Ausgerechnet Buxtehude
Ausgerechnet Buxtehude Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 200 place cards (180 places and 20 landmarks)
- 2 Intermezzo cards
- 1 Direction card
- 36 wooden chips
Paper and a pencil are also needed.
Objective of the Game
The place cards must be arranged on the table according to their geographical position, in a north-south or west-east direction. Whoever makes as few mistakes as possible, and catches as many mistakes made by other players as possible, is rewarded with chips and wins.
Game Setup
The place cards are shuffled well and sorted so that the place names face up, with the coordinates and other information on the back of the card. Then three stacks of 15 cards each are formed. The remaining cards are set aside for now.
An Intermezzo card is placed on the first stack of cards, then the second stack is placed on top, followed by the second Intermezzo card, and finally the third stack of place cards.
The card stack formed in this way is placed on the table within easy reach of all players.
The Direction card is placed in the middle of the table.
The top card is taken from the remaining place cards and placed on the Direction card. This is the starting card. Each player receives 4 chips. The remaining chips will be needed later.
The Game
The youngest player begins. Play proceeds clockwise. The player whose turn it is takes the top card from the stack and reads the place name aloud. Watch out: no player may look at the coordinates on the back of the card! The player then decides whether they want to place this card in a west-east or north-south direction. Since at the start of the game only the starting card is on the table, the starting player has four options for placing their card: above the starting card (north), below the starting card (south), to the left of the starting card (west), or to the right of the starting card (east).
The following player takes the top card from the stack and decides whether to place it above, below, to the left, or to the right, or whether to place it between two cards that are already on the table, and so on.
Watch out: a place card may only ever be placed in relation to the starting card in a west-east or north-south direction. Over the course of the game, the cards form a cross. No other placements are allowed.
Once a player has decided on a position, they place their card there. It now lies either in a west-east or north-south direction relative to the starting card. Only in that one direction must the card be correctly placed.
Example
Bautzen is to be placed. The blue checkmarks show five of the ten possible placements in total.
Now All Players Are Asked
If all players agree that the card just placed is placed correctly, the next player takes their turn. But if a player believes the card is placed incorrectly (too far west or too far east, if it is in a west-east row, or too far north or too far south, if it is in a north-south row), they knock on the table and call out "wrong".
The player who challenged the card now turns over the card just placed, as well as one neighboring card.
Correct or Wrong?
The card just placed is checked only against the neighboring card that was turned over. All other cards are irrelevant. The coordinates (geographic longitude and latitude) of the respective cities can be seen on the backs of the cards. If a card in a west-east row was challenged, only the two coordinates to the right (E) are decisive. If a card in a north-south row was challenged, only the two coordinates at the top (N) are decisive. The card just played is placed correctly if the numbers increase in the direction of the arrow.
Occasionally it can happen that two cards are revealed with exactly the same geographic longitude or latitude. In that case, both cards are correctly placed.
If a card was challenged rightfully — meaning the card is indeed placed incorrectly — the challenger receives a chip from the player who placed that card. The card is removed from the game.
If a card was challenged wrongfully — meaning the card is in fact placed correctly — the player who placed that card receives a chip from the challenger. All cards remain in place and are turned back over, so that only the place names are visible again.
A player who has no chips left does not have to give one up. The winner may then take a chip from the supply.
Should there not be enough chips available, a player may exchange 5 chips for a place card that has already been removed from the game. This place card is then worth 5 chips at the final scoring.
Intermediate Scoring
Play continues around the table until the first Intermezzo card appears. This triggers an intermediate scoring, in which all players estimate how many cards in the currently laid-out cross of cards are placed incorrectly. Each player secretly notes down their number.
All the cards on the table are turned over and checked.
Important: the check always begins from the starting card. In all four compass directions, each card is checked in turn to see whether it is placed at the geographically correct position (see above).
If a card is placed incorrectly, it is set aside. The cards that have been set aside are counted. Every player who guessed correctly receives two chips from the supply.
If no player guessed the correct number, all players whose guess is closest to the correct result receive one chip.
And So It Continues
All the place cards on the table, including the starting card, are removed from the game. A new starting card is drawn from the cards that were set aside at the start of the game, and play continues around the table as described above.
End of Game
Once all (3 x 15) cards of the stack have been used up, one final intermediate scoring is carried out. After that, the game ends.
The player with the most chips is the winner.
Tip
Anyone who wants to get to know the game first, or who is playing with children who are not yet very good at determining the geographic position of certain places, can sort out some of the "difficult" place cards before the game.
Note
For "Ausgerechnet Buxtehude", current figures for the population and area of the places were used. Since these figures change continuously, there may be slight discrepancies compared to individual sources.