Apache Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • Turning up a prairie card
  • Making loot
  • The Indians and their loot
  • Several players want to make loot
  • After the loot is distributed
  • Penalty
• End of the Game and Scoring
• Additional Rules
  • War Path
  • Wedding
  • Joint Raid

Components

• 20 hand cards (1 chief, 1 warrior, 1 Indian woman and 1 hunter in each of the 5 player colors)
• 114 prairie cards, of which:
  • 45 Indian cards (3 hunters, 2 chiefs, 2 warriors and 2 Indian women in each of the 5 player colors)
  • 69 loot cards (33 buffalo, 9 totem poles, 9 tomahawks, 9 necklaces, 9 tipis)
• 1 Pow-Wow board
• 1 rulebook

Setup

• Separate the hand cards from the prairie cards. The back of each hand card shows an Indian. The back of each prairie card shows a prairie.
• Each player chooses a color and receives the 4 hand cards of that color. The 4 cards show a chief, an Indian woman, a warrior and a hunter of the same color. The upper corners and the background of the cards show which loot that Indian can take.
  • Note: If fewer than 5 players take part, return the hand cards of the unused colors to the box.
• Spread all prairie cards face down on the table as a disordered heap and shuffle them. The cards stay in this disordered heap for the rest of the game.
• Clear some space in the middle of the table and place the Pow-Wow board there. (Among the Indians, a "Pow-Wow" is an assembly.)
• The player with the sharpest eagle eye starts. (For testing, we recommend this line of text.)

Gameplay

Turning up a prairie card

• Play proceeds clockwise. In turn, each player turns over one face-down prairie card from the middle of the table.
• Note: So that no player gains an advantage, the player must turn the card so that the back showing the prairie faces toward him while he turns it over.

There are two kinds of prairie cards: Indian cards and loot cards.

• Indian cards show, on the front, an Indian in a player color.

• Loot cards show, on the front, a buffalo, a necklace, a tomahawk, a totem pole or a tipi. Players can take these together with their Indian cards.

• Note: With fewer than 5 players, Indians of a color that no player owns will also be turned up during play. These Indians simply remain face up on the table.

As soon as a prairie card has been turned up, every player who can make loot may play a hand card. If nobody plays a hand card, prairie cards continue to be turned up in turn until a player plays a hand card, which interrupts the turning of prairie cards.

Making loot

• To make loot, a player must play a hand card and lay it face up on the Pow-Wow board very quickly.
• A player may only play a hand card if the Indian shown on it is also lying face up on the table and that Indian can take at least one card.

The Indians and their loot

• Indian woman: young and pretty, she takes all necklaces.
• Warrior: tall and strong, he collects all tomahawks.
• Hunter: small and nimble, he takes all buffalo.
• Chief: old and cunning, he takes prisoners. He can only make loot if at least one totem pole and at least one other Indian card showing a male Indian are lying face up. He takes all totem poles and one male Indian of his choice.
  • Note: With fewer than 5 players, the chief may also capture an Indian who belongs to no player.
• Instead of "his" item, every Indian may take all tipis.

Example: A red hunter, a tipi and a buffalo lie face up in the middle of the table. The red player places his hunter card on the Pow-Wow board and may collect 2 cards: either the Indian card with his hunter together with the loot card with the tipi, or the hunter together with the buffalo. He cannot take the buffalo and the tipi.

The player takes the Indian card and the loot cards and places them face down as a stack beside him. This is his winnings pile. Then he takes the hand card he played back into his hand.

If two identical Indians of the same color (for example two hunters) lie face up on the table and the player places the matching hand card on the Pow-Wow board, he may make loot with only one of the two Indians. The other Indian card stays face up on the table.

After a prairie card has been turned up, a player may play only one hand card. It is therefore not possible, for example, to play a hunter and an Indian woman together.

Several players want to make loot

If several players play a hand card at the same time, the player whose card was placed on the Pow-Wow board first takes his loot first. This is the card lying lowest on the Pow-Wow board. Then the player whose card lies second from the bottom goes, and so on.

It can happen that a player can no longer make loot with his Indian because another player has snatched the loot from under his nose. In that case the player goes away empty-handed and simply takes his hand card back.

After the loot is distributed

After the players have taken their hand cards back into hand, the turning of prairie cards continues with the player who last played a hand card.

Example: A player has just turned over a prairie card: it was the red chief. The yellow player and the purple Indian woman recognize the danger to their hunters, because a lot of totem poles are lying out. They quickly lay their hand cards with the hunter on the Pow-Wow board. The yellow player is a little faster than the purple player, so the purple hunter lands on top of the yellow one. The red player is the slowest: his chief card lands on top of the Pow-Wow board. First, the yellow hunter makes loot. The yellow player takes his hunter and the buffalo and places them on his winnings pile. The purple player places her hunter and the tipi on her winnings pile. Now the red chief comes up. The chief may not take the Indian woman prisoner. So the red player goes away empty-handed, even though totem poles are lying out. Everyone takes their hand cards back, and the red player turns over the next prairie card, because his chief was the last hand card played.

Penalty

If a player has played a hand card with which he could not have made any loot at that moment, he must, as a penalty, give up the two top cards of his winnings pile. These two cards are removed from the game. If the player does not have enough cards in his winnings pile, he gives up only as many cards as he has. Afterwards he takes his hand card back.

End of the Game and Scoring

• After the last prairie card has been turned up, all players may once more try to make loot with an Indian. Then the game ends.
• Each player counts the cards in his winnings pile. The player with the most cards wins the game.
• In the case of a tie, the proud Apaches share the victory!

Additional Rules

The following additional rules expand the basic game. All additional rules may be combined with each other as desired.

War Path

• If a player collects tomahawks with his warrior, he then goes on the war path and raids all the other players. From each other player, he receives one buffalo card from that player's winnings pile. If another player has no buffalo in his pile, he does not have to give up a card.
• In a two-player game, the warrior always takes 2 buffalo.
• Note: When playing with the War Path rule, it is advisable always to place won buffalo cards under the pile, since they can then be found more quickly.

Wedding

• If at least one tipi lies face up, an Indian woman may marry any male Indian, or a male Indian may marry any Indian woman.
• Both the player to whose tribe the Indian woman belongs and the player to whose tribe the male Indian belongs may play their hand card.
• The player who plays his card first receives all the tipis, the Indian woman and the male Indian, and places them on his winnings pile.
• Of course, tipis can still be collected without marrying.

Joint Raid

• If fewer than 5 players take part, there are Indians who belong to no player. Such Indians join the same kind of Indians of the players to form joint raids. For example, if one player's hunter makes loot, all hunters that belong to no player join him. The player receives these Indian cards as a bonus and may place them all on his winnings pile.
• Exception: Indians who belong to no player do not join other Indians when those are taken prisoner, or when they marry if the Wedding rule is in play.

Example: A blue chief and two yellow chiefs lie face up. They belong to no player. A red chief is turned up, and the red player places his chief card on the Pow-Wow board. He takes a green warrior prisoner. The red player therefore receives all 4 chiefs, all the totem poles and the green warrior. He does not receive the other warriors who belong to no player, because it is the chief who makes the loot.