Cairo Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Objective
• Content
• Preparation
• Gameplay
  • A. Roll the Nile die
  • B. Move your boat
  • C. Get building blocks back on board
  • D. Flick building blocks
  • E. Possibly build pyramids
• End of the Game
• Scoring
  • Influence
  • Ties
  • Tallying the score
• Variant for the Professionals: Sudden Death

Objective

Whoever has the most victory points in the standings at the end of the game wins and is the best builder on the Nile. At each construction site, victory points are awarded to the players with the most and second-most influence there.

Content

• 1 Game board
• 5 Ships in 5 colors
• 85 Building blocks in 5 colors (per player: 15 small, 1 large, 1 die-block)
• 1 Nile die

Preparation

Each player receives all the building blocks of a color.

Place the game board in the middle of the table. It depicts the Nile Delta with various pyramid construction sites.

Each player: Place the 17 blocks of one color in front of you. This is your supply of flickable blocks. Place your ship at the starting area on the Nile.

Gameplay

On your turn, perform 5 actions. The youngest flicker begins, then the others follow in clockwise order. When it is your turn, execute the following actions in sequence:

• A. Roll the Nile die
• B. Move your boat
• C. Possibly get building blocks back on board (only going downstream)
• D. Flick building blocks
• E. Possibly erect pyramid(s)

A. Roll the Nile die

Roll the Nile die (the colored dice are only used as building blocks). The number rolled dictates how many spaces the ship moves along the Nile (Action B), and with which finger you must flick your building blocks (Action D).

B. Move your boat

Move your ship the number of spaces shown on the die, in the direction of the arrow.

Skip occupied spaces, so that there is only ever one ship per space on the Nile. (The light blue dashed lines on the Nile are only used for tallying the score at the end of the game.) If the ship reaches one end of the Nile, it turns around and continues along the other side.

C. Get building blocks back on board

You may only retrieve your building blocks on the way back downstream — i.e. when you are headed back toward the starting area.

If there are any of your blocks in the adjacent desert area (to the port and starboard of your ship), you may now take them back into your supply.

You may also bring back "burning" building blocks (these are stones that lie on a boundary line — between desert areas, the Nile, or a construction site). You may not retrieve blocks that lie entirely on a construction site.

D. Flick building blocks

As long as you have blocks in your supply, you must attempt to flick them off your ship to building sites. If your supply runs out, immediately remove your ship from the board, because the game is over for you.

You must choose which of your building blocks you wish to flick. You can choose between 3 options:

• 3 small blocks, or
• the big block, or
• the die building block

If you choose to flick 3 small blocks, but only have 1 or 2 small blocks in your supply, then just flick the 1 or 2 you have.

Flick them from the boat, one at a time: you place one of the selected building blocks on your ship, and flick it off. The number on the Nile die (Action A) shows which finger you must use to flick the block:

• 1 - with the thumb
• 2 - with the index finger
• 3 - with the middle finger
• 4 - with the ring finger
• 5 - with the little finger
• 6 - whichever finger you wish

The following rules apply to your flick:

• Use any flicking technique. You can freely choose the technique you use to flick, as long as the indicated finger is the one striking the block(s).
• Blocks that fall off the board, or into the Nile, are removed from the game. Building blocks that end up completely in the Nile, or completely off the board, are removed from the game and put back into the box — even if they were knocked there by other blocks.
• Penalty for an overturned boat: 1 block in the box. If you knock over a ship with your flick, you must immediately stop its turn (the flicked block is still valid). Your punishment: return one block from your supply to the box. If you have no more blocks in your supply, remove your ship from the board, because the game is over for you.
• Changes caused by a flick always count. All changes on the board resulting from the flick are valid and stay. This is especially true when pyramids are ruined or when opponents' blocks are knocked off a construction site, or even off the board. The only changes that get reversed are bumps due to sleeves, elbows, etc.

E. Possibly build pyramids

Build a pyramid if:

• the flicked block landed on a construction site, and
• there are enough blocks available on the construction site.

