Bangkok Klongs
Bangkok Klongs Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 1 gameboard
- 68 wooden merchants in 4 colors
- 72 boats
- 8 movement cards in 4 colors
- 1 counter Luk Phat
- 1 counter Master of the Market
- 2 special counters for the game with more tactics (see More tactics)
- 4 counters for 100 points
For 2 - 4 players from 10 years.
Set-up
- Place the board in the middle of the table.
- Shuffle the boat cards face down on the table and place them in stacks next to the board. Each player draws 4 cards from the stack, keeping them secret from the other players.
- Each player selects a colour and gets merchants and the two movement cards of this colour. He places both in front of him on the table. Each player places one merchant on the space 0 of the scoring track around the gameboard.
- The number of merchants depends on the number of players. With 2 players: each player gets 17 merchants, with 3 players: 12 merchants, with 4 players: 9 merchants. Surplus merchants are no more required.
- Place the Luk Phat counter on the lowermost space of the Luk Phat scale.
- Place the counter Master of the Market next to the board.
Course of the game
The youngest player begins. Play then follows clockwise.
On a player's turn he places one of his boat cards on a free water space on the gameboard according to the rules of movement (see Rules of movement). Afterwards, the player draws a new boat from the stack of boat cards to have again 4 cards on his hand.
Each time a boat showing the symbol Luk Phat is placed on the board, the counter Luk Phat moves one step on the scale. The player gets the points mentioned on the space and moves forward his merchant accordingly on the scoring track.
Example: Mary places a boat mentioning the Luk Phat symbol. The counter moves from the starting area to the next space with the number 6. Mary gets 6 points and moves forward her merchant 6 steps on the scoring track.
If the Luk Phat counter moves forward up to an area "market day" the player who caused the action gets the points. In addition, a market day scoring will take place. The course of the scorings Little Market Day and Big Market Day are nearly the same (differences see Big Market Day). After the scoring Little Market Day the game continues. After the evaluation Big Market Day, only the final scoring of the stock will take place (see Scoring of the stock).
The player whose merchant is in front on the scoring track after the final scoring is the winner of the game!
The boats
Usually, the boats consist of 3 different elements: goods, merchant and value. Boats showing a merchant are owned by a neutral merchant. Players cannot take possession of those boats. Boats without merchants, showing an empty space, aren't yet owned. The player who places such a boat can take possession of it by placing a merchant on it. If a player places a boat with an empty space and all of his merchants are stored on boats, he has 2 options: 1. He disclaims to take possession of the boat or 2. he removes a merchant from another boat and places it on the new boat.
Each boat (except boats having special features as thief, inspector and cookshop) carries goods in the front. There are 7 different goods available (flowers, shrimps, avocados, pineapple, eggplants, fish and bananas) which will be important for the final scoring of the stock at the end of the game.
Some boats carry baskets (0, 1, 2 or 3 baskets). They show the value of the boat and are important for the scorings.
Some boats are showing in addition the Luk Phat symbol. If one of those boats will be placed on the gameboard, the Luk Phat counter moves forward 1 step on the Luk Phat scale. The reached space indicates the number of points the player gains. Some spaces also trigger a market day.
Furthermore, there are some boats in the game which have special features as thief, inspector and cookshop (each feature is 3 times available). (See also Boats with special features.)
Rules of movement
- In the first turn each player has to place the boat on one of the entry spaces. While 2 players are playing they only use the light water spaces, with 3 or 4 players they also use the dark fields on the other side of the gameboard.
- After the first turn, the boat has to be placed bordering to another boat, either sidewise (shoulder to shoulder) or diagonally (corner to corner). The jetties do not hinder the action.
- The jetties separate the gameboard in market hoods. Each of them consists of 4 water spaces. To be not too close in the market hoods, only 3 water spaces can be occupied by boats, one has to remain empty. If 3 water spaces in a market hood are taken by boats, the remaining space has to stay vacant.
- It is not allowed to place a thief into the sphere of influence of an inspector (see Boats with special features).
- In addition to placing a boat each player may move one of his own boats using his moving card. This option is available two times during the game, but only once during a player's turn (before or after placing a new boat). The player has to discard his moving card and may move one of his boats to a bordering space (sidewise or diagonally). The jetties do not hinder the action. Displaced boats must not be adjacent to other boats.
- A player's turn ends by taking a new boat from the stack to replenish the boats on his hand to 4 boats. If the stack is depleted, boats will be placed furthermore until the Big Market Day takes place.
Market Days (scoring)
As the Luk Phat counter moves either to Little Market Day or Big Market Day, the scoring will take place immediately.
