Fish Tank
Fish Tank Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Object of the Game
In this game your task is to arrange cards of fish and other creatures into your aquarium. You score points for fulfilling conditions for the placement and number of particular kinds of cards. The player with the most points wins.
How the Game Works
The game is divided into two phases. At the start of the first and of the second phase, each player takes 8 cards from the deck. Each round, players choose one of the available cards in their hand and place it face down in front of them on the table. Once everyone has chosen a card, all reveal them at the same time and place them in their aquarium. Each player passes the remaining cards to the player on their left. The first phase ends when players place the eighth card into their aquarium. The second phase proceeds the same as the first, except that the cards are passed to the player on the right. When players place their last, sixteenth card on the table, the game ends.
Placing Cards
Players place cards so that they do not exceed a grid of 4 x 4 cards. At the end of the game each player will have on the table a square grid of sixteen cards. We call this area the aquarium.
When you place the last, sixteenth card, you fill it into the only free spot in your aquarium.
When placing cards you do not have to connect to previously placed cards. You may start, for example, by placing cards in the first two rounds into opposite corners. With this decision you would firmly define the boundaries of your aquarium. If, however, you start placing cards closer together, you can define the boundaries of your aquarium later in the game.
WARNING! During the game you cannot move cards already placed within your aquarium.
Illustrations: if you place your first two cards like the first example (opposite corners), they can end up anywhere in the aquarium at the end of the game. If you place your first two cards with a gap of two spaces between them in a row, you have firmly defined the width of your aquarium, which you must not exceed until the end of the game. For clarity you can mark the distance between cards with hint cards.
Sets of Cards
There are 12 kinds of cards in the game, of which 9 are basic fish and 3 are creatures with specific conditions. Each kind has its own illustration and a condition in the top left corner, and possibly the top right corner, together with the points you get if you fulfil it. Each of these conditions determines in what arrangement you must have the fish or other creatures in your aquarium in order to score for them. A condition always applies to all cards of the same kind in your aquarium. In other words, each kind of fish has its own condition for scoring points, but it does not apply to cards of other kinds.
Most cards also have a second condition (in the top right corner), which has the same starting shape but requires more cards to fulfil. For fulfilling this harder condition you get more points.
1) Shape condition
To fulfil the conditions, and so to score points, the cards must be laid in the aquarium in a specific shape. Each of these conditions can be fulfilled several times within the aquarium. However, each card can be part of only one shape that you score at the end. (Shapes shown on cards: two cards side by side, two cards one above the other, two cards diagonally, two cards in opposite corners, and so on.)
For example, you fulfil the easier condition (left) if you have two cards of this kind next to each other. For each such pair you get 5 points. You fulfil the harder condition (right) if you have three cards of this kind next to each other. Each such triple brings you 11 points.
2) Area condition
You get points for these cards if you have fish placed in a certain area of your aquarium. Such cards show in which part of your aquarium they must be located. Suitable places are marked in a dark color in the grid of sixteen cards, that is, the aquarium. Besides the placement itself, the number of cards you must have in the required parts of the aquarium also matters. Unlike the shape condition, the area condition can be fulfilled only once. Cards outside the marked area of the aquarium do not count toward scoring.
For example, if you have one or two discus cards in the marked area (left), you get 4 points. For three or four cards in the same area you get 12 points. Discus cards outside the marked area do not count toward scoring.
3) Number condition
The angelfish (Skalára amazonská) card is an exception in the game: you need in your aquarium exactly one card to score 5 points, or at least four to score thirteen points. Their placement does not matter. If you have two or three of these fish in your aquarium, you get no points.
4) Adjacency condition
You get points for these creatures only if the cards adjacent to them are in the correct combination. The condition of each card shows by means of symbols which combination must surround the given creature and in which positions the cards must be. If symbols have the same shape, the type of the cards surrounding the creature must be the same. If symbols have different shapes, the creature must be surrounded by different types of cards.
Plants
On the back of every card you will find a plant. It has its own scoring condition and is considered the thirteenth scorable kind of card in the game.
Whenever you place a card, you may decide to turn one other card over to its plant side. You can choose either an already placed card, or the one you are currently placing.
Plants can be used, for example, to surround creatures, or when you are sure you cannot fulfil some condition; that way you at least get points for plants.
The plant condition is to have a certain number of these cards in your aquarium, for which you get a given number of points.
Two-Player Variant
A two-player game proceeds the same as a game with more players, with one difference. After each round in which players pass cards to each other, they randomly (blindly) draw one of them and discard it. Then each takes one new card from the draw pile. Afterwards they may look at the cards, choose one of them and place it into their aquarium. The game continues like this until the last, sixteenth round, when players pass each other the last card, then both draw one more card to it and decide which card from this pair they place into the aquarium.
End of the Game
The game ends when all players have placed their last, sixteenth card into their aquarium, thereby completing it. Then add up the points for sets of cards. For clarity, use a pad on which you write down in turn the points for all kinds of fish in your aquarium. The player with the most points wins. In case of a tie, the player with the higher number of different sets of fish wins.
Variant: Fewer Kinds
For a game of 2 or 3 players you can remove from the game all cards of the kinds parmička žraločí (Balantiocheilos melanopterus) and neonka obecná (Paracheirodon innesi). In that case you will have a better chance of fulfilling the conditions, because with fewer players not as many cards get into the game.
Scoring Example
Player Vojtěch gets 44 points at the end of the game for this completed aquarium:
- 5 points for swordtails: 2 cards in corners
- 5 points for neon tetras: 2 cards one above the other
- 6 points for armored catfish: 2 cards in the given area (the third armored catfish card adds no points)
- 3 points for plants: 2 cards in the aquarium
- 10 points for snails: the top one is adjacent to two plants, the middle one to two other snails, the third condition was not fulfilled
- 5 points for barbs: 2 cards diagonally
- 4 points for discus: 1 card in the middle
- 6 points for shrimp: adjacent with its corners to two snails
Overview of Cards
There are 99 playing cards and 9 hint cards in the game. Of each of the nine kinds of fish there are nine cards. Of each of the three kinds of light cards (shrimp, snail, sekavec) there are 6 cards. Cards with a dark background have a scoring condition tied to several cards, whereas with light cards you score for each one separately.
Kinds (names as given in the Czech rulebook):
- Dánio perlové (Danio margaritatus)
- Živorodka duhová (Poecilia reticulata)
- Parmička žraločí (Balantiocheilos melanopterus)
- Neonka obecná (Paracheirodon innesi)
- Krunýřovec zebra (Hypancistrus zebra)
- Terčovec 'Marlboro Red' (Symphysodon aequifasciatus)
- Parmička červenoocasá (Epalzeorhynchos bicolor)
- Mečovka mexická (Xiphophorus hellerii)
- Skalára amazonská (Pterophyllum scalare)
- Kreveta (shrimp)
- Hlemýžď (snail)
- Sekavec
Note: Creatures and fish may have different coloring than that used in the game. The colorings used were chosen so that the game is as playable as possible and the individual kinds are easy to tell apart.