Cavemen Playing With Fire Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Closed Game
  • Setting Up the Game
  • The Playing Field
  • The First Hand
  • Turn Overview
    • 1. Playing Your Cavemen
    • 2. Placing Cards
    • 3. Discarding Cards
    • 4. Drawing New Cards
  • The Ranking of the Caveman Cards
  • Special Abilities
  • Fire Cards and Cave Cards
• The "Open" Game
  • Moving Over a Cave or Fire Card
  • Attacking in the Open Game
  • Zippy in the Open Game
• Game Tactics

Components

Each player receives a deck of 25 cards. These include 12 cave cards, 3 fire cards, and 10 caveman cards (1x Zippy, 1x Dino, 3x Gutsy, 1x Plucky, 2x Gritty, 1x Snappy, 1x Ballsy).

Closed Game

Hereafter follows the gameplay for the 'closed' game.

Setting Up the Game

The players decide who plays with red and who plays with blue. Red begins. Each player vertically puts down their three fire cards next to each other; the cards should be face upwards on the table.

There should be enough space horizontally in between the three fire cards, so that a single caveman card can fit in between them. Above each of the three fire cards should be placed two cave cards; again these cards are placed face upwards.

Now each of the players should have their cards arranged in three columns in front of them. The columns of the two players should align with each other, as to form three columns of six cards.

The Playing Field

All of the action takes place in the four vertical paths created by the cards on the table: the two paths in between the columns of cards, and the paths outside each of the outermost columns.

In these four vertical paths, players can move their cavemen cards forwards and backwards, alongside the cave and fire cards. The players are also allowed to move sideways over a fire or cave card, from one path to the next. (See also 'Playing Your Cavemen'.)

The First Hand

Before the game starts, the players shuffle each other's decks of 25 cards. Each player then lays their deck of cards face down on the table. This is referred to as the "drawing deck". Each player first draws five cards.

A player who is not completely happy with their first hand can throw away up to all five cards and draw new ones from the stockpile, as long as her total number of cards remains at five. The discarded cards are placed in the "inactive deck" face upwards. Obviously, a player cannot look at the cards in her stock!

Turn Overview

With each turn there are four phases:

1. Playing your cavemen – 2. Placing cards
2. Discarding cards – 4. Drawing cards

1. Playing Your Cavemen

(Note: in the first round of play, neither player will be able to play any cavemen because there are no cards on the table yet. In the first round, the players therefore immediately skip to 'Placing Cards'.)

During the first phase, players can move their cavemen cards forwards and backwards on the four vertical paths, alongside the fire and cave cards. Players can also move their caveman cards horizontally over fire or cave cards. Caveman cards should always be face down.

There is only one single move allowed for each vertical path.

Moving horizontally from one vertical path to another counts as a single move in the path of origin. The caveman card may still move forwards and backwards in its new vertical path, except of course if another card has already been moved in that path.

There is no diagonal movement.

Attacking requires having a caveman card directly in front of or behind an opponent's caveman card, or being alongside an opponent's caveman card with a fire or cave card in between (with the exception of Zippy; see 'The Ranking of the Cavemen Cards').

Attacking is not mandatory.

An attack proceeds as follows: a player takes their caveman card, taps the card of her opponent, and declares her name and rank. The opponent also declares her name and rank. The card of the player with the lowest rank is removed from the playing field and added face upwards to the inactive deck. If the attacker wins, she takes her opponent's place and her card remains face down on the table. If the defender wins, her card remains in place facing downwards.

If the two caveman cards are of equal rank, both are removed from the playing field and added to the players personal inactive deck.

During this first phase of playing caveman cards, a player is not required to move or attack. A player also does not need to make a move in every vertical path. If desired, a player can skip the entire phase.

2. Placing Cards

During the placement phase, each player can put down a maximum of three cards on the playing field out of the five she is holding in her hands. One can place both caveman cards and cave cards on the playing field.

Cavemen cards are placed face downwards, and only next to a player's own cave and fire cards. A player is allowed, however, to move forwards, backwards, or sideways alongside an opponents' cave cards or fire cards.

