Blockers!
Blockers! Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 1 game board
- 140 tiles (28 of each color)
- 5 tile racks
Setup
Place the game board in the middle of the table. Each player chooses a color and takes all the tiles of that color, as well as a tile rack. Players place their tiles face down in front of themselves and shuffle them thoroughly. Then each player draws five of his tiles and places them on his tile rack so that the other players cannot see them. The remaining tiles stay face down.
The starting player is determined randomly. After that, players take their turns clockwise.
BLOCKERS! wild tiles may be placed on any space on the game board.
Gameplay
The player whose turn it is takes one of his tiles from his tile rack and places it on the game board. Number tiles must be placed in the column that matches the number. Letter tiles may only be placed in the row with the matching letter. Symbol tiles must be placed on one of the spaces with the matching symbol.
A tile may either be placed on an empty space, or it may replace a tile belonging to another player, which is thereby taken. A single tile, or a tile from a group of two, can always be replaced. However, a tile may only be taken out of a larger group if doing so does not split that group into several groups.
If a player cannot play any tile onto an empty space, he must replace a tile already placed by another player. Passing is not allowed!
Captured tiles are placed face up next to the tile rack of the player who took them, so that all players can see them.
At the end of his turn, the player draws one tile and places it on his tile rack.
Scoring
Now each player counts his points:
- 1 point for each group he has on the game board. A single tile lying by itself also counts as one group.
- 1 point for each captured tile of the color of which he has the most in front of himself. If he has the same number of tiles of several colors in front of himself, he only scores these points once.
The player who has the fewest points overall wins. In case of a tie, the player who has captured fewer tiles during the game wins.
End of the Game
Once all players have drawn their last tile, each player gets one more turn. After that, the game ends. At the end of the game, each player still has four unused tiles left on his tile rack.
Advanced Variant for 2 Players
Each of the two players chooses two tile colors and therefore also takes two tile racks. The colors are kept separate; each tile rack holds only tiles of one color.
The player whose turn it is may choose which tile color he wants to play. Tiles belonging to the opponent may be captured as described above, as long as no group is thereby split into several parts. However, a player may also capture tiles of his own second color. Here too, groups may not be split.
After a tile has been played, a tile of the same color must be drawn. If a player can no longer draw a tile of that color after playing, he turns his tile rack over and shows his opponent the four remaining tiles. This shows the opponent that this color will no longer be used in the game. For the rest of the game, the player may only play with his second color.
The game ends when both players have only four tiles left in each of their two colors. Now each player counts his groups on the game board and the captured tiles of the color of which he has the most in front of himself (even if it is one of his own colors). The player who has the fewest of these combined wins. In case of a tie, the player who has captured fewer tiles overall during the game wins.