i9n
i9n Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
0) Playing-cards
Punched cards, stock notes and the i9n-world
The i9n playing cards and the map of the world are closely connected: Each of the 12 stock-notes shows a picture with 32 positions in the bright area which correspond to its information: the area of validity. "North" is valid in all 32 positions in the northern hemisphere whereas "West" is valid in all 32 positions on the left west side of the map. According to each stock-note there is a punched card with 32 positions indicating this characteristical information.
Important! The i9n-world is build up by an "either-or-priciple": Each of the 64 possible positions is fixed by 6 characteristics of the 12 contrary punched cards. It is (1) EITHER in the "North" OR in the "South", (2) EITHER in the "East" OR in the "West", (3) EITHER near the "Pole" OR near the "Equator", (4) EITHER in the "Atlantic" OR in the "Pacific" region, (5) EITHER on the "Land" (red circle) OR on the "Sea" (blue circle), and finally (6) EITHER in the "Sun" (yellow area of circle) OR in the "Fog" (white area of circle).
Example: The punched cards "North", "West", "Pacific", "Fog" and "Equator" are put in the processor in the course of your game. Each of these characteristics restricts the number of successful oil-wells by the half (from 64 to 32 to 16 to 8 to 4 to 2). Finally the punched card with the information "Land" or "Sea" will decide about the position of the last oil-well to be found.
1) Preparation
a) Distribution of the cards
The 12 punched cards are spred up-side-down in 6 pairs with contrary information. Then you pile up all 6 pairs resulting in a deck of 12 cards. No-one should remember the pairs' sequence while doing this. To distribute the punched cards you put the card from the top and take it away in the games' top cover. Put the next two punched cards in the "Safe", then two away in the cover, two in the "Safe", again two away, two in the "Safe" and the finally left card away in the cover that you don't need in the course of this i9n-game.
Place 3 of each of the 12 different stock-notes underneath the game-board. This is called the stock-market (stock-exchange).
b) Line up the oil rigs
The oil rigs (headframes) of each phase carry a certain number of black rings (containers): Put four oil rigs with one container on the indicated position of the game board (phase 1), three oil rigs with two black containers (phase 2), two oil rigs with three black containers (phase 3), one oil rig with four containers (phase 4) and one rig with six black containers (phase 6).
c) Place the explorers
Now each player places his two explorers on arbitrary positions of the worlds' map.
Illustration caption: "Placing both explorers side by side in the south is a risk ..."
2) Get your information!
Hand round the safe with the 6 punched cards underneath: Every player takes two cards from the bottom, secretely reads the information and puts the cards back in new order (best to mix them!).
Illustration caption: "Oh..!"
3) Six phases of the i9n game
At the beginning of each phase take one punched card from the safe and put it (EACH WITH IDENTICALLY ORIENTATED NOTCH) with the label up-side-down under the processor card (punched card with 64 holes). Every additionally inserted punched card restricts the number of oil-wells to the half. In phase 1 there are 32 possitions "free" for drilling successfully. In phase 6 there is only one final position left for one oil-well.
After choosing the start player you throw the dice clockwise. You can gain one, two or three points. According to your result you can
- a) Move your explorer(s)
- b) Trade stock-notes
- c) Drill for an oil-well
Illustration caption: "Possible moves with one point."
a) Move your explorer(s)
For each point you are allowed to move your explorer(s) vertically or horizontally (not diagonal). Like in real-life it is possible to move from the very western edge of the board to the very eastern edge of the board because they are neigbouring. Different explorers may be placed on the same position.
b) Trade stock-notes
To buy stock-notes you need enough points. The prices depend on supply and demand. You can sell your notes at the stock market to gain points for arbitrary use in your actual move as well. The purchase price for a note of a certain label accords to the amount of already sold stock-notes of this label. It is one point plus already sold notes of this label. The retail price depends exactly on the number of already sold notes.
Example: If there are two notes of the "East" label on the stock-market, one of three notes is sold and the purchase price is two points. If one "Pole"-note is left there, you can trade one of your "Pole"-notes and gain back two points. You can use these points at once for different actions like drilling or moving your explorer.
You are allowed to exchange stock-notes with the other players – no matter if they like it or not. The only condition: your stock-note must be more valuable than the note you receive.
No-one is allowed to own more than five stock-notes!
Strategy: Those who buy immediately the stock-notes fitting to the information they know from the beginning tell much about what they know. You can confuse the other players by buying wrong labels. Remember you can resell these and gain additional points for actions later on.
Illustration captions: "Purchase Price [Retail Price]" (price at 2 [1]); "Yellow trades the "East" stock-note in a "Pole" stock-note."
c) Drill for an oil-well
Drilling for an oil-well is only possible on your explorers positions. It costs you one point and the release of one valid stock-note (which fits in one label to the position where you want to drill). Put this note on the stock-deposit before drilling.
Important! The following restrictions must be noticed!
I) You are not allowed to drill on a position with an oil rig of the same phase and of the preceding phase because the owners' rights for production are valid within two phases.
II) Directly neigbouring positions (horizontally or vertically) of an oil rig of the actual phase are blocked within the actual phase, because the actual owners' rights for production range over the neighbourhood.
Drilling means that the player checks the positions' coordinates by downward movement with the stick in the processor.
- (Unhappy face icon) If drilling fails (this means: the stick does not pass the processor) the position will be marked with a "Stop"-button. The stock-note is taken from the deposit and returns to the stock-market. You are allowed to step on a field marked with a "Stop"-button but any drilling later on will fail again on this position.
- (Happy face icon) After drilling successfully you put an oil rig of the actual phase marked with a ring in your explorers' colour on this position. The stock-note you paid for drilling remains in the deposit.
Each phase ends when the last oil rig is lined up on the worlds' map.
Note: the two icons above are smiley faces in the printed rules (unhappy face for a failed drill, happy face for a successful drill); the text layer renders them as letters, so they are described here rather than transcribed.
4) End of the game – The winner is …
The i9n game is over after finding the position of the final oil-well in phase 6. Every player counts his winning points for his black oil containers on the oil rigs and all stock-notes with labels fitting to the position of the final oil-well.
The winner is who collected the most winning points, in case of tie the player with the highest oil rig.
3 hints to improve your strategy:
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Watching exactly the other players actions (failures as well as successes) you can (easily) analyze the information of the punched card in the processor especially in phase 1.
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At the beginning of the game it seems to be easy to find oil-wells according to your own secret information. Maybe these punched cards are inserted towards the end of the game and have no influence on the early drillings' success. So you may find oil-wells in the "wrong" region in the early phases as well.
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The stock-notes prices depend on supply and demand: Cheap blanks can help to compensate bad luck in throwing dice later on.