I Heart Manatees Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
  • Components
• Setup
• How to Play
  • On Your Turn
  • 1. Take a Tile
  • 2. Add the Tile to Your Habitat
    • About Matching Icons
  • 3. Perform an Ocean Action
    • Rescue
    • Swim
    • Photo Cards
    • Shark Sabotage
• End of the Game
• Scoring
• Manatee Facts

Overview

Welcome to I Heart Manatees, a game about building habitats and rescuing manatees from the ocean, in order to keep them happy and well fed.

Components

• 1 Shark Sabotage die
• 1 bull shark
• 30 manatees
• The Ocean board
• 24 Photo cards
• 4 Starting tiles
• 90 habitat tiles

New to swimming with us? Let me guide you so you don't get lost in the current!

In this game you are competing conservation specialists and your job is to build your own habitat to host the happiest manatees. Score points for surrounding manatees with food and for taking the best photos of them enjoying your habitat. But beware of the bull shark swimming in the same waters and scaring the manatees! Redirect it to your opponents to sabotage their efforts. Can you be the best in your area of work? The conservationists with the happiest manatees win the game!

Setup

1. Place the Ocean board between the players. Place one habitat tile face up on each of the 12 spaces on the board and place all other tiles face down beside the board as a draw pile.
2. Give each player a Starting tile (this tile holds up to 4 manatees).
3. Place 1 manatee on an empty space on each player's Starting tile. This is the start of your habitat. Keep in mind that you will need to leave room around your Starting tile for your habitat to grow.
4. Shuffle the Photo cards. Then place 4 cards face up on the Ocean board, as indicated at the top of the board. Place the rest of the cards face down near the game board.
5. Place the bull shark on the shark image on the game board.
6. Roll the Shark Sabotage die and place it on the space with the icon matching the icon on top of the die.

(Setup for 3 players is illustrated.) Now you are ready to dive in!

How to Play

On Your Turn

On your turn, do the following in order:

1. Take a tile from the Ocean board.
2. Add the tile to your habitat.
3. Perform the Ocean Action of the column from which you took the tile.

Players take turns clockwise around the table until the game ends. The player who most recently swam in the ocean goes first.

1. Take a Tile

Take any bottom tile from any of the 4 columns of the Ocean board (the bottom tiles are the ones closest to the beach).

Do not replace any tile you take with a new tile, unless the column becomes empty. If a column becomes empty, draw 3 new tiles and place them on its spaces.

Taking tiles becomes important as your habitat grows. Once you learn how it works, you will think about how a tile will contribute to your game: scoring for complete FOOD ICONS, using the OCEAN ACTION of the column you took the tile from, and how the tile can satisfy any PHOTO CARDS to score points.

In the example, these four tiles are closest to the beach and can be taken.

2. Add the Tile to Your Habitat

Add the new tile to your habitat, placing it so that it touches at least one other tile.

The edges of touching tiles must match (have the same icon, or no icon). If you cannot place the tile, put it on the discard pile, and your turn ends.

If the newly taken tile touches more than one tile, then all touching edges must match.

(Illustrated: all connected edges match / the edges here do not match.)

About Matching Icons

• Food: Round seaweed icons keep your manatees fed. Surround each of your manatees with as many food icons as possible by the end of the game to earn lots of points!
• Attraction: Diamond-shaped attraction icons represent great photo opportunities during the game. Complete these icons with specific PHOTO CARDS (and when using the SHARK SABOTAGE) to get even more points!
• Upgrade: Square upgrade icons represent improvements to your habitat. RESCUE icons will bring more manatees to your habitat and SWIM icons will let several manatees swim at the same time.

Icons shown: Rescue, Swim; Diver, Fish, Coral (attraction icons).

3. Perform an Ocean Action

Perform the Ocean Action associated with the column from which you took the tile. The icon at the top of each column indicates which action it is.

Rescue

Add a manatee to your habitat! Take 1 manatee from the supply and place it on an empty space on your Starting tile. Your Starting tile can hold a maximum of 4 manatees.

If your Starting tile is full, you cannot add more manatees to it until spaces open up. On a turn like this, just take the tile, add it to your habitat and do not perform any action. You will want to swim your manatees to other parts of your habitat to free up room for more rescues!

Additionally, for each complete Rescue icon in your habitat, add 1 more manatee to your Starting tile. For example, if you took a tile from the Rescue column and you have 2 complete Rescue icons in your habitat, you would add a total of 3 manatees to your Starting tile.