If you flick a small block onto a construction site, you may immediately build a pyramid — you may even use "burning" blocks. By doing this, you can increase the influence of your building blocks for scoring, because building blocks in the 2nd level or higher are more valuable than those on the ground (see "Scoring").

In order to construct a pyramid, the exact number of small building blocks (your own or others') needs to be available on the site. The following pyramids can be built:

• 3 stones
• 5 stones
• 6 stones
• 10 stones
• 14 stones

You can never incorporate stones that are part of a pyramid already. Nor can you build onto existing pyramids, regardless of whether they are complete or broken. Each construction site may have any number of pyramids.

Destroyed pyramids: building blocks are available again. If a completed pyramid is destroyed by a flick, the individual stones that are knocked loose are again available for construction. Pyramid ruins are left standing, however, if they still have stones in the 2nd level or higher. In that case, the ruins continue to be considered a pyramid.

You are not required to build pyramids. If you forget to build a pyramid or you just have no interest in doing so, just leave the blocks where they lie. If you want to build a pyramid out of them later, you will have to successfully flick another block onto this building site.

If you have no more blocks, the game is over for you. If you have no more blocks in your supply, remove your ship from the board. The game is over for you.

End of the Game

The game ends when only one ship is sailing on the Nile, because all the other players had to remove their ships from the board. This player gets one more turn, and then the scoring commences.

Scoring

Evaluate the individual construction sites one at a time. The player with the most influence on the site receives the larger number of points marked on the site; the player with the second-most gets the smaller.

If there are blocks of only one color on a building site, the player only scores the first place amount — not both.

Influence

Determine each player's influence at the construction site to see who scores:

Individual blocks:

• Small block: 1 influence
• Big block: 3 influence
• Die-block: 1 to 6 influence, depending on the number on the top-most face of the die
• "Burning" stones (touching the purple boundary of the site): only half their normal influence. A small block only counts for ½ influence, etc.

Blocks in pyramids:

• Blocks in the 4th level: 4 influence each
• Blocks in the 3rd level: 3 influence each
• Blocks in the 2nd level: 2 influence each
• Blocks in the 1st level: 1 influence each

Ties

Tied influence on a building site: nearest block decides. In the event of a tie in influence, the tied player with the closest block to the building site (but not on it) wins the tie. The closest block may even be one on another construction site.

Examples: (two photographed construction sites, each with the influence of each player's blocks listed by color)

Left site:

• Blue: 1.5 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 7.5 influence
• Red: 4 + 2 + 0.5 = 6.5 influence
• Green: 1 + 0.5 + 3 = 4.5 influence
• Brown: 1 + 1 + 1 + 3 = 6 influence

Right site:

• Blue: 1 + 1 + 0.5 = 2.5 influence
• Red: 1 influence
• Green: 1 + 2 = 3 influence
• Brown: 1 + 2 = 3 influence

Victory point key (as printed, applies to the colors): Blue = 8 victory points; Red = 4 victory points; Green = 10 victory points; Brown = 5 victory points.

Tallying the score

To determine the winner, the players place their ships on the starting area, then move them along the Nile in accordance with the victory points. Each space corresponds to 5 victory points, and the dashed lines within the spaces indicate single points. Because the boats are huge, and scores may be close, you may prefer to score with a spare block for each player, instead of the boats. Alternatively, you can tally the victory points on a sheet of paper or something.

The source prints a heading "Example of a river scoring:" with a strike-through and no example following it. It is transcribed here without the example.

Whoever has the most victory points (i.e. whoever's ship travels the farthest due to the scoring) wins the game. In a tie, the tied player with the most small blocks on the board wins.

Variant for the Professionals: Sudden Death

Instead of waiting to evaluate construction sites until the end of the game, score them during the game. Once a construction site has enough small blocks to determine a first and a second place to whom the victory points would be awarded, it scores. Thereafter, the construction site is off-limits, and any blocks that land in it go back in the box. This option keeps the board clearer, but it eliminates the possibility of last-minute upsets in the game.