Fish Fish
Fish Fish Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 5 Fishing cards: 2 "Catch" and 3 "Empty-handed" (French: "Prise" and "Bredouille")
- 5 Bait cards, with values 2, 3, 3, 4 and 5
- 28 Fish tiles: 4 each of 7 different fish
- 7 Loot tiles
- 1 score pad and 1 pencil
Goal of the Game
During the game, players take on two different roles: either that of the Fisherman, trying to catch the Fish, or that of a Fish, trying to eat the Bait without being caught. Your goal is to accumulate the points earned as a Fish and the points earned as the Fisherman.
Setup
- The last player to have eaten fish is the Fisherman for the first round.
- The Fisherman takes the five Fishing cards and the five Bait cards.
- The other players are the Fish. Each Fish player takes four tiles showing the same fish, plus one Loot tile, and places them in front of them (see the example setup for 4 players, Figure 5).
Playing the Game
A turn of play takes place in three steps.
1) The Fisherman sets the line
The Fisherman secretly chooses one Fishing card and one Bait card and places them on the table one on top of the other, so that only the value of the Bait card (2 to 5 points) is visible. The nature of the Fishing card ("Catch" or "Empty-handed") is not revealed (see Figure 6).
2) The Fish bet
Each Fish player, in turn (see Direction of Turn below), chooses to bet from zero to four Fish tiles on the Fisherman's line. The Fish players place the bet tile(s) in front of them.
- A Fish player may bet only once per turn.
- Fish players may bet their tiles over one or several turns, but they must have bet all of their Fish tiles by the end of the round.
3) Checking the line
When the Fisherman and every Fish player have played, the line is checked:
- If no Fish tile was bet on the line, the Fisherman discards his two cards face down, without revealing the Fishing card used.
- If at least one Fish tile was bet on the line, the Fisherman reveals his Fishing card:
- If it is a "Catch" card, the Fisherman takes the Fish tile(s) bet by all the Fish players and places them in front of himself.
- If it is an "Empty-handed" card, the Fish take back their bet Fish tiles and place them on their Loot tile, in the slot corresponding to the value of the Bait on the line.
Example: At the end of a turn, Ninon and Mickael have each bet a Fish tile, and Arthur chose not to bet this turn. Louisa, the Fisherman for this round, reveals her Fishing card: it is "Empty-handed" (Bredouille), so Ninon and Mickael are happy. The Bait value for this turn is 3, so they each place their bet Fish tile in slot 3 of their Loot tile (see Figure 7). After checking, the two cards of the Fisherman's line are discarded face down. The Fisherman then sets a new line, and so on.
Important: If both "Catch" Fishing cards have been revealed, the round ends immediately. The Fish players who still have Fish tiles place them on their Loot tile, in the slot corresponding to the largest Bait value the Fisherman still holds.
End of the Round and Scoring
1) End of the round
The round ends when either:
- the Fisherman has played his five lines or has used his two "Catch" Fishing cards; OR
- all the Fish tiles have been bet.
2) Scoring
The Fisherman records on the score pad the points each player scored during the round:
- The Fisherman scores 4 points for each Fish tile he captured.
- Each Fish player scores as many points as the total value of the Bait eaten by their Fish.
Example: Ninon has 1 Fish tile in slot 3 of her Loot tile and 2 Fish tiles in slot 2. She scores 1 x 3 + 2 x 2 = 7 points.
Start of a New Round
- All Fish tiles are returned to play.
- The player to the left of the Fisherman becomes the new Fisherman and takes the five Fishing cards and the five Bait cards.
- The Fish players each take back four tiles showing the same fish and a Loot tile.
- A new round begins, with the direction of turn of the Fish players changed.
Direction of Turn for the Fish Players
The direction of turn of the Fish players changes with each round. In the first round, the player to the left of the Fisherman bets first, and the other players bet clockwise. In the second round, the player to the right of the Fisherman bets first, and the other players bet counter-clockwise, and so on.
End of the Game
- With 4 to 8 players, the game ends when each player has been the Fisherman once.
- With 2 or 3 players, the game ends when each player has been the Fisherman twice.
The player with the most points at the end of the rounds wins the game. In case of a tie, the players share the victory!