Swim

Move a manatee in your habitat! Choose 1 manatee in your habitat and move it to another tile. However, you cannot move onto or through a tile that contains the bull shark or another manatee. Each tile can only hold 1 manatee, except the Starting tile, which can hold up to 4.

Additionally, for each complete Swim icon in your habitat, move another manatee.

Move manatees orthogonally (up, down, left, right) across the tiles through the water in your habitat. You cannot move diagonally. There is no limit to the number of tiles you can pass through.

(Illustrated: this manatee swims around the bull shark to reach a tile full of food. This manatee cannot pass through the tile with the bull shark. This manatee cannot pass through the tile with another manatee.)

Photo Cards

Score points for taking great photos of your habitat.

After taking a tile from this column, you may take one of the 4 face-up Photo cards IF you have met its requirements. Each card shows a requirement you must meet to collect the card. Green cards score points immediately and orange cards score points based on your habitat at the end of the game.

For example, this card requires that you have 3 complete FOOD ICONS with at least one manatee in the pattern shown anywhere in your habitat. The pattern may be rotated in a habitat.

For example, this card requires that you have a complete CORAL ICON in your habitat...

After you take a Photo card, place it in your scoring pile. Then replace it with the top card of the deck so that there are always 4 face-up cards.

If you cannot claim a PHOTO CARD because your habitat does not meet the requirements, you can still take a tile from this column; you simply do not take any PHOTO CARD.

(Shark tip: remember that manatees cannot move through a tile that contains a shark.)

Shark Sabotage

The Shark Sabotage action has 2 parts:

FIRST, move the bull shark from its current space to an empty tile in any other player's habitat, but NOT onto the Starting tile.

SECOND, perform the action shown on the Shark Sabotage die.

Relocate Manatee: Steal 1 manatee from the habitat of the player on whose habitat you placed the shark. You may only take the manatee from that player's Starting tile and place it on your own Starting tile.

Coral, Diver, Fish Bonus: If your habitat has at least one of the complete icons shown on the die, take an additional tile closer to the beach as if you were taking another turn. BUT you do not perform the Ocean Action associated with the tile you just took (you only get the bonus tile to add to your habitat).

After taking the bonus, roll the die again and place it back on the board (letting players know what the next Shark Sabotage is).

NOTE: if you cannot take the bonus on the die (either because you have no room for another manatee on your Starting tile, or because you do not have the complete icon in your habitat), you still take the tile and place it in your habitat, place the shark, and then roll the die again for the next bonus.

End of the Game

The end of the game is triggered when 1 of the following occurs during the game:

• The last manatee is removed from the supply, OR
• A player takes their 5th Photo card.

Then each player (including the player who triggered the end of the game) takes one last turn. The player who triggered the end of the game is therefore always the player who takes the last turn of the game. If the game ended because a player took their 5th Photo card, that player may take a 6th Photo card on their last turn.

Scoring

After the last player takes their turn, each player scores their habitat based on the following:

• Happy Manatees: Manatees love to eat! Each manatee in your habitat is worth 1 POINT for each complete Food icon it shares a tile with.
• Photo Cards: Add up the points on your cards according to the scoring indicated on each card.

The player with the most points wins!

In case of a tie, the tied player with the most manatees in their habitat wins. If the tie persists, they share the victory!

Score 1 point for each complete FOOD ICON on the same tiles as a manatee. (Illustrated: this manatee is surrounded by 1 complete FOOD ICON and is worth 1 point. This manatee is surrounded by 2 complete FOOD ICONS and is worth 2 points. An incomplete FOOD ICON is also shown.)

Have a peaceful (peix-e-ptimal) game!

Manatee Facts

• Many manatees go to the water's surface every three to five minutes to breathe, although they can stay underwater longer, holding their breath for up to 20 minutes. When they breathe, 90 percent of the air in their lungs is replaced (while humans tend to replace 10 percent). We are more than cute; we are a vital part of the marine ecosystem!
• About half of West Indian manatee deaths are caused by humans, and most happen through collisions with boats. Manatees float very well and use their horizontally positioned diaphragm and their breath to control their buoyancy. That and their average speed of 3 to 5 miles per hour mean manatees are too slow to escape the path of a motorboat.
• Manatees are typically found in shallow coastal areas and rivers where they feed on seagrass, mangrove leaves and plants. These herbivores chew their food for almost half the day, eating ten percent of their body weight in plants every day. With weights that can reach 540 kilograms, that is a lot of green!