Frischfleisch
Frischfleisch Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Material
6 sets of 7 playing pieces
6 playing pieces numbered 1-6 and one little monkey (Äffchen). Before the first game, the stickers must be applied to the wooden pieces. There is one monkey per colour. The other stickers are applied so that the colour of the piece matches the background colour of the corresponding cardboard character.
6 sets of 6 cardboard characters (Pappkameraden)
There are 6 groups, distinguished by background colour: Weirdoz (natural), Monster (green), Mafiosi (red), Touristen (blue), Mädels (purple), Retros (yellow).
Each cardboard character always has 3 values: the red value corresponds to the food you receive when you eat this figure (it is also the value on the playing piece); the yellow value is the victory points.
The size 1, 2, 3 gives the combat value and the hunger of the figure:
- Size 1: combat value 1, hunger 1 (figures 1 and 2)
- Size 2: combat value 2, hunger 2 (figures 3 and 4)
- Size 3: combat value 3, hunger 3 (figures 5 and 6)
(The exact food and victory point values are printed on each cardboard character and are not legible in the source scan.)
Other components
- 6 game board pieces (12 spaces each; 3 of them are boards with an oasis)
- 42 combat chips
- 84 X-tiles: 6 sets. One set consists of 3 treasures, 5 food (1, 2, 2, 3, 4), 6 paths.
- 84 food units (the food units and the X-tiles must be punched out before the first game and sorted by their backs.)
- 1 rulebook
Setup
Material needed per player:
- 1 game board piece
- 7 playing pieces of one colour and the corresponding
- 6 cardboard characters
- 1 set of X-tiles
- 7 combat chips
- 5 food units
(With 2 players, each player plays with two sets.)
Half (rounded up) of the game board pieces must have an oasis. Otherwise the choice is arbitrary. The boards are put together arbitrarily (also rotated) into one game board. Beginners should make sure that the oases are well distributed and that the board is roughly rectangular.
From the X-tiles, 9 treasures are sorted out and set aside in 3 groups of 3 tiles. The rest are shuffled. From the other material, each player receives one set.
Each player lays out his cardboard characters openly in front of him.
5 food units are distributed onto the cardboard characters (see graphic).
The combat chips may be kept hidden for the entire game. The hungriest player becomes starting player. Now the players in turn each place one of their playing pieces face down on a free space (neither rock nor oasis) of the game board, until all pieces are placed. (Beginner's tip at the end of the rules: absolutely heed it!!!)
The remaining empty spaces are each covered at random with one X-tile.
Now it can begin.
Game Structure
The game lasts 4 rounds, each consisting of 3 phases.
The 3 phases are:
- Food search and movement
- Nourishment and combat
- Evaluation and preparation of the next round
1. Food Search and Movement
When it is your turn, you may carry out one action with one of your own, still hidden figures:
a) swap places with another hidden playing piece (X-tile / own playing piece or foreign playing piece), b) swap places with an open (revealed) playing piece, or c) simply reveal one of your own playing pieces.
When swapping, you may only swap with pieces that are directly adjacent or that are connected via path tiles (turned-over X-tiles) and/or playing pieces of your own colour with each other; horizontal or vertical; a diagonal neighbourhood does not count as a connection.
After swapping with an X-tile, you first reveal only the X-tile. If it is a path, you are on turn again and may carry out one of the actions described above (a, b, c) with any hidden piece of your own.
Whoever finds food or a treasure must reveal the X-tile and the figure with which he moved. If you swapped with a playing piece (own or foreign), both figures must be revealed afterwards.
Then the next player is on turn.
If a player has no own figure left hidden on the board, he must pass until all fellow players have also revealed their figures.
After that the first phase ends.
Example
Player 1 has the playing pieces A, B, C, D; player 2 has the playing pieces E, F.
Player 1 can swap all his hidden figures (A, B, D) with any of his own figures (A, B, C, D) or with both X-tiles, since they are connected either via paths or via his own figures.
Of special note here is the swap of figure D with the X-tile at top left, since the path there leads over 2 paths and 2 of his own playing pieces.
He can also swap with figure F. Swapping with figure E is forbidden, since it is already revealed and foreign.
Player 2 can only swap his figure F with figure D or with the middle X-tile; for all other figures there is no connection.
If player 2 swaps with the X-tile and finds a path, he can immediately afterwards swap with the figures A, B, D, E or reveal figure F. If he should find food, however, he must reveal F and cannot even reach this food.
