Catan Junior Madagascar
Catan Junior Madagascar Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Components
1 double-sided game board, 1 die, 28 circus tents (7 per color), 28 circus wagons (7 per color), 1 "Animal Inspector" figure with stand, 16 penguin cards, 90 "This and That" tiles (18 each of wool, wood, sand, popcorn and cocktails), 4 animal cards.
Before the First Game ...
- Carefully punch out all parts from the punchboards.
- Put the "Animal Inspector" figure into its stand.
- Look together at the game board and the "This and That" tiles. There are 5 different kinds of landscape hexes, on which you can get 5 different kinds of "This and That" tiles:
- In the forest there is wood.
- On the sheep meadow you get wool from the sheep.
- On the beach you find sand.
- In the cornfield there is popcorn. ("Our favorite food!")
- On the orange plantation you receive cocktails. ("Our favorite drink!")
- Adjoining the landscape hexes are paths for the circus wagons and building spots for the circus tents.
Before Every Game ...
- Place the game board in the middle of the table. If you play with three or four players, put the side of the board showing 4 penguins face up. With two players, play on the side of the board showing only 2 penguins.
- Each of you chooses an animal card. Place it in front of you with the animal face down, so that the side with the overview is visible.
- Place the die next to the game board.
- Then each of you chooses a player color and takes the 7 circus tents and 7 circus wagons of that color. If you play with two players, use only the red and purple circus tents and wagons; put the yellow and blue ones back in the box.
- Some building spots and paths are marked in the player colors. These are the starting building spots for the circus tents and the starting paths for the circus wagons. Place 2 of your circus tents and 2 of your circus wagons on the starting building spots and starting paths of your color on the game board. Place the remaining 5 circus tents and 5 circus wagons in front of you as your own supply.
- Place the "Animal Inspector" figure on the Animal Inspector space on the game board.
- Shuffle the 16 penguin cards and place them as a stack, penguin side up, next to the game board.
- Sort the 90 "This and That" tiles and place them separately from one another next to the game board as the general supply.
- Then place 1 tile of each kind on the 5 trading spaces on the game board.
- Then each of you gets 1 wood tile and 1 sand tile from the general supply. Place these two tiles in front of you as your own supply.
What Is the Game About?
The goal of the game is to be the first to have built all 7 of your circus tents. To build a circus tent you need "This and That": 1 tile each of wood, wool, sand and popcorn. You get the tiles through the landscape hexes on the game board next to which you have already built circus tents.
How Is the Game Played?
You take turns being the Circus Boss; the youngest of you begins.
The Circus Boss rolls the die and thereby determines which "This and That" tiles are distributed to the players. Afterwards the Circus Boss may, in any order, build circus tents and circus wagons and/or request penguin help. If he does not have the right tiles for it, he can trade "This and That" at any time. Then his left neighbor becomes the new Circus Boss.
A turn thus consists of the following actions:
- ALWAYS: 1. ROLL THE DIE and COLLECT TILES
- OPTIONAL: 2. BUILD and/or REQUEST PENGUIN HELP and/or TRADE
1. Rolling the Die and Collecting Tiles
Does the die show a number from 1 to 5? The Circus Boss's roll applies not only to him but to all players. Everyone can get "This and That"!
The landscape hexes show numbers from 1 to 5. For each of your circus tents that you have built at a landscape hex with the rolled number, you get 1 "This and That" tile from the general supply. (So for several circus tents at landscape hexes of the rolled number you also get several tiles. Whoever has no circus tent there gets no tile.) Which tile(s) you receive is shown by the pictures above the numbers of the landscape hexes (see page 1).
Example: If player Purple rolls a "1", he gets 1 wool tile, because he has 1 circus tent at the sheep meadow at top left. Player Red has 3 circus tents there and therefore gets 3 wool tiles. But the beach at top right also shows the number "1". Here player Yellow gets 1 sand tile and player Blue gets 3. For the forest with the "1" at bottom right, players Purple and Red additionally get 1 wood tile each.
Does the die show the number "6"? Watch out, Animal Inspector! If the Circus Boss rolls the number "6", he drives away the nasty Animal Inspector.
The Circus Boss must move the Animal Inspector figure to any other landscape hex. As a reward, the Circus Boss receives 2 tiles from the general supply. These must match the kind of the landscape hex to which he moved the figure. The other players get no tiles in this turn.
Watch out, the Animal Inspector hinders you! As long as the Animal Inspector stands on a landscape hex, that hex is blocked. You get no tiles for your circus tents at this landscape hex when the number of this landscape hex is rolled!
Collect "This and That"! When you receive "This and That" tiles, place them in front of you. With them you can build something or request penguin help when it is your turn as Circus Boss ...
2. Building and/or Requesting Penguin Help and/or Trading
The Circus Boss may BUILD one or more circus wagons and/or circus tent(s) and/or REQUEST PENGUIN HELP. For this he must hand in certain tiles and put them into the general supply. Which tiles you must hand in can be seen in the overview on your animal card.
