Gatenkaas
Gatenkaas Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 4 mice (1 per colour)
- 32 pieces of cheese (tokens)
- 29 cards: 1 start card, 4 cat cards and 24 mouse cards
- The rules
Brief Game Overview
Each player tries to get their mouse to eat as much cheese as possible, and thereby score points. They must make sure their mouse gets past the cat and blocks the other mice.
Setup
- Place the start card (the one without holes) face up in the middle of the table, in any orientation.
- With 3 players, remove 1 cat card from the game.
- Shuffle all remaining cards and place them as a face-down draw pile on the table.
- Each player draws 5 cards and takes them into their hand.
- Determine a starting player by lot.
Gameplay
Play proceeds clockwise. On their turn, the active player must:
- A. Play 1 hand card; and then
- B. Draw 1 new card
A. Play 1 hand card
The player plays 1 mouse card or 1 cat card.
Playing a mouse card
When a player plays a mouse card, they must overlap the cards already face up on the table with it, partially covering them. In this way they must block at least 1 mouse, but no more than 2 mice.
After the card is placed, the owners of the mice that are visible through the holes in the card just played each receive 1 piece of cheese. There are cards with 1 or 2 holes, so no more than 2 pieces of cheese are ever handed out per card.
Example: Green is on turn. They place their card so that it blocks the purple mouse. The green mouse "eats" through the card just played. Green receives 1 piece of cheese.
Example: The player blocks 3 mice with their card (the yellow, green and purple mice are no longer visible). Because they may block no more than 2 mice per card played, they must place the card in a different way.
Playing a cat card
A cat card may block an unlimited number of mice. Mice that are visible through the holes in the cat card have escaped the cat and, as usual, each receives 1 piece of cheese.
No other card may be placed on top of a cat card (including another cat card). It is not allowed to place a cat card in such a way that it becomes impossible for the following player(s) to continue the game.
Example: Purple is on turn. They decide to play a cat card. They feel that too many green mice are running around, so they try to block as many as possible. After the card is played, there is a purple and a green mouse visible through the holes in the cat card. Both receive 1 piece of cheese.
B. Draw 1 new card
After playing a card and handing out pieces of cheese, the player's turn ends. They draw a new card from the draw pile and take it into their hand. The next player is now on turn.
End of the Game
The game ends when the face-down draw pile is empty and nobody has any cards left in hand. (Drawing a card lapses as soon as the face-down pile is empty.) Then each player counts their points:
- All points on the pieces of cheese they have in front of them; and
- 1 point for each visible mouse in their colour.
The player with the most points wins the game. In case of a tie, the player with the most pieces of cheese wins.