Fauna
Fauna Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 1 game board
- 180 animal cards with 360 animals
- 1 card box
- 42 guess pieces in the 6 players' colours
- 30 black evaluation pieces
- 1 starting player's lion
- 1 accompanying booklet with information on all the animals in the game
Preparation
Place the game board in the middle of the table. Each player gets 7 guess pieces of his colour and places one of them beside space 1 of the victory track running along the game board's border. Place the black evaluation pieces next to the game board. Insert the animal cards into the card box. It is advisable to fill up the card box completely even though you will only need 10 to 15 animals for one game of FAUNA.
The player who owns the most exotic pet becomes the starting player of the first round. He gets the starting player's lion and the card box.
The game board and components in play:
- Starting player's lion
- Card box with animal cards
- Evaluation pieces
- World map with land and marine areas
- Score table
- Victory track
- Scales for weight, length and tail length
- Players' guess pieces
The Animal Cards
At the start of the game, players decide if they want to play with the simpler animals (green card margin) or with the more exotic animals (black card margin). You may also mix the two sorts of cards, of course. Put the chosen cards into the card box.
The upper half of the card shows the information which the players get before placing their guess pieces:
- Animal class
- Name / Scientific name
- Illustration of animal
- Number of areas in which the animal can be found in natural surroundings
- Measures that the players can estimate:
- Weight
- Length (head and body, without tail)
- Total length (with tail)
- Height (standing animal)
- Tail length
This information can be seen when the card is in the card box.
The lower half of the card shows the animal's zoological classification and its required measures:
- Areas in which the animal can be found in natural surroundings
- World map for the quick search of the corresponding areas
- Average values of the required measures
During the placement of the guess pieces, the lower half of the card is covered. It will not be shown until the evaluation when a player takes the card out of the card box.
Card labels: the upper half is marked with Animal class, Name, Scientific name, and Number of areas and required measures. The lower half is marked with Required areas and their position, and Required measures.
Aim of the Game
Each round, players estimate one animal's natural habitat and its measures. In turns, they place their guess pieces on the world map or on one of the scales. At the end of a round, they get points for right estimations, while wrongly placed guess pieces do not bring in any points. At the end, the player with the most victory points wins the game.
How to Play
The play is subdivided into several rounds. One round consists of:
- I. Placing the guess pieces
- II. Evaluation
- III. Change of starting player and new round
I. Placing the Guess Pieces
All players look at the first animal in the card box and consider where to place their guess pieces. For this purpose, each player may take the card box in hand. But it is not allowed to pull out the card.
The starting player begins, and then the other players follow in a clockwise direction. The player whose turn it is has to place one of his guess pieces on the board – either on an unoccupied area or on a vacant space of a scale.
Placing a guess piece in an area
A player may place one of his guess pieces in a land or marine area on the game board provided that there is not one of his own pieces or an opponent's piece on it yet.
Marine areas are marked by a box round their name.
Attention: They include not only this part of the sea, but also the corresponding islands if these are not especially marked as land areas!
Mississippi, Mexico, Central America and Guyana are land areas.
The Caribbean is a marine area that also comprises all the islands located in it.
Example: The red player wants to place another one of his guess pieces in an area. There are already pieces in the areas Mississippi, Mexico and Rocky Mountains. For this reason, the red player has to choose another area for his guess piece.
Placing a guess piece on a scale
A player may place one of his guess pieces on a vacant space of a scale – that is: provided that there is no other opponent's piece or one of his own pieces already on it.
Attention: Not all of the scales are relevant for all animals. You can see on the upper half of the animal card which measures are required.
When each player has placed one guess piece, again, beginning with the starting player, each player may in turns either place another piece or pass his turn.
Placing other pieces
During his turn, a player places one of his own guess pieces in an unoccupied area or on a vacant space of a scale. In the course of a round, a player may also place several pieces on the same scale.
Passing
If a player passes his turn, since he cannot or does not want to place more pieces, the placing phase of this round is finished for him. He cannot re-enter the placing phase later in this round.
When all players have passed, the evaluation of this round begins.
II. Evaluation
Pull the animal card completely out of the card box. Analyse first the areas, and then the scales.
Analysing the areas
As an aid for the evaluation of the areas, you may use the black evaluation pieces. Place a black piece on each area mentioned in the lower half of the card in order to show that these areas are correct. After the evaluation, you remove the black pieces from the game board.
For each guess stone that a player has placed in a correct area, he gets points. If the animal lives in 16 or less areas, pieces that were placed adjacent to the correct areas also bring in points. Players immediately move their marker up the victory track accordingly.
Scoring table
Areas
| Number | Direct hit | Adjacent |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 12 points | 8 points |
| 2 | 10 points | 5 points |
| 3–4 | 8 points | 4 points |
| 5–8 | 6 points | 2 points |
| 9–16 | 4 points | 1 point |
| 17+ | 3 points | — |
Weight / Lengths
| Direct hit | Adjacent |
|---|---|
| 7 points | 3 points |
The number of points depends on the number of areas in which the animal in question can be found in natural surroundings.
Example: If an animal lives in 7 areas, a player gets 6 points for his correctly placed guess piece and 2 points for a piece that he has placed in an adjacent area.
Adjacent areas: Two areas are adjacent, if they either have a common frontier, or border on each other as land or marine areas.
The land area of the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains are adjacent.
The marine area Caribbean and the land area Guyana are adjacent.
After having evaluated the areas, you continue with the evaluation of the scales.
Analysing the scales
For each guess stone that a player has placed on a correct space of one of the scales, he gets points. He receives points for a direct hit as well as for pieces that he has placed adjacent to the correct space. Players immediately move their marker up the victory track accordingly.
On each scale, a player always gets 7 points for a correctly placed guess piece and 3 points for having placed a piece on an adjacent space.
Example: The Grevy's zebra weighs between 350 and 430 kg. For this reason, the space between 200 and 500 is correct. Red gets 7 points for his piece. Blue and green are located on adjacent spaces and also get 3 points each. The green piece on the space 1 to 2 tons does not bring in any points.
Wrongly placed guess pieces
Players recover their guess pieces that they have placed correctly or at least adjacent. Wrongly placed guess pieces are placed next to the game board as a stock. Players may not get them back until later (see below).
III. Change of Starting Player and New Round
If after the evaluation no player has reached or surpassed the necessary number of points in order to win the game, the starting player's lion is passed to the next player in a clockwise direction.
Each player gets back one of his guess pieces from the stock next to the game board, if there is any.
If a player has now less than 3 guess pieces, he may refill his own stock so that he has again 3 guess pieces for the following round.
End of the Game
The game is over when the first player has reached or surpassed the fixed number of points at the end of a round:
- In a game of 2 or 3 players: 120 points
- In a game of 4 or 5 players: 100 points
- In a game of 6 players: 80 points
After this last round, the player with the most victory points wins the game.
In the case of a tie, all involved players have won.
Note
Note: The information on the animal cards is taken from several sources in the internet and from reference books about specific zoology. Some sources may present different measures. For the information on the cards, we have used average values of different sources.
Credits
© 2008 HUCH & friends www.huchandfriends.de
Distributor: Hutter Trade GmbH + Co KG, Bgm.-Landmann-Platz 1-5, D-89312 Günzburg
- Author: Friedemann Friese
- Illustration animals: Peter Braun
- Illustration box: Alexander Jung
- Artwork and layout: Volker A. Maas
- Translation: Birgit Irgang