Entengrütze
Entengrütze Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 1 game board (Spielplan)
- 2 dice (Würfel)
- 4 square Grütze cards (quadratische Grützekarten)
- playing pieces in grey-olive, mahogany, natural and black: 4 large and 2 small in each colour (jeweils 4 große und 2 kleine Spielsteine)
- 1 sheet of adhesive symbols (Klebesymbole)
- 8 turning discs (Drehscheiben)
- 1 bag of turning-disc fasteners (Drehscheibenbefestigungen)
Assembly: see the appendix (Anhang).
Goal of the Game
The winner is the player whose small playing piece first reaches or passes its target stone (Zielstein). Target stones can be placed on the stone circle (Steinkreis) at any distance from the start, depending on the desired length of play (Abb. 1). Each round, the target stones move back by one stone field towards the start.
The rest of this rulebook explains how you move along the stone circle.
The Pond
All terms such as pond (Teich) and stone circle are shown on the first page of the rulebook.
The Pond Inhabitants
Let us introduce them (Abb. 2):
- MUTZ, the broad-mouthed frog
- INGELWOOD, the duck
- JOHNATAN, the stork
- WATTNU, the carp
These animals need one of you as an assistant in the daily scramble for food. Sit down at the game board so that each player has the turning discs of their animal in front of them. For 2 players, use Mutz and Ingelwood; for 3 players, use Mutz, Ingelwood and Johnatan.
(The text does not list the animals for a 4-player game; with four players, each of the four animals is assigned to one player.)
Now the game begins. Place the four large playing pieces, in four different colours, on the playing field (Spielfeld) according to Abb. 4 for 2, 3 or 4 players. Place the small playing pieces on the start fields (Startfelder), and set the target stones on the stone circle according to the desired length of play (Abb. 1). The distance between each target stone and the start must be the same for all players (e.g. 20 stone fields).
Movement in the Pond
The pond is divided into fields. Around it are four coloured strips (red, green, blue and yellow).
Each player may move one of their playing pieces one field per round (not diagonally). You may therefore move either parallel to the red and green strips, or parallel to the blue and yellow strips.
If you move parallel to the red and green strips, you must also turn your disc with the red and green arrows by one field. If the red strip becomes thicker in this direction, you turn the disc in the direction of its red arrow. The red value in the disc's viewing window (Sichtfenster) rises by one.
A turn consists of moving your playing piece, turning the corresponding disc, and moving your target stone back by one field.
Now that you know how to move, the scramble for the Entengrütze begins. There are four kinds of Grütze: red, yellow, green and blue. Red animals want to eat red Grütze, green animals want green Grütze, and so on.
Next, the four Grütze are placed in the pond in any order, using the dice (Abb. 3). Grütze may not lie on top of each other. If this happens, roll again.
Also, set the discs of all animals to 14.
Now head for the Grütze, following the rules above.
There are three possibilities:
- A playing piece reaches a Grütze of the same colour. Continue with "Eating the Grütze".
- Two playing pieces meet on one field. Continue with "Pond Scuffle" (Teichgerangel).
- Nothing happens. The next player takes their turn.
Eating the Grütze
One of your animals has managed to reach a Grütze of its own colour. First, do not forget to turn the disc. Now let us see what you can eat.
First, find on your discs the colour arrow that matches the colour of the Grütze. In the viewing window of this disc there is a number with the same coloured background. Subtract the other number in the viewing window from it. The result tells you how many stone fields you may hop forward with your small playing piece on the stone circle.
Be careful: your animal may also lose the Grütze and have to move backwards. This happens when the result is negative.
[Do not panic: you can change the values of the discs with every piece. For example, you can keep your green animal waiting in front of the green Grütze and use your three other animals to raise the value of green, so that you can then hop onto the Grütze.]
If a player lands on a Grütze of the same colour, they must eat it, even if the value is negative. On the stone circle, however, you do not have to move back behind the start arrow.
Once a Grütze has been eaten, it is put back into the pond with the dice (Abb. 3).
If a Grütze is occupied by a playing piece of a different colour, a Pond Scuffle (Teichgerangel) takes place before the Grütze is eaten.
Pond Scuffle (Teichgerangel)
Two of you are now on the same field. First, do not forget to turn the disc.
Each player looks up the colour of their animal on their discs. The animal whose colour has the higher value wins. The winner may push the loser horizontally or vertically across the playing field, as far as they like (beliebig weit). For each field the loser is pushed, the corresponding disc of the loser is turned by one number.
The field onto which the loser is pushed may be occupied by a Grütze or by another playing piece. During one turn, a playing piece may not be pushed onto the same field twice. (With 4 players, you may not push onto fields that are occupied by playing pieces.)
If the values are equal, no scuffle takes place.
[If two animals of the same player meet on one field, the player whose value is higher may also push the other animal, and the player may choose the new position of the pushed animal themselves, following the rules above.]
Appendix: Assembly (Anhang: Zusammenbau)
Applying the symbols. The stickers of an animal must be applied to playing pieces of the same colour.
Fixing the discs. Each corner of the game board shows an animal. The disc with the matching animal symbol and the red and green arrows is placed on the red/green number circle in that corner and fixed with the turning-disc fasteners. The blue/yellow disc is attached in the same way.
(Abb. 5 shows the current state of a disc.)
For Experts: Checking the Disc Setting
Each colour strip carries numbers from 0 to 7. To determine the value of an animal's red number, add the four red values of that animal (Abb. 5).
Example from the text: the red value of the duck is 2 + 3 + 5 + 6 = 16.
Summary
Setup:
- Place the large playing pieces according to Abb. 4 for 2, 3 or 4 players on the playing field.
- Distribute the 4 Grütze in the pond using the dice (Abb. 3).
- Set the discs to 14.
- Place the small playing pieces on the start fields, and set the target stones on the stone circle according to the desired length of play (e.g. 20 stones, Abb. 1).
Turn sequence:
- Each round, every player moves one of their playing pieces one field in the pond, turns the corresponding disc, and moves their target stone back by one stone (towards the start).
- If a playing piece jumps onto a Grütze of the same colour, the Grütze is eaten, and the value (the difference of the numbers in the viewing window of the disc) is moved along the stone circle.
- The Grütze must then be placed again with the dice.
- If two pieces meet on one field, a Pond Scuffle (Teichgerangel) takes place. The higher value may push the other (with 4 players, not onto fields occupied by playing pieces).
- The winner is the player whose small playing piece first reaches or passes its target stone.
Translation Notes
These notes disclose where the German source is damaged or ambiguous. The English text follows the German wording as printed, with obvious typesetting errors corrected as listed.
- Corrected typesetting errors in the source text layer: "werterbewegen" to "weiterbewegen" (move onwards); "Spietfeld" to "Spielfeld"; "Zieteteine" to "Zielsteine"; "Teichgeranger" to "Teichgerangel"; "Zahtenkreis" to "Zahlenkreis"; "Stehkreis" to "Steinkreis"; "beliebig wert" to "beliebig weit" (as far as desired); "endsprechend" to "entsprechend"; "naturiich" to "natürlich".
- The printed component list reads "jeweils 4 große und 2 kleine Spielsteine", i.e. 4 large and 2 small playing pieces in each of the four colours. The setup text speaks of four large pieces in four colours plus the small pieces. Transcribed as printed.
- The text does not say which die gives which coordinate when placing the Grütze; it refers only to Abb. 3.
- The text does not state the animal assignment for a 4-player game (see the note under The Pond Inhabitants).
- The rules text uses the bracketed passages as printed; they are kept in brackets.