Niwa

Niwa Rulebook

Table of Contents

7-99 years, 2 players, 15 min.

Contents: 3 pink kokeshi dolls and 3 blue samurai, 12 beads, 12 garden tiles of which 2 have coloured bases, one for each player.

Object: To be the first to reach your opponent's base with one of your three figurines.

Create a circuit using the 12 tiles, placing one base at each end.
The board thus created represents a Japanese garden composed of spaces bounded by lines of different colours. (Be careful to connect the illustrations on the tiles properly.)
The players each choose a colour and take the three figurines of the corresponding colour.
Place two beads of the same colour on top of each figurine.
Then place your three figurines on any three of the six spaces adjacent to your base (the starting spaces).

The youngest player starts and players take it in turns to play.

To move from one space to another, a figurine has to cross coloured lines. In order to do so, it has to have a bead of the same colour as the line it wishes to cross on top of its head. (Bear in mind that each bead only allows a figurine to cross one single line.) Once across the line, take the bead used for that move and place it on top of the head of another of your figurines. The figurine who just moved therefore now has another bead on top of its head that it can use to cross a new line. Thus, in a single move, a figurine can use all of its beads.
On your turn, you can decide not to move a figurine and just pass one bead between two figurines instead: in that case you move a bead from the top of the head of one of your figurines to the top of the head of another of your figurines.

NB1: A figurine cannot land on its own base.

NB2: A figurine can neither pass through nor land on a space which is already occupied.

When two figurines (whether they are opponents or not) find themselves in adjacent spaces a meeting occurs.

Scenario 1: if one of the figurines has no beads on its head, on its turn it can jump over the other figurine and land on one of three spaces just behind that figurine. If none of these three spaces is free, it can move to one of the two following spaces. (In this case it then jumps two spaces.)
Scenario 2: if both figurines are carrying beads, they block each other's passage through their respective spaces. They will then have to move around each other, or empty their load of beads, in order to move forward.

NB3: On a single turn, a figurine can use all of its beads, arrive without any beads in front of another figurine, and so jump over it.

NB4: On a single turn, a figurine can only jump over one other figurine.

NB5: When jumping over another figurine, you do not take into account the colour of the lines you are crossing.

You will be declared the winner if you manage to become the first player to reach your opponent's base with one of your figurines!