The treasure stays lying until the end of the game as a blockade.
The food could at the moment only be reached by C and D.
2. Nourishment and Combat
First, all players who stand with at least one figure (the monkey does not count) at an oasis receive two food units. You therefore receive either exactly two food units from the oases' pool, or nothing at all. The food is distributed onto the cardboard characters.
Now the starting player begins again with his turn. Whenever it is your turn, you either fight or take a food tile from the board.
Taking Food
If you stand with a figure (not the monkey) directly next to a food tile, you may take this tile and receive in return the corresponding number of food units from the pool. The food is distributed onto the cardboard characters. If all spaces there are already occupied, the group is full, and the surplus food units can be saved for the next round. The X-tile food is removed from the game entirely.
Combat
You may only fight if you are hungry, that is, still have room on the cardboard characters. The two small figures need one, the middle two, the two large ones each three food units (see above: strength = hunger).
You may attack foreign figures that are directly adjacent (horizontally or vertically) to your own figures (not the monkey). Both figures have a combat value (see Material). In addition, both players take any number of their combat chips in their fist. At the same time they are revealed and added (combat value + combat chips). The figure with the higher total wins. In a tie the attacker wins.
The committed combat chips form, next to the game board, the combat chip pool. The loser's figure is removed from the board, and the cardboard character is turned over. Any food units lying on the cardboard character may be kept in order to feed the attacker's group. The loser receives 2 combat chips from the pool (if fewer than 2 combat chips are in the pool, he comes away empty). The winner receives as many food units as the figure is worth (see Material), which he then distributes onto his cardboard characters.
If a player attacks someone whose figures are already full, and the attacker has enough food units left over to satisfy the attacker's group, then he may (not must) give the other player the missing food and can thereby prevent the attack. Then no combat occurs, and the player who was gifted may logically (because full!) no longer attack in this round.
If you still need food and can neither pick up food tiles nor attack an opponent, you must sacrifice one of your own figures and receive in return the corresponding food, and additionally lose two combat chips. Whoever has only one left must hand it over.
The second phase ends immediately when all players are full. At that point it may well be that reachable food tiles are still lying on the game board. These remain lying until the next round. Revealed treasures remain lying as a blockade for the entire game.
3. Preparations and Evaluation
Now all open path tiles are removed from the board and are shuffled, together with 3 treasure tiles, among the remaining still hidden X-tiles. All free spaces are now covered again with hidden X-tiles.
Then the players have one minute to memorise which figures lie where. Afterwards each player turns his own figures face down again (do not forget the monkey).
Each player receives one point for each figure that is still alive. This is noted down.
The food on the cardboard characters is put back into the pool. Whoever then still has food left over distributes it for the next round onto his cardboard characters.
The player who has the least food becomes the new starting player. If there is a tie, the person becomes starting player who in this round still needed more food in order to become full. If then, devilishly, there is still a tie, whoever sits to the left of the starting player of the preceding round becomes starting player. The old starting player is in principle excluded; there must be a change of starting player.
The next round begins with Phase 1: Food search and movement.
Combat Chips Lost (errata sheet)
As actually every time, an important rule is of course missing in this rulebook as well!
The combat chips lost per round are set aside and at the beginning of a new round are distributed in equal parts to each player; any remainders stay in this pot and are, if applicable, distributed along in the following round.
End of the Game
The game ends after the fourth round, when all players are full. Now each player receives for his surviving figures the corresponding victory points (see Material). These are added to the points noted in rounds 1-3. Whoever has the most points wins.
In a tie, the player with the most food left over at the end decides.
Beginner's Tips
Since you can actually only make mistakes in this game, here are a few tips for the inexperienced beginner.
In any case, make sure to place your figures so that they lie as close together as possible on the board. In the course of the game this gives considerably more movement options and thus guarantees more flexibility. You can then cover longer distances with your own figures in order to get to food or to flee from enemies.
It is imperative to secure your two small figures so that they get as little enemy contact as possible, since these are the weakest. In the end they bring the most victory points.
It is always worth keeping count of who has more combat chips, in order to get out of his way and rather fight someone with fewer chips.
Now and then it is quite advisable to sacrifice a figure and place no combat chip, because you become stronger as a result (there are two chips from the supply!) and can thus protect your other figures better.
It is definitely an advantage to remember which hidden figure stands where, since during the game you may no longer look.