Purzelbaum Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Materials
• Set-up of the Game
• Object of the Game
• Course of the Game
  • Autumn
  • Winter arrives
  • Winter
• Ending and Winning the Game

Game Materials

1 tree trunk, 8 branches (4 short ones and 4 long ones), 16 leaves, 16 nuts, 1 meadow grid, 20 meadow disks

Set-up of the Game

You play PURZELBAUM right inside the bottom part of the box. To begin with, take everything out of there - except for the brown box insert.

• Put the meadow grid on the box insert.
• Place one meadow disk on each hole in the meadow, with the green side facing up.
• Stick the tree trunk into the center of the box, with the knotholes upwards.
• Stick the branches into the tree trunk from the side. You may distribute the short and long branches in the holes in any way you like and let them stick out of the trunk in different lengths.

Spring has come... Spring makes the leaves sprout. Stick one leaf on the end of every branch.

Now summer has arrived... The nuts grow and ripen. Stick one nut on the end of every branch.

And finally it is autumn... the game can begin!

Object of the Game

Collect the most leaves and nuts! In autumn, you can gather leaves. In winter, you can gather leaves and nuts. If you have collected the most of them by spring, you are a particularly lucky squirrel.

Course of the Game

The last player to have nibbled a nut begins the game in autumn. After that, players play in turn - just like clock hands revolve.

Autumn

In autumn, you can gather leaves if you drop a nut right into the target hole. Your game turn is as follows:

1. Lift up a green meadow disk and put it next to the box.
2. Let a nut tumble off a branch. Use the leaf to shove a nut of your choice off the branch from behind ... and try to hit the hole you have opened!

Hit the target? Super! You get the leaf! If the nut has landed in the hole, you may now take the leaf you used to shove the nut off the branch, and put it in front of you.

No matter whether or not you have gotten the nut into the hole, now close the hole again: Put the meadow disk, with the white side facing up, back on the hole - this shows that the first snow has fallen here.

Missed? Pity! You do not get the leaf! If the nut has not landed in the hole, you put the leaf on the meadow disk that you have used to close the hole again.

After that, you bury this nut in a different hole. To do this, there are 3 possibilities:

• If the nut is lying on a meadow disk, bury it in the hole underneath it.
• If the nut is lying between several meadow disks, bury it in the closest hole. If several holes are equally close, choose one of them.
• If the nut has landed next to the box, your left neighbor may bury it in a hole of his choice before he takes his game turn.

ATTENTION! This hole is closed in a different way! Do not turn the meadow disk over. Instead, put it back onto the hole in the same way it was there before. If a leaf has been lying on it, it remains there after you have buried the nut.

Keep in mind how to close holes that you have opened: Holes that you have opened before the nut drops are closed with the winter side facing up. Holes that you open after that because the nut has missed the hole are closed in the same way it was as when you opened it.

Winter arrives

As soon as you have buried the final nut, winter arrives. At this time, there are also no leaves left on the tree. Now, turn over all meadow disks that are still green to their white winter side, so there is snow everywhere. If there is a leaf lying on a disk, leave it where it is.

The player who collected the fewest leaves in autumn takes the first game turn in winter. If several players have collected the same lowest number of leaves, the player who initially went last in the order of play may start.

Winter

In winter, you can dig up nuts and gather leaves. Your game turn in winter is as follows:

1. Lift up a white meadow disk of your choice.
2. If a leaf is lying on this disk, it is now yours. Put it in front of you.
3. If there are nuts in this hole, they are now yours. Put them all in front of you.
4. If you have found one or more nuts, close the hole again, with the white side of the meadow disk facing up - do it quickly, since it will be winter there for some time yet!
5. If you don't find any nut, place the meadow disk with the green side facing up on the hole - it has already started thawing there.

Ending and Winning the Game

As soon as the whole meadow is green again, winter is over. Now compare everybody's collection of leaves and nuts. To do so, you can simply put them next to one another and check who has collected the most.

If you are good at counting, you may add up all your own leaves and nuts. If you have the most, you win. If several of you have the same number of leaves and nuts in total, the player who has more nuts (and consequently, fewer leaves) wins. There can be more than one winner.

Example: Clara is the winner. She has gathered 5 nuts and 6 leaves. Nicolas also has 11 leaves and nuts in total - but one fewer nut than Clara. Benjamin even has 7 nuts, but only 3 leaves; this adds up to a total of 10. With this, Benjamin comes in third, after Clara and Nicolas.

Now, in spring, the game ends... and you can start the next one right away, since the year's clock never stands still.