Aqua Brunch Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Goal of the Game
• Setup
• Course of the Game
  • Phase 1: Combine the Predators
  • Examples of Predator Combinations and Their Strength
  • Phase 2: Feed a Food Card
  • Phase 3: Divide the Catch
• End of the Game

Components

Players: 3–7. Age: 8+. Playing time: 20–30 minutes.

109 cards, including:

• 55 predator cards in 5 kinds:
  • Adult orcas: 8 (×4) and 5 (×6)
  • Baby orcas: 2 (×5)
  • Octopuses: 7 (×6)
  • Walruses: 2/4/6 (×14)
  • Sharks: 5/3/5 (×8), 6/2/6 (×7), 7/1/7 (×5)
• 49 food cards (7 of each color), with victory point values: jellyfish (-1), fishbone (0), lobster (2), crab (3), clownfish (4), pufferfish (5), perch (7)
• 1 Lunch card
• 4 aqua cards (values 0, -1, -2, -4)
• Rulebook

Goal of the Game

Collect the best combinations of predators and feed them the most profitable food cards, in order to score more points than everyone else over 6 rounds.

Setup

Each player takes 7 food cards of one color. Shuffle the aqua cards and place them face down in a stack in the center of the table. Place the Lunch card next to them.

Shuffle the predator cards and form the predator deck.

Course of the Game

Each round consists of 3 phases, played in the following order:

1. Combine the predators
2. Feed a food card
3. Divide the catch

Phase 1: Combine the Predators

Deal each player 3 predator cards from the predator deck: two face up and one face down. The cards must be clearly visible to all players. Then the players take them into their hands (and nobody shows them to anyone again).

In this phase your task is to assemble the most advantageous combination of predators.

The top of a predator card shows its strength, as well as the factors that may affect it depending on the other predator cards in hand.

There are 5 kinds of predators in the game. They interact with each other in different ways and change the strength of a combination:

• The strength of an adult orca does not change and is always equal to the printed value. However, adult orcas do not like sharks: if you have an adult orca in your hand, the strength of your shark is equal to zero!
• The strength of a baby orca is 2. But if you have an adult orca in your hand, the baby copies its strength. If, besides the baby, you have 2 adult orcas in your hand, the baby copies the lesser value.
• The strength of a shark varies depending on the number of sharks in your hand. The strength of one shark is shown on the left. If there are two sharks in your hand, the strength of each is shown in the middle. If there are three, each one gets the strength shown on the right.
• The strength of a walrus also varies depending on the number of walruses in your hand: the strength of one walrus is 2. If you have two walruses in your hand, the strength of each of them is 4, and if you have three, the strength of each is 6.
• An octopus has the same strength as the card with the lowest strength in your hand. Important: an octopus never copies the strength of a shark (if your hand contains only octopuses and sharks, the strength of the octopus is 0).

Examples of Predator Combinations and Their Strength

• Walrus + shark (7, 1, 7) + octopus = 2 (one walrus) + 7 (one shark) + 2 (the octopus copies the lowest strength, in this case that of the walrus) = 11.
• Adult orca (5) + walrus + walrus = 5 (adult orca) + 4 + 4 (the strength of each walrus is 4) = 13.
• Shark (7, 1, 7) + shark (5, 3, 5) + octopus = 1 (the first shark has strength 1, because there is another shark in hand) + 3 (the second shark has strength 3, because there is another shark in hand) + 0 (the octopus does not copy the strength of a shark) = 4.
• Adult orca (5) + adult orca (8) + baby orca = 5 + 8 + 5 (the strength of the baby orca equals the lowest strength of the adult orcas in hand) = 18.
• Adult orca (8) + shark (7, 1, 7) + walrus = 8 + 0 (the strength of the shark is 0 when an adult orca is in hand) + 2 (one walrus) = 10.
• Baby orca + shark (7, 1, 7) + octopus = 2 + 7 (the baby orca does not affect the strength of the shark) + 2 (the octopus copies the strength of the baby orca) = 11.
• Shark (7, 1, 7) + shark (7, 1, 7) + shark (5, 3, 5) = 7 + 7 + 5 (three sharks in hand, so the value on the right is used) = 19.
• Octopus + octopus + shark (5, 3, 5) = 0 + 0 (octopuses do not copy the strength of a shark) + 5 (one shark, so the value on the left is used) = 5.
• Walrus + walrus + walrus = 6 + 6 + 6 (the strength of each walrus with two other walruses in hand is 6) = 18.

In the first phase the players pass predator cards around in a circle: each player chooses one card from their hand and places it face down in front of the player on their left. When all players have passed a card, each takes the card received from the player on their right into their hand and counts the strength of the new combination.

If no player wants to move on to the second phase, the players pass cards to each other again. This continues until at least one of them says "Lunch!" ("Ланч!").

If a player decides that they have assembled a strong enough combination, they must say "Lunch!" and touch the Lunch card. If several players say "Lunch!" at the same time, the phase is ended by the one who touched the Lunch card first.

After a player has said "Lunch!", the other players, starting with the player on that player's left, may agree to stop the phase or continue the round by saying "Aqua!" ("Аква!"). To do this, a player takes the top aqua card from the stack and places it face down in front of themselves (after looking at it). This card affects the strength of the player's combination during the third phase.

After this, the players continue passing cards to each other until one of the players again says "Lunch!" (including the player who said "Lunch!" earlier).

The first phase ends in one of two cases:

• no player said "Aqua!";
• there are no available aqua cards left in the center of the table when someone says "Lunch!".

Important: do not show your cards to your opponents until the third phase!

Phase 2: Feed a Food Card

All players simultaneously choose one food card and place it face down on the table. This is the catch that will be eaten in this round.

Tips for choosing a card: choose the food card based on how strong a predator combination you have assembled.

For example, if you play a jellyfish with a weak combination, it will most likely end up with you, because the players with strong combinations will divide up the tastier catch. If, however, you have a strong combination, it is worth playing a more valuable food card and hoping that it ends up with you. Or, conversely, play the jellyfish card to spoil another player's meal.

Phase 3: Divide the Catch

When all players have placed their food cards, they turn them over, reveal the predator cards and aqua cards, and together count the strength of each player's combination.

Example: Andrey has 3 predators: a walrus, a shark and a baby orca. The strength of his combination is 9 (2 + 5 + 2). But during the round he twice said "Aqua!" and drew the cards with values −2 and 0, so the strength of his combination is 7 (9 − 2 − 0).

The player with the strongest combination takes the most valuable food card and places it in front of themselves face up. If several cards have the same value, they take any one of them of their choice.

Then the player with the next strongest combination takes the most valuable of the remaining cards, and so on until the players have divided all the food cards.

If two or more players have the same combination strength, the first to take the catch is the player who placed the most valuable food card. If they placed identical cards, the first to take the catch is the one of them who sits closest to the player who said "Lunch!" (clockwise).

After the players have divided the food cards, they put their predator cards into the discard pile, shuffle the aqua cards and place them in a stack for the next round.

Keep the food cards you have won face up: they are no longer used during the game, and you will need them only for counting points. Under no circumstances mix them with the food cards of your color that are lying face down.

A new round begins with the first phase. If the predator deck has run out, shuffle the discard pile and form a new deck.

End of the Game

The game ends when the players have played 6 rounds. At the end of the game each player has one unused food card left: it must be discarded.

The player who has scored the most victory points on their 6 collected food cards is declared the winner. In case of a tie, the winner is the player who collected the most cards of their own color. If it is still a tie, both players are winners.