Shifti Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal of the Game
• How to Play
• Rules

Goal of the Game

From the start of your station, safely move your four pieces diagonally across the game board toward the central station.

How to Play

Place the change lever beside the game board so that only the black is visible between the handle of the lever and the game board.

The players roll the dice to decide who goes first. The player who obtains the highest number plays first and chooses his color.

The player to his left continues, and so on, until all players have chosen a color and placed the 4 pieces of the game on the square of the board whose color matches that of the pieces. This square is the starting station of each player.

The pieces of the game may only be moved along the black track: forward, backward or sideways. They cannot move diagonally across the squares. Pieces that arrive on the white squares must wait until the black track has been moved into position beneath them.

Rules

1. Players take turns rolling the 2 dice. If both dice are numbered, the player has a choice: either he moves one piece as many times as the total shown on the dice, or he moves two pieces, each as many times as the number shown on the dice.

2. If one die is numbered and the other shows a star, the player has a choice: either he moves the piece as many times as the number shown on the numbered die and then changes the lever once, to the left or to the right, or he first changes the lever to the left or to the right and then moves a piece as many times as the number shown on the numbered die. In this way, each player can decide for himself whether it is preferable to change the lever under one piece, or to abandon an opponent's piece on a white square.

3. If one number and two stars appear on the dice, the player has the same choice as in rule 2, but he may now change a lever twice to the left or to the right, or change two levers once each to the left or to the right, to his advantage.

4. If the dice show only stars, the player loses his turn and the player to his left continues.

5. Only one piece may occupy a square at a time. If a player places his piece on a square occupied by a piece of an opponent, the opponent's piece is captured and returns to the station from which it started.

6. Any piece may jump over a piece of the same color along the track, but it cannot jump over a piece of a different color.

7. The pieces of the game may enter or leave a station by any adjacent track.

8. Pieces must enter the station located on the diagonal from their own station. To do so, the player must obtain a number exactly equal to, or higher than, the number of squares to be travelled.

9. Once a piece has entered its station, it can no longer return to the game board and cannot be captured.