Hotu Matua Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Rules
  • Components
  • Setting up the game
  • Object of the game
  • Game play
  • Movement
  • Conquering the pearls
  • Winning the game

Rules

Components

Game board and rules, ten special dice, eight ships and five glass „pearls“. The pearls represent conquered islands. Note: Dangerous for young kids! Small pieces might be swallowed.

Setting up the game

Each player gets five dice and four ships of the same color which s/he puts onto the fields marked with a sail at one side of the board. The white pearls are placed onto the fields marked with a big dot. A starting player is chosen, afterwards play alternates between the players.

Object of the game

The first player to own three pearls is the winner.

Game play

The active player rolls all the dice s/he has available. The starting player only has his/her own five dice in his/her own first move.

Afterwards, the number of dice might go up if the opponent wasn't able to or didn't want to use up all available dice. Each unused dice goes to the opponent, up to a maximum of three. This means that each player has at least five and up to eight dice for his/her turn.

Example:

• Player A starts with 5 dice, but uses only 4 of them.
• Player B rolls 6 dice now, but also only uses 4 of them.
• Player A now rolls 7 dice and uses them all.
• Player B rolls 5 dice.

Movement

The pips on the dice don't mark the distance a boar [sic: ship] may cover. Instead, they determine which lines on the game board a ship may cross. The starting fields can only be left by rolling a 1 or a 4.

With each result rolled, a ship can cross a line with the corresponding number on it to move to the neighboring field. You can use more than one die for a ship to move it more than one field, but you can only use each die once per turn. You may not move back and forth over the same line with a ship.

Conquering the pearls

To conquer a pearl, at least one ship must be in a neighboring field to the one with the pearl. Also, all four ships of the conqueror must be in contact with each others [sic: each other], i.e. form a chain over neighboring fields. Fields which are just connected by a tip don't count as being connected.

Each pearl you conquer this way you take off the game board. If you haven't used up all your dice after conquering a pearl, you may continue your move afterwards. Thus it is even possible to collect more than one pearl in a single turn.

No ship may pass over a field with a pearl. As soon as a pearl is removed, the field may be used as normal.

Winning the game

The player who conquers three pearls is the winner.