Catchup & Mousetard: Fast Food Battle! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Game Contents
• Types of Cards
• The Protagonists
• The Obakameshi
• Character Distribution
• Setting Up the Game
• Phases of Each Turn
• How to Put a Dish into Play
• Advancing on the Score Board
• The Use of Extra Sauces
• The Use of Potatoes (and How to Turn a Dish into a Menu)
• The Available Types of Sauce
• The Additional Ingredients
• The Importance of the Icons
• The Use of Double Ingredients
• Frequently Asked Questions

Introduction

Catchup and Mousetard are two salsanimals who have been hired to work as cooks in a fast-food restaurant, and the manager of the place has no idea what he has done by putting them on the payroll!

They are as much friends as rivals and love to battle, so they have set out to find out which of the two serves up dishes as fast as possible, instead of paying attention to the customers' orders. What do they care if they go out in the street for wasting food? What matters to them is showing who is the fastest cook! And worst of all... they have passed their rivalry on to their colleagues!

Game Contents

110 cards / 1 instruction manual / 4 menu sheets / 4 pawns

Types of Cards

The 110 cards are divided into 6 types belonging to two classes: hand cards and table cards. Table cards do not count toward the permitted limit of 7 cards in hand.

Table cards:

• 4 score cards (board-cards)
• 4 Character selection cards
• 20 Sauce cards (5x per character)

Hand cards:

• 20 Bread and Potatoes Store cards
• 42 All Kinds of Ingredients cards
• 20 Meat Fridge cards

The Protagonists

In Catchup & Mousetard ~ Fast Food Battle! there are four protagonist salsanimals in total. Players may choose among them to play, either at random or by agreement. They are:

• Catchup: A ketchup-cat who likes to appear serious and strict... until Mousetard teases him!
• Mousetard: A scatterbrained mustard-mouse who has fun playing pranks on his friend Catchup.
• Spicy: A sweet-looking ketchup-kitten who is head over heels for Catchup, but beware of her temper!
• Honey: This mustard-mouse is much cleverer than her brother Mousetard, although her gaze does not show it.

The Obakameshi

The kitchen ingredients also have life in this game! They are known as obakameshi and are lovable ingredients who enjoy a happy cook-up. They love being part of delicious dishes!

The obakameshi appear on the ingredient cards and are used to make the different dishes of the game.

Character Distribution

Each player selects a character card (randomly or not) and, depending on which one they get, plays using the pawn of the colour that represents it: red for Catchup, yellow for Mousetard, orange for Honey and green for Spicy. The score board-cards are also dealt (to each player the one for their character) and the pawns are placed on the starting space marked with the arrow.

The sauce cards are now dealt. There are 20 sauce cards in total (10 ketchup and 10 mustard) whose back shows who they belong to (5 per character). These sauces can be used to form dishes in which their use is allowed. Holding them is independent of the hand-card limit (7).

Setting Up the Game

Step 1. The starting player is chosen, either by chance or by agreement among the participants.

Step 2. The protagonists' character cards are selected randomly or by agreement and each player is given their own five sauce cards.

Step 3. The score board-cards and the protagonists' pawns are dealt, and placed on the starting space (arrow) of their board-cards.

Step 4. Each player is given a menu sheet.

Step 5. The three types of game cards are separated and each deck is shuffled, leaving them in the centre of the table within reach of all players in the following arrangement: on the left the Bread and Potatoes Store deck, in the centre the All Kinds of Ingredients deck, and on the right the Meat Fridge deck. Space is left for the future discards in parallel piles above (see the example below). The discard piles are formed with the cards face up, so that the used or discarded ingredients can be seen. The discards of each player's own sauce cards are removed from the game after use.

Layout suggestion (the decks and their discard spaces are in the centre of the table, within reach of all): a space for the discards of Bread and Potatoes Store, a space for the discards of All Kinds of Ingredients, and a space for the discards of Meat Fridge, each above its deck.

Beside each player: on one side we leave the table cards of our character and its own sauces, which we use when it suits us most; in a free spot, the board-card and the pawn with which we advance (25 points, shown on the side of the card).

Step 6. Going clockwise, each player draws three cards from All Kinds of Ingredients, one from Bread and Potatoes Store and one from Meat Fridge.

Step 7. The first player starts the game, taking the turn phases into account.

Phases of Each Turn

It is mandatory to respect the order of the phases of each turn.

Phase 1. Discard, at the player's convenience, the cards from the hand that they are not interested in using or combining. The maximum number of cards allowed in hand is seven, so it is not advisable to discard more cards than will be obtained, if this limit is not exceeded.

Phase 2. Draw new cards. Note that you can draw in the following ways: either one card from Bread and Potatoes Store, or one card from Meat Fridge, or up to three cards from All Kinds of Ingredients. It is very important to keep this system in mind. Cards may not be drawn from different decks in the same turn under any circumstances, at least in the normal game mode (the alternative systems for little ones have their own rules).

Phase 3. Present a dish (or dishes) and add points to advance on the board-card. If no dish can be presented, the turn passes to the next player.

How to Put a Dish into Play

Players must take into account the cards they have in hand, and try to combine them following the ingredient patterns of the different dishes shown on the menu sheets. When the ingredients required by the menu sheet are obtained, that dish or dishes may be put into play (only during that same player's turn).

Example of a dish from the menu sheet and the necessary cards (the top icon is taken into account): a bun, a steak and a sauce on the sheet correspond to a Bread card (value 2), a Meat card (value 2) and a Sauce card (value 1).

To adjust the ingredient cards in search of a specific dish we use the discard and draw phases, taking into account the strategy and the chance involved in drawing from one deck or another.

Once a dish is put into play, its ingredients go to the discard piles, separated by each type of deck. They can be identified by the drawing on the back and also by the colour of the card borders.

