Stramash
Stramash Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
The Point of the Game
The point of the game is to become the Muckle Stoater by being the first player to move your five Laddies (markers/marbles) round the board from your Dock (start) to your Castle (finish).
Definitions
- Mashies = board pieces
- Laddies = markers or marbles
- Dock = the start positions for the Laddies
- Castle = the finish positions for the Laddies
- Bonnie Fechter = a zealous, disputatious person
- Muckle Stoater = the winner!
Setting Up the Board
Set up the Mashies (board pieces) as pictured. For two players use four Mashies. For three to six players, use one Mashie for each player.
For two, three or four players use two packs of cards. For five or six players use three packs of cards.
Each player chooses a colour of Laddie. The Laddies are then placed in the player's Dock ready to start play.
Shuffle the packs of cards together. (Make sure the Bonnie Fechters from each pack are included).
Each player is dealt five cards. Place the remainder of the pack face down in the centre of the Mashies.
Card Values
- The Ace can move one place, or from Dock to the start position.
- King/Queen/Jack can move 10 places, or from the Dock to the start position.
- 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9 and 10 move forward at face value.
- 7 can move seven places or can be divided between two active Laddies, eg. 2 and 5, 6 and 1, 4 and 3.
- 8 can only move backwards eight places. (However, it cannot be used to move backwards into the Castle!).
- The Bonnie Fechter allows any one of your Laddies to move to take the place of any of your opponents' Laddies (which are active on the board) sending your opponent's Laddie back to his Dock. However, you cannot touch any of your opponents' Laddies if they are already safely in their Castle.
Play
Each player has five cards. The cards determine your moves according to their card value above.
To play, the first player takes a card from the pack. He must then play one of the cards in his hand by discarding it face up in the centre of the Mashies.
He then moves his chosen Laddie, according to its value, around the board in a clockwise direction.
Note: An Ace, King, Queen or Jack must be played before moving a Laddie out of the Dock and into the start position.
The Laddie can then move to the start position, ready to begin moving round the board at its next turn.
As long as a player cannot bring a Laddie out of the Dock, he discards one card and passes his turn.
If you finish your turn by landing on the same space as one of your opponent's Laddies, you bump it and send it back to its Dock.
All players must move a Laddie on their turn whenever a move is possible.
A Laddie may land on an opponent's Laddie, or jump over it. You may not land on or jump over one of your own Laddies.
A Laddie that reaches its Castle is safe and can no longer be bumped.
Winning the Game
The winner (the Muckle Stoater) is the first player whose Laddies have all safely reached their Castle.
To get there, a Laddie must be moved by an exact number of spaces. If a player cannot get a Laddie into its Castle, either because the space is not free or because he has not got the exact number needed, he must continue moving around the board.
Team Play
This is an interesting variant in which four or six players can play in two or three teams of two. Set your own rules for deciding whether teammates may talk to each other!
Teammates sit opposite each other. The cards keep their normal values. However, to win as a team, all the Laddies of both teammates must have reached their Castles.
The normal rules apply, except that you may help your teammate by landing on one of his Laddies and sending it to the space at the entrance of his own Castle. An opponent's Laddie that is bumped in this way is sent back to its Dock as usual.
Once all of a teammate's Laddies have reached their Castle, that player may help his teammate on his own turn by playing his cards, but moving his teammate's Laddies instead.