Cave cards are always face upwards in between the two players' fire cards. There should always be four cave cards between two fire cards.

A cave card may be used to replace the cave card of an opponent. The replaced cave card is removed and put face upwards on top of the inactive deck. By placing cave cards in this way, a player can improve her own options for placing caveman cards and decrease her opponent's options for placing them.

Note that the three cave cards that are placed directly above the three fire cards cannot be replaced. These should always be of the player's own color.

If the player has finished placing cards on the playing field, her turn proceeds to the 'Discarding Cards' phase.

3. Discarding Cards

After placing a maximum of three of the five cards held in her hand, a player can either keep the remaining cards or place some or all of them on the inactive deck. As always, cards placed on the inactive deck should be placed face upwards.

4. Drawing New Cards

A player ends their turn by drawing enough cards from the stockpile until she has five in her hand again.

If there are no longer sufficient cards in the stockpile, then the player will have a shortage of cards. There are several ways the cards in the inactive deck can be returned to the stockpile.

In short: if a player loses Zippy or Ballsy (recognizable from the stack of cards icon on the upper right corner of their cards), then she can take the cards in her inactive deck and add them to the bottom of her stockpile. The Zippy- or Ballsy card that was lost in play becomes the first card of the player's new inactive deck of cards.

There are two exceptions to this rule.

• If a player loses Zippy due to their own actions (that is, not by an opponent's attack), then Zippy just disappears into the deck of inactive cards and these cards are not added to the stockpile. Losing Zippy by one's own actions is too easy, since it is the lowest ranking card in the deck.
• If a player loses Ballsy due to an attack with Zippy by the opponent, then Ballsy just disappears to the inactive deck and these cards are not added to the stockpile.

The cards in the inactive deck are added to the bottom of the stockpile in all other situations with Zippy and Ballsy:

• If a player loses Zippy against her opponent's Zippy, then both players add the cards in their inactive decks to the bottom of their stockpile. Each player's Zippy card is then the first card in the new deck of inactive cards.
• The same process as described above occurs when two Ballsy cards eliminate each other from the playing field.
• If a player loses Zippy by the actions of an opponent (that is, the opponent attacks your Zippy with a higher ranking card), then the deck of inactive cards is added to your stockpile. The Zippy card becomes the first card of the new inactive deck of cards.
• If a player loses Zippy against Dino, then both cards are permanently removed from the deck. The previously inactive cards are still, however, added to the stockpile.
• The same as above happens if Ballsy loses to Dino.

Note: Even though the cards in the inactive deck face upwards, the opponent is not allowed to look through this deck. If the cards in the inactive deck are added to the stockpile, then the opponent is, if she wants to, allowed to first shuffle the cards. If the player still had cards in her stockpile, the new cards from the inactive deck are placed on the bottom.

The Ranking of the Caveman Cards

A deck consists of cave cards, fire cards and caveman cards. The ranking of each caveman card is indicated on the top left of the card. A lower number indicates a higher ranking. Cavemen with a higher ranking defeat cavemen with a lower ranking during an attack. For instance, Ballsy has the highest ranking of 1, while Snappy follows with a ranking of 2. Ballsy always defeats Snappy, independent of who attacks. Snappy in turn defeats all other cavemen with lower rankings, and so on. If two characters battle and they have an equal ranking, both cards are removed from the playing field.

All cavemen with the exception of Plucky, Gutsy, and Zippy can only move one space per turn.

Special Abilities

A few cavemen have special abilities.

Plucky belongs to the cavemen cavalry and sits on a dino. In contrast to the other cavemen, he can make two moves per turn in a vertical path; this ability is indicated by the two feet on the top right of the Plucky card.

Note, however, that if Plucky moves horizontally over a cave or fire card, then he cannot move two spaces in the new vertical path. Moving from one vertical path to another is after all one move.

Plucky can, however, just as all the other cavemen, move forwards or backwards one space in the new vertical path, unless movement has already occurred in that particular column. He can of course also move again horizontally, rather than vertically.

Plucky cannot jump over other cavemen.

