Gipfelkraxler Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Idea and Goal of the Game
• Game Setup
• Course of Play
  • 1. Roll the dice and move your ibexes
  • The dice tasks
  • Five of a kind as a joker!
  • No suitable result rolled?
  • 2. An ibex is in the way?
    • How many ibexes fit on a space?
    • Help yourself, and push yourself upwards!
    • Annoy your fellow players and push them down!
  • 3. Have you reached the summit?
  • End of your turn - the next player is up
• End of the Game

Components

• 1 game board
• 5 dice
• 20 ibexes
• 4 player markers

Idea and Goal of the Game

With a clever roll of the dice you lead your ibexes to the summit of Mount Friese. Spread out wisely over the mountain stations, and push yourself up. Is another player's ibex in the way? No problem! Push it into the mountain stream, and it has to take up the path again further down.

The winner is the first player to bring two of their ibexes to the mountain peak.

Game Setup

Place the game board in the middle of the table. Each player takes the 5 ibexes and the player marker of one colour. Stand all the ibexes on the large starting space at the foot of the mountain. Place the player marker in front of you so that the empty 9-mountain-summit side is visible.

The player who most recently stood on the summit of a mountain becomes the starting player and takes the 5 dice.

(The setup illustration for 4 players shows the board with the starting space at the bottom and, on the two paths on each side, the tasks 15-, 13-, 11-, 9- and 20+, 22+, 24+, 26+.)

Course of Play

The starting player begins, then play continues clockwise.

On your turn you roll up to three times. Depending on the result, you move one of your ibexes towards the summit. If an ibex is in the way on the smaller spaces, it is pushed off the space. If you are the first player to reach the summit twice, you win the game.

1. Roll the dice and move your ibexes

First you roll all 5 dice. Do you not like the result after the first roll? Then you may re-roll any number of the dice a second time, and finally a third time. You may also roll again in the third roll a die that you did not re-roll in the second roll.

With the rolled result you must now move one of your ibexes one space towards the summit. To do this, look at the signs shown on the paths in front of your ibexes. These signs show you which result takes you to the next space. Following the black arrows you move space by space up the mountain.

Attention: If you can fulfil several different tasks with your result, you still move only one space further with only one ibex.

Example: Edmund (Green) rolled 2-2-2-5-5. With this he can use either path 1 "Two Pairs", 2 "Three of a Kind with 2s" or 3 "Full House", and accordingly move one of his ibexes on the board towards the summit.

The dice tasks

On your way to the summit, various dice results move you forward:

• 15-, 13-, 11-, 9-: The total of all your dice must be the number shown or lower.
• 20+, 22+, 24+, 26+: The total of all your dice must be the number shown or higher.
• Three of a kind of 1s, 2s or 3s, or of 4s, 5s or 6s: Your dice must show three of a kind (= 3 identical numbers) of 1s, 2s or 3s, or of 4s, 5s or 6s respectively.
• Small straight / large straight: Your dice must show a small straight (= 4 consecutive numbers) or a large straight (= 5 consecutive numbers) respectively.
• Two pairs: Your dice must show two pairs (= 2 identical numbers each). These may also be the same number twice, e.g. one pair of 3s and another pair of 3s.
• Full House: Your dice must show a full house (= a three of a kind and a pair).
• Three, four or five of a kind: Your dice must show a three of a kind (= 3 identical numbers), a four of a kind (= 4 identical numbers) or a five of a kind (= 5 identical numbers).

Five of a kind as a joker!

If you manage to roll a five of a kind, you may use this result as a joker. In this case you may move any one of your ibexes one space towards the summit. It does not matter which dice task is shown on the corresponding sign.

No suitable result rolled?

It can happen that you have rolled a result with which you cannot move any of your ibexes. In this case you have bad luck: you must set any one of your ibexes from a space on the board (not from the summit) back onto the starting space.

2. An ibex is in the way?

On most spaces of the game board there is only limited room. If it gets too crowded here, you push other ibexes off their space.

How many ibexes fit on a space?

There are two different sizes of spaces:

• Large spaces (shown with several ibexes at the right edge): an unlimited number of ibexes of all players can stand there.
• Small spaces (shown with 1 ibex at the right edge): only a single ibex can stand there.

Help yourself, and push yourself upwards!

If you move your ibex from below onto a small space on which an ibex of your colour already stands, you push that ibex one space further towards the summit.

Example: Edward (Yellow) rolled 3-3-3-5-5. He moves his ibex from the large space on the path "Full House" up to the small space. An ibex of his colour already stands there. He pushes this one a further space up. He chooses the path to the right of the two small spaces.

If you move your ibex from below onto a large space on which 2 or more ibexes of your colour already stand, you push one of them one space further towards the summit.

Example: Reinhold (Blue) rolled 1-2-2-3-4. He moves his ibex on the path "13-" to the next large space. 2 ibexes of his colour already stand there. He pushes one of them a further space up. In this example Reinhold (Blue) has two possibilities to push his ibex upwards. He chooses the path to the right of the two small spaces.

When pushing upwards, chain reactions can occur. If the pushed ibex arrives on a space on which pushing can happen again, you carry out this push as well.

Example: Edmund (Green) rolled 2-2-2-4-6. With this he can move his ibex up on the path "Three of a Kind". Through a chain reaction he pushes one of his ibexes all the way to the summit of the mountain. After reaching the summit he turns over his player marker.

Annoy your fellow players and push them down!

If you move your ibex onto a small space on which an ibex of another colour already stands, you push that ibex one space straight ahead in the arrow direction down the stream.

Example: Luis (White) rolled 1-1-1-4-4. He moves his ibex onto the space on which an ibex of Edward (Yellow) already stands. The yellow ibex is pushed across the stream onto the next space.

Here too chain reactions can occur. If the pushed ibex arrives on a small space occupied by another ibex, that ibex is also pushed one space down the stream.

Attention: If one of your own ibexes is involved in this chain reaction, it too is pushed down, not up!

Example: Edward (Yellow) rolled 2-2-3-3-3 and must move his ibex on the path "Full House". He pushes Luis's white ibex onto the space to the right, where it meets another yellow ibex. This yellow ibex is pushed across the stream down onto the large space. The pushed yellow ibex stays on the large space at the bottom. Edward's turn is over.

3. Have you reached the summit?

The first time you manage to reach the summit with one of your ibexes, turn over your player marker. It no longer shows the side with the empty summit, but an ibex of your colour.

Your ibex remains standing on the summit until the next player reaches this space with one of their ibexes. Only then do you take your own ibex off that space and place it back down on the large starting space.

End of your turn - the next player is up

Your turn ends when you have moved one of your ibexes, or have set an ibex back onto the starting space. Pass the dice to the player on your left. That player begins their turn by rolling.

End of the Game

The game ends immediately when the first player reaches the summit of Mount Friese for the second time. That player may celebrate as the winner.