Advancing on the Score Board

Each time a dish from the menu is put into play, the character who presents it advances on their score board-card using their pawn, adding up the numbers of each ingredient used. Each card shows the score obtained with that ingredient.

The first player to reach the space marked with the number 50 wins the game.

The Use of Extra Sauces

Only certain dishes among those on the menu sheets require the mandatory use of sauce cards (whether your own or from the All Kinds of Ingredients deck). So in what other ways can we put them into play?

One sauce of each type (ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise and barbecue) can be added to any dish in the game.

It is not allowed to put two identical sauces into play in the same dish, even if the card backgrounds are different colours.

Playing these sauces is not mandatory unless the dish itself indicates it.

Example: these three cards (Hot Dog bread value 2, Sausage value 2, Mustard value 1) form a Simple Hot Dog and give 5 points. If we also added these three sauces (mayonnaise 1, barbecue 1, ketchup 1) to the dish, it would now be worth 8 points.

The Use of Potatoes (and How to Turn a Dish into a Menu)

Potatoes have a mandatory use in some dishes of the menu sheet, but they are also very important for the rest of the preparations!

To any dish in the game that we assemble following the menu sheet we can add a potato card, announcing that we are turning that dish into a menu and obtaining its extra points. Yes, we can add them even to the potato dishes themselves.

(Example: to the dish above we could also add a potato card (value 2) to turn it into a menu.)

The Available Types of Sauce

They have already been named in the previous sections of this manual, but their importance requires emphasis.

The first thing to do is distinguish them. On one side we have the little cups of ketchup and mustard, and on the other the jars of mayonnaise and barbecue.

If a dish requires a specific type of sauce, it cannot be substituted by a different one.

The Additional Ingredients

This game includes four types of additional ingredients: lettuce, tomato, onion and cheese. To all the hamburgers and hot dogs in the game one extra ingredient card of this type can be added, thus raising the score of the dish so as to advance further.

It is not allowed to put two additional ingredients of the same type into play in the same dish.

Nor may we add these additional ingredients to either of the two potato dishes or to the sharing dishes.

The Importance of the Icons

In the Bread and Potatoes Store and Meat Fridge decks we will find cards with drawings that differ from the original ingredient they represent. Their scores also vary, but their use is exactly the same as if we had the ingredient shown at the top.

The ingredient icons are found at the top of the cards and are what determine which type of ingredient we are putting into play. (Examples: a bun-shaped card with a bread icon and value 0; a steak card with meat icon and value 1; a card drawn as a long roll with a hot dog bread icon and value 3.)

The Use of Double Ingredients

How are they used?

The menu sheet includes dishes that require the use of two identical ingredients. This is the case for dishes with two icons of potato, veal, sausage, chicken or bacon. To make those combinations of ingredients we can put into play two cards of potato, two cards of veal, two cards of sausage, two cards of chicken or two cards of bacon (as required), although we can also use the double ingredient cards. By using a single double ingredient card we cover the need to put the two similar ingredients into play separately.

These are the five types of double-ingredient cards included in the game: potato, veal, sausage, chicken and bacon (each with value 3).

The first thing that will strike us about these cards is that, besides their drawings, instead of one ingredient icon there are three, with a separator between the first and the other two. This indicates that the card can be used as a single ingredient or as a double ingredient, keeping its point value in either option.

So, can double ingredients be used in other dishes? If a dish requires a veal or a sausage (for example) and we have a double card of that type, we can use it in making the dish, benefiting from its score, which is higher than that of its single ingredient. Likewise we can use a double potato in any dish that requires a potato, as well as put it into play to turn a dish into a menu.

Can two identical double cards be used in the same dish? If we are going to assemble a dish that needs two identical ingredients and we are lucky enough to have two double cards of the required type, we can put them into play and thus score a large number of points. Example: a Carnivore Hamburger of 18 points! (Bun 3, double veal 3, double chicken 3, double bacon 3, lettuce 1, mayonnaise 1, ketchup 1, double potato 3.)

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the maximum number of cards allowed in hand? Seven. It does not matter what type of cards we have in hand, but we can never have more than seven cards.

If I discard a card of one type, am I obliged to draw from the same type? No. We can, for example, discard an All Kinds of Ingredients card and draw one from the Bread and Potatoes Store or the Meat Store. Or vice versa.

Can several dishes be played at once? If luck smiles on us and we can present more than one dish in the same turn with our hand of cards, we can play them, taking into account also that each dish carries its own content of sauces (we could add one card of own sauce to each dish presented).

Example of play: We are playing Catchup and have the following seven cards in hand: Hamburger bun, Veal, Hamburger bun, Double veal, Hamburger bun, Veal, Potato. This turn we could play three dishes using the seven cards and three cards of own ketchup sauces, also turning one of the dishes into a menu. An example:

• This would form a "Simple Hamburger" (bun 2, veal 2, ketchup 1).
• "Simple Hamburger" of higher score (bun 3, double veal 3, ketchup 1).
• "Simple Hamburger" turned into a menu with the potato card (bun 2, veal 2, ketchup 1, potato 2).

If we look at this scheme and the rest of the ingredient-combination examples that appear in the instructions, we see the variability of points that can be obtained with dishes that at first would be assumed to be "simple".

If at the start of my turn I have no cards because I played them all this turn or in previous turns, can I draw an initial hand of five cards again? No, you must keep drawing in the usual way. The normal thing in those cases is to spend a couple of hand-recovery rounds drawing three cards from the All Kinds of Ingredients deck, and sometimes it happens that the first three cards of that deck allow a new dish to be formed that can be put into play immediately! (Example: three cards that give a direct menu: hot dog bread, chicken, potato.)