Plucky can only strike at an opponent once during his turn. If he does this after moving one space, then he cannot move any further.

With his first or second move, Plucky can put out one of his opponent's fire cards.

Gutsy moves in the same manner as Plucky.

Zippy can not only jump over an empty spot, but also over another caveman; this ability is indicated by the icon of two feet with an arrow in between at the top right corner of his card.

Zippy cannot jump over another caveman or an empty spot, and then put out one of his opponent's fire cards. He can, however, put out a fire card once next to it with his first move.

Zippy has the lowest ranking of all the cavemen. Any character that attacks Zippy wins. However, if Zippy attacks Ballsy, Zippy wins; that is why Ballsy is put as an icon at the top left corner of his card. Note that Zippy can only defeat Ballsy by attacking him. If Ballsy attacks Zippy, then Ballsy wins.

There is a further feature that makes Zippy dangerous. When a player has to reveal Zippy because he is attacking or being attacked, she can choose a particular card from her opponent on the playing field and order her to reveal it. Once the card has been revealed, it is placed face down again.

Dino is also a caveman. He is angry at all the other cavemen. He can only move one space per turn. Without exception, Dino eats any other cavemen that he encounters. No one can defend against Dino. If Dino eats an opponent's caveman, both Dino and the opponent's caveman dissappear permanently from the game.

Fire Cards and Cave Cards

The fire cards are never moved. A player is not allowed to put a cave card next to her opponent's fire card.

Cave cards: When placing cards, one can change the cave card of your opponent for one's own. The opponent's cave card is then added to her deck of inactive cards. Any cave card directly above a fire card can never be replaced.

The "Open" Game

Cavemen Playing with Fire can also be played in 'open' mode, only differing from the 'closed' mode in the following ways.

Moving Over a Cave or Fire Card

Moving horizontally over a cave or fire card changes the caveman card from a 'closed' to an 'open' position. It then has to be placed face upwards on the playing field.

If a caveman card is in the open position and is moved over a cave or fire card, then it should once again be placed in a closed position (i.e., face downwards) on the playing field.

Attacking in the Open Game

Attacking in the open play mode proceeds as follows: a player takes his caveman card and taps the card of her opponent, calling out her own character's name and rank. The opponent also calls her own character's name and rank. The caveman card with the lowest ranking disappears from the playing field and is placed face upwards on the inactive deck of cards.

If the attacker wins, her card takes the place of the defeated card and has to face upwards, regardless of whether her card was originally open or closed. Similarly, if the defender wins, her card stays in the same position also face upwards, regardless of whether her card was originally open or closed.

If the opponent wants to 'hide' this card again, then she will have to move horizontally over a cave or fire card, as this is the only way to change the status of an open card to a closed card.

Zippy in the Open Game

If a player has to reveal Zippy because she is either attacking or being attacked, she can select one of her opponent's cards that then has to be placed open on the table. If the opponent wants to 'hide' this card again, then she will have to move horizontally over a cave or fire card, as this is the only way to change the status of an open card to a closed card.

Game Tactics

By replacing an opponent's cave card for your own, you increase your own options for placing cavemen cards, while making the game harder for your opponent. (Note that for the two middle paths, you only need one of your cave cards on either side to place a caveman card.)

Make sure you lose Zippy and Ballsy at the right time to avoid having to play without a stockpile.

Always ensure that you are the highest in rank during the game.

Remember that Zippy can jump vertically over a caveman card or an empty spot. A handy tactic to attack an opponent's Ballsy.

Pretend Gutsy is Plucky. Both can make two moves during a turn.

As described in the rules, a caveman can only make one move in a vertical path (except for Plucky, Gutsy, and Zippy). An "ordinary" caveman can, however, make more moves if you first move it horizontally over a fire or cave card to another path. Leaving a path is one move; arriving in a path is not. Once the "ordinary" caveman arrives in the new path, she can still move one more space horizontally or vertically. Note that a caveman can move horizontally across the entire playing field, as long as no other moves have been made in any of the paths.

Use Dino wisely as he can only eat one of your opponent's cavemen. After that he and your opponent's eaten caveman are permanently removed from the game.