Atta Ants Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game setup
• Object of the game
• Game preparation
• The round
  • 1) Adding a new card to the game
  • 2) Turn the top card
  • 3) Moving ants
  • The nest
  • 4) Moving spiders
  • 5) Ending the round
• The game ends

Game setup

Each player plays with a group of Atta ants trying to gather leaves as quickly as possible, while being hindered by other groups and spiders. Ants can steal leaves from one another and spiders can eat ants. A new ant comes into play in the nest (the nest card) everytime you bring a leaf there. The play area grows because a new card is added each round.

Object of the game

Each player starts with two ants in the nest and attempts to be the first to get all his ants in play by gathering leaves.

Game preparation

• Every player picks a color of ants (the small disks in red, yellow, orange or brown) to play with and places those on the table in front of him.
• The card displaying the nest is placed in the center of the table.
• The other cards are shuffled and placed in a deck on the table, face down.
• Draw the top 8 cards from the deck. These 8 cards must contain exact 1 spidercard and 2 leafcards. If not, replace any acrd with the topcard from the deck untill you have.
• Place the cards around the nest (see image 1) in such a way that the cards connect. Grass may border grass and trails must connect and continue.
• Every player now places 2 of his ants in the nest.
• Place 2 leaf tokens on every card displaying a leaf and a spider token (the black disk) on the card displaying a spider.
• The oldest player now puts the deck of cards in front of him and starts the game.

The round

1) Adding a new card to the game

The player with the deck of cards draws the top card from the deck and places it next to the cards already in play:

• the card must be placed adjacent to a card with one of your own ants on it. When that's not possible, place it as close as possible.
• grass borders grass or
• a trail connects to another trail

NOTE: no dead-end trail may be created.

If the card contains a leaf, 2 leaf tokens are placed on it. If the card displays a spider, put a spider token on it.

2) Turn the top card

Turn the top card from the deck face up (leave it on top of the draw deck).

3) Moving ants

The player with the deck of cards moves first. He may move one or more of his ants or pass. Other players follow in clockwise order.

Ants can't walk diagonally and can't go on or cross a card with a spider token on it.

An ant can walk one or two cards if it follows a trail (you can move back and forth) and only one card if it crosses grass (see image 2).

While moving, an ant can pick up a leaf, put it down, or steal or take it over from another ant. Because all your ants may move, try to build a delivery chain.

An ant can only carry 1 leaf.

The nest

When an ant carrying a leaf enters the nest (the nest card), it's movement stops. A new ant of the same color is put into play in the nest and the leaf is removed.

The new ant can't move untill the start of the next round. At any given time, only a maximum of 2 ants of the same color can stay in the nest. When moving ants, the nestcard counts as a crossing.

When a player gets his turn to move his ants, all his ants standing in the nest MUST now leave the nest and can't return untill the next round. Any ants that were already standing outside the nest can enter the nest (but no more than 2).

4) Moving spiders

After all players have moved one or more of their ants or passed, the player with the drawdeck moves the spiders.

Every spider token moves 1 card (ignoring trails) in the shortest way towards the card with the most ants on it, not counting the nest (see image 3).

Spiders can't move diagonally, they may never enter the nest (the nest is a save haven for the ants) and do not move if all ants in play are in the nest.

If there are multiple cards with the most ants, each spider will head to their nearest one.

If there's a choice for the shortest route, the player with the deck of cards will select which route the spider is taking.

There may be more than 1 spider token on one card. After all spider tokens moved, all ants standing on a card with a spider token are taken out of play and returned to the players. Any leaves the ants may have been carrying remain on the card.

5) Ending the round

The deck of cards is now passed on one player in clockwise order.

Then a new round starts.

The game ends

There a multiple ways to win the game:

• the player(s) who has 6 ants in play at the end of a round wins the game
• when the last card from the deck has been played the player(s) with most ants at the end of this last round wins the game
• if only ants of one color remain in the game, that player wins the game

A player is out of the game if he has no ants left in play.