along this row is a trigger space.

G. Reverse Tracks and Tight Corners

So eight tracks then - that is it, is it? Well, no…not quite. If you are playing Mush! Mush! for the first time, please ignore this section and go straight to the tracks. It will only confuse you. Stick with the initial eight tracks for a while, then come back and read this.

Once you have mastered the eight tracks, you will be a fairly competent musher. You are now ready for reverse tracks and reverse corners. Reverse corners will now be referred to as 'tight corners' and you will see why when you play.

Taking corners the wrong way requires a bit of ability, so only play reverse tracks with experienced mushers. Seriously. We are not kidding.

There is also a slight change to the rules when playing with tight corners. This is required to prevent excessive blocking when trying to exit the corners.

Tight corner track set-ups can be found at the end of H. Tracks.

Tight Corners

The example shows how movement is carried out without drifting on a tight corner. Continuing along the green lines will see a collision with the edge of the track - shown by a red star. As you can see, only the bravest mushers will hug the wall and take the shortest route, by drifting out at the last minute.

Race position on a tight corner

On a tight corner there is a slight change to how you determine race position. Basically, those on the very inside of a tight corner get to go first.

A corner begins after the last straight line that goes from one side of the track all the way to the other. A corner finishes on the last set of spaces that is not a straight line from one side of the track to the other.

On the corner, those sleds hugging the corner take their turn first (furthest along goes 1st, second most along goes next, etc). Once all sleds hugging the corner have had their turn, turn order is determined as usual.

Drifting from the space marked with 5th, would take you to the space marked 4th. 4th would take you to the space marked 3rd, and so on.

H. Tracks

There are two sides to the board: the Lamont Highlands and the Fragor Alps. The tracks show which routes can be closed off to form each race. Each track states which routes to close off; place a track marker onto each space as shown.

The Lamont Highlands

An excellent place to start your sledding career. Also a bit more room for lots of sleds. Still contains a few tricky tracks to catch out the unwary, or over confident.

Track 1. Old Faithful — A gentle introduction into the world of Mush! Mush!. Even at this early stage, do not be afraid to scatter some trees on the straights for some scenery along the way.

Track 2. Tighter than I thought — An easy start, sees you hit the U-turn quicker than you thought. Get the dogs balanced quickly, ready for a swing back to the right over the finish line. Try the cottage along the first straight and the tavern at the start of the second, along with a few trees to mix things up a bit.

Track 3. Ever decreasing Circles — Things are starting to get serious now. Pump up the speed at the start, but watch you do not get caught out with card management when the track starts turning in on itself.

Track 4. Drift Away — A course for the more experienced sledder. Feel free to scatter the trees, but do not be tempted to put buildings anywhere other than the initial straight.

The Fragor Alps

The alps ease you in with a couple of regular tracks, before blowing you away with tight twists, narrowing tracks, and routes that curve back on themselves. Suitable for competent sledders and expert larger groups.

Track 5. What goes up! — Just when you have got used to drifting to the left, the track throws out a long right to catch you off guard. Plenty of room for trees and buildings on the track, so get them down and take out the camera!

Track 6. A Twist in the Tail. — That is a lot of right drift near the end. Lets hope you can keep it up all the way to the finish line.

Track 7. Slightly Unbalanced — Those with motion sickness might want to get the barf bags out. Left and right we go, round tight turn, after tight turn. Any number 5s in your deck? It is going to make things easier…

Track 8. Breath In — It is going to get tight out there. Sleds move through two different bottlenecks, one of which provides a difficult route over the finish line. Masochists may litter the route with trees, including a few choice ones where the track narrows.

Tight Corner Tracks

Do not use tight corner tracks without reading G. Reverse Tracks and tight corners first. You will not use these until you are an experienced musher. The reverse of tracks 1-8 will only contain tight corners, but the following tracks have a mix of both tight and normal corners.

The Lamont Highlands — Start on the spur to create a wicked tight corner for the first bend. A nice introduction to the world of tight corners.

The Fragor Alps — The branch on this track opens up two long mixed corner tracks. Both tracks start and finish at the same line. Use your Mush! Mush! experience to mark out the track with the track markers. These two tracks are as difficult as it gets. Death-wish sledders can try them with eight players if they like the sound of broken wood.

Have fun — Fraser and Gordon!