Little Market Day
The player who caused the Little Market Day is the first who evaluates. Players' scorings go in clockwise order until each player has evaluated at most 2 times. If a player is not able or does not intend to score, he may disclaim. Even while breaking off during the first scoring round, the player can enter the scoring again in the second round.
Scoring: The player takes the Master of the Market and places him on a landing point. The landings are situated on the jetties and connect always 4 water spaces. It is essential that all of these 4 water spaces are occupied by boats and that at least one of the boats is owned by the player who is going to evaluate.
Evaluation: The number of baskets on the boats situated around the landing will be added (the baskets on the thief's boat do not count). This number will be multiplied with the number of merchants, separate for each player's colour. That means: each player who owns a boat on one of the 4 spaces of the scoring quartet gains points, not only the player who scores!
Example: John (colour green) is going to score. All in all, there are 5 baskets (2+0+3+0). John owns 2 boats, therefore he will get 10 points (5x2). Eva (colour red) owns one boat of the quartet as well, she will get 5 points (5x1).
After scoring, the player who has scored removes a boat of his own out of the scoring quartet. The merchant on this boat will go back into the player's pool and can be used again. The removed boat is placed in the player's stock in front of him. At the end of the game the player will score for his stock (see Scoring of the stock).
Advice: While removing a boat, water spaces can become empty which have been occupied before.
Advice: By applying the rules of movement (boats can be placed only sidewise or diagonally), connected chains are generated. While removing a boat, those chains will be disconnected. This is without any influence on the rules of movement.
After 2 scoring rounds, the Little Market Day has been completed. The players go on placing boats as before, starting with the player on the left side of the player who caused the Little Market Day.
Big Market Day
Both market days proceed similar with the following differences:
- The Little Market Day starts with the player who caused the scoring. Now the player whose merchant is the last on the scoring track, starts. In case of standoff the player who has less merchants on the gameboard starts. In case that there still will be 2 players on the same level, the player who caused the scoring respectively the one whose turn will be first in clockwise order begins.
- The Little Market Day has at most 2 scorings. The scorings of the Big Market Day will proceed until no more scoring is possible or no player is willing to score again.
- During the Little Market Day, players are only allowed to remove their own boats, now they may take a boat, that they own or a neutral boat. Foreign boats are still forbidden.
Boats with special features
As already mentioned, there are 3 types of boats with special features: thief, inspector and cookshop.
Thief
While placing a thief-boat on the board, the player can take a boat of his choice from the horizontal line where the thief's boat has been placed. The arrows on the boat show the line. He is nearly free in his choice. He can also remove a boat from another player. Only an inspector's boat cannot be taken out of the game. The merchant on the removed boat goes back to the player and can be used again.
Afterwards, the player has two choices:
- to put the boat into his stock and to draw a new boat from the stack, or
- to take it on his hand without drawing a new boat from the stack.
Inspector
The inspector protects all boats which are located on spaces of his vertical line against the thief. The arrows on the boat show exactly the line where the boats are protected. It's forbidden to place a thief on a space of the protected lines. If there is already a thief on a space of the protected line, the player who has placed the inspector removes the thief. He either can discard the thief and draw a new boat from the stack, or he can take the card on his hand without drawing a new boat.
Special case: If there are 2 thieves in a protected line, the player who has placed the inspector removes both thieves. But he is only permitted to take one of the thieves on his hand, the second one will be removed and discarded. He also may discard both thieves and draw a new card from the stack.
Cookshop
This boat is important for the scoring. Points will be doubled if there is a cookshop in a scoring quartet.
Scoring of the stock (final scoring)
The scoring of the stock takes place after the scoring of the Big Market Day. Cookshop, thief and inspector have no goods on board, thus the owners will not gain points for them.
Each type of product will be settled in particular as follows: For the first product card of one type the player gets one point, for the second card of the same type he gets 2 points, for the third 3 points and so on...
Example: Sarah owns a boat carrying bananas (1 point), 3 boats having fish (6 points) and 7 boats with flowers (28 points) in her stock. She moves her merchant on the scoring track 35 steps (1+6+28).
More tactics
Skilled players should try to change the rules as follows to reduce luck and to bring more tactics into the game: The boats will be divided into 2 stacks. Stack 1 are all boats with merchants (neutral boats) and with special features (inspector, thief and cookshop), stack 2 are all boats without merchants. Both stacks will be shuffled and placed face down beside the gameboard. They should be labelled with the special counters. Before the game starts each player takes 3 boats from stack 2 without merchants and one boat from the stack 1 with merchants and boats with special features. From then on players decide from which stack they draw a boat to complete their hands.