Building
Each circus tent costs:
- 1 wood tile (for the ring)
- 1 wool tile (for the tent roof)
- 1 sand tile (for the ring floor) and
- 1 popcorn tile (for the audience)
Each circus wagon costs:
- 1 wood tile (for the wagon itself) and
- 1 wool tile (for the curtains)
Attention, building rules!
- You may only build a circus tent on a free building spot next to one of your own circus wagons.
- You may only build a circus wagon on a free path that adjoins one of your own circus tents.
- On each building spot only 1 circus tent, and on each path only 1 circus wagon, may ever be built!
Examples of how you may NOT build: here a circus wagon is missing! / here a circus tent is missing! (The pictured examples of how you may build are on page 3 of the original.)
Requesting Penguin Help
The penguins from Madagascar have a lot of tricks up their sleeves. To request the help of the penguins, you must hand in the following tiles for the penguins into the general supply:
- 1 sand tile
- 1 popcorn tile
- 1 cocktail tile
(The penguins love to laze around on the beach, eat popcorn and slurp cocktails!)
In return you may draw 1 penguin card from the stack. Depending on the card, the penguins help you to drive away the Animal Inspector, to get "This and That", or even to build 1 circus tent or 1 circus wagon for free.
When one of you draws 1 penguin card from the stack, he turns it face up immediately and carries out what is shown on it. There are 3 possibilities:
- Take "This and That": You may take the pictured tiles from the supply, for example 2 popcorn and 2 wood.
- Build: You may immediately build 1 circus tent OR 1 circus wagon without having to pay for it.
- Drive away the Animal Inspector: Immediately move the Animal Inspector figure to any other landscape hex and take 2 "This and That" tiles of the corresponding kind.
Attention: Everyone leaves revealed penguin cards face up in front of them until the end of the game!
Distracting the Animal Inspector. The penguins bring another advantage: they distract the Animal Inspector with their tricks. When you are the first to have a penguin card, you place 1 circus tent (from your supply) on the dashed circle in the Animal Inspector's space on the game board, without having to pay anything more for it!
For 1 circus tent on the Animal Inspector's space you get no tiles, but you have built 1 more circus tent. This way you can build all your 7 tents faster, and win!
However: there can only ever be 1 circus tent on the Animal Inspector's space! If a fellow player later has the same number of revealed penguin cards in front of him, nobody may claim the Animal Inspector's space for himself. The circus tent must be put back into its owner's own supply.
If at some point there is again a player who alone has the most revealed penguin cards in front of him, that player places one of his circus tents on the Animal Inspector's space, and so on.
Trading
Does the Circus Boss not have the right tiles to build something or request penguin help? No problem, because he can also trade tiles! There are 2 ways to do this:
- Trade 1:1 with ONE tile from the trading spaces, and/or
- Trade 2:1 with tiles from the SUPPLY
The order of trading is arbitrary: the Circus Boss can first trade 1 tile from the trading spaces and then with the supply, or the other way round. Before, after or in between, he can build and/or request penguin help.
Trade 1:1 with ONE tile from the TRADING SPACES. In his turn the Circus Boss may take 1 tile from a trading space. For this the Circus Boss must put 1 "This and That" tile that he has already collected onto that trading space. This way there are always 5 tiles on the 5 trading spaces.
Attention: You may trade 1:1 with the trading spaces only ONCE per turn!
Trade 2:1 with tiles from the SUPPLY. In his turn the Circus Boss may trade 2 of his own "This and That" tiles of one kind for 1 ANY tile of another kind from the general supply.
Example: Trade 2 of your own wood tiles for 1 popcorn tile from the supply.
You may trade 2:1 with the general supply several times in one turn.
End of the Game
As soon as one of you has built all 7 of his circus tents (the circus tent on the Animal Inspector's space counts), the game ends immediately and that player wins.
What Happens If ...?
- If the 5 trading spaces hold 5 identical tiles, so that there is no longer a choice, the Circus Boss puts these tiles into the general supply. Afterwards he again places 1 tile of each kind on the 5 trading spaces (as at the start of the game).
- If the stack of penguin cards is empty, no player can request the penguins any more.
- If the supply of tiles of one kind should ever not be sufficient, all players must put all tiles of this kind back into the supply. Tiles of this kind are only distributed again from the next round.
The Game for Pros
The Circus Boss may also trade "This and That" with the other players: 1 tile or several tiles.
Example: The Circus Boss wants to build 1 circus wagon. He already has 1 wool tile, but no wood tile. However, he still has 1 sand tile that he does not need right now. Now the Circus Boss can ask his fellow players whether anyone wants to trade 1 wood tile for 1 sand tile. If a fellow player agrees, the two tiles are exchanged, and the Circus Boss can build 1 circus wagon.