Bermuda Triangle Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Object of the Game
• To Set Up the Game
• Movement of the Cloud
  • Examples of Cloud Movement
• To Play the Game
• The Movement of Ships
• Collecting Product Freight Cards
• Collecting "Home Port" Bonus Cards
• Removing Ships from the Cloud
• Ending the Game
• Playing Shorter Game

Object of the Game

To collect the most value in freight by successfully sailing through the Bermuda Triangle area.

To Set Up the Game

1. Assemble a small magnet into each ship as shown below (see Diag. #1). NOTE: Yellow side of magnet must be face down when pressed into ship deck.
2. Assemble the cloud to its base by placing it art side up over the rim as shown (see Diag. #2).
3. Each player is given four ships of one color. He places one in a port space of each of the ports as shown in Diag. #3. Depending on the number of players, ships not needed are removed from the game. (Diag. #3, Placing Ships in Each Port at Start of Game: the ports are shown with ship spaces labelled Blue, Yellow, Green, Red, and the Oil port.)
4. Sort the cards as to products, sugar, 8 cards, oil, 5 cards, bananas, 4 cards and lumber, 7 cards. Shuffle each pile and place, money side up, in back of its corresponding port.
5. Place the Home Port cards in a pile in back of the port near Miami marked "Home Port."
6. Place the spinner, which governs the movement of the cloud, near a player who will act as spinner for the game.

Movement of the Cloud

1. Players take turns in moving the cloud each turn. It is important that at the beginning of the game and all during the game, the notched pointer on the rim of cloud cylinder ALWAYS POINTS EXACTLY NORTH as shown in Diag. #4. (Diag. #4 shows the cloud cylinder rim lettered A through H clockwise, with the notched pointer at North, and grid dots.) NOTCHED POINTER ALWAYS POINTS TO THE NORTH ON THE GAME BOARD. NOTE: The cloud rotates on the cylinder but the notch always points north.
2. Inside the cylinder of the cloud are fins. The tiny space in the center of the fins is the cloud locater. The cloud travels north, south, east or west along rows of dots by moving the locater from dot to dot (see Diag. #5). (Diag. #5: The cloud locater is the space between the fins of the cloud base. The cloud moves from dot to dot by movement of the cloud locater.)
3. The cloud is moved by the spin of the spinner after each player has had a turn to move one of his ships.
4. As determined by the spinner, the cloud has two parts to each movement: a. The first part of the movement is the ROTATION OF THE CLOUD on the cylinder while the notch remains pointing north. The inner circle of the spinner with the letters A through H determine the rotation, and the cloud is turned in a clockwise direction until the letter spun is turned to the notched pointer. (See Diag. #6.) (Diag. #6: cloud rotates clockwise; two fingers hold rim firmly while other hand rotates cloud to new position determined by spinner.) b. The second part is the movement of the base cylinder and cloud over the grid in a north, south, east or west direction. The MIDDLE RING of the spinner tells the number of black dots on the grid the cloud locater is moved. The OUTSIDE RING indicates the direction the cloud is moved ("N" means North, "S" means South, etc.). When the spinner stops on the WORD North, South, East or West, it means that the cloud travels along the dotted path it is on to the last dot on the grid in the direction spun. (See Diag. #7A, 7B and 7C for examples of cloud movement.)
5. To begin the game, the locater is placed over the RED circle in the center of the grid, with the notch North and the cloud's "A" on the notch.

Examples of Cloud Movement

• Diag. #7A: arrow points at E 4 N. This reading means the cloud is rotated until the "E" of the cloud is on the notch and then the cloud is moved across the grid 4 dots toward the north.
• Diag. #7B: arrow points at A 10 E. This reading means the cloud is rotated until the "A" of the cloud is on the notch and then the cloud is moved across the grid 10 dots toward the east.
• Diag. #7C: arrow points at G EAST. This reading means the cloud is rotated until the "G" of the cloud is on the notch and then the cloud is moved across the grid to the last dot on the Eastern edge.

To Play the Game

1. High roll of dice goes first and play continues clockwise.
2. Each player in turn rolls the dice and moves one of his ships (his choice) the number of spaces rolled. A space is the white shape of a ship on the paths that go from port to port.
3. After all players have had a turn moving one of their ships, the spinner is spun, and the cloud is rotated and moved. The cloud should be rotated slowly and moved slowly to its new position by the cloud mover. The player going first is the first cloud mover and others take turns clockwise.

The Movement of Ships

1. A player MUST move one of his ships each turn if a move is possible.
2. A player cannot move his ship under the cloud or touch a ship that is under the cloud.
3. A player must move his ship to a space as close as possible to the cloud if that is his only possible move and his roll of the dice would take him under the cloud. EXAMPLE: A player's only move is a ship on the path that is blocked by the cloud. Assume the player rolls a six but two spaces move his ship to the edge of the cloud. He moves his ship two spaces and his turn ends.
4. Each port interrupts the paths and counts as one space. A player's ship must dock at each port even though his roll could take him past. A ship's movement ends at a port and is docked (placed on one of the dotted outlined ship spaces) at the port.
5. A player may NOT have more than 2 of his ships in any one port at one time.
6. A player's ship must remain on the path before reaching a port and not move into a port that is full. A full port is determined by the number of ships in the port, regardless of whose ships are there including his own. A full port is determined by the number of players in the game: a. with two players two ships fill a port b. with three players three ships fill a port c. with four players four ships fill a port
7. A player may keep ONE OR TWO of his ships in a port as a blocking strategy as long as he has another move. However, he must move each turn if possible, even if it means moving toward the cloud or from a port which breaks up a blockade.
8. A player passes his turn without penalty if he has no possible move.
9. A player is allowed to move his ships past his or opponents' ships while sailing on any path. During his move, he must count the space or spaces occupied by a ship or ships he passes.
10. A player's ship landing by exact count on a space occupied by an opponent's ship, or his own ship, sends the ship landed on back to the previous port. The ship landed on moves back to the closest unoccupied space to the port if the port is full.

Collecting Product Freight Cards

1. A player takes the top product freight card from the pile in back of the port at which his ship docks.
2. A player may not collect a product freight card when his ship is returned to a port after being landed on.
3. Once all the freight cards have been taken from a port, ships landing thereafter cannot collect freight cards.

Collecting "Home Port" Bonus Cards

1. Each time a player's ship docks at "Home Port" the player receives a home port bonus card. Ships landing there after the eight bonus cards are gone receive nothing.
2. A player whose ship returns to "Home Port" from being "Landed On" by another ship does not receive a "Home Port" bonus card.

Removing Ships from the Cloud

1. Each time the arrow of the spinner points to the words North, South, East or West and AFTER the cloud locater is moved to the last dot in that direction, the cloud is carefully picked up from the board.
2. This is the ONLY time the cloud is removed from the board surface.
3. All ships hanging on the cloud are removed from it and are out of the game.
4. The cloud locater is then placed on the center red circle as in the beginning of the game and play continues.

Ending the Game

The game ends when one player collects $350,000 in any combination of product freight cards and bonus cards, or when one player has lost all his ships, whichever occurs first.

The player obtaining the $350,000 first, or the player with the highest dollar value in cards if the game ends by loss of ships, is the WINNER OF THE GAME.

When the game ends by the latter method, it is possible for a player to be the winner even when losing all of his ships.

Playing Shorter Game

Players may decide to make the winner the first player to obtain $200,000. This shortens the average time of game play.