Kniffel: Das Duell
Kniffel: Das Duell Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Setup
Attention: Detach the 22 tiles from the board. Do not throw them away. You need them to play.
- Each of you chooses a colour and takes the 5 dice of that colour.
- Place the board between you so that each of you sits on the side with your own colour.
- Place the 11 golden discs on the centre line of the board, between the blue and red spaces.
- Place the 22 joker tiles beside the board as a supply.
Now you are ready to play!
Game Flow
To decide who starts, each of you first takes just 1 die in hand. Whoever rolls the higher number begins.
You always take turns one after the other.
When it is your turn, you may roll up to three times. On your first roll you roll all 5 dice. After that, you decide how many dice you want to roll on your next attempt. Dice you want to keep, you set aside in front of you. On each attempt you again decide which dice to re-roll. It does not matter on which attempt you set a die aside. In this way you can improve your result with the 2nd and 3rd roll. Alternatively, you may forgo the 2nd and/or 3rd roll. At the latest after the 3rd roll, your result is fixed.
If you rolled one of the combinations shown on the board, you may now move a disc. If you did not make a combination, this is a miss (Fehlwurf).
Move a Disc
The board has 11 different areas with dice combinations. Each area consists of 4 positions: one hole and one space for each colour. The golden discs lie at the start of the game exactly in the middle of their area, and with the first movement they are pulled onto the space of your own colour.
After that, the middle is ignored: the disc moves directly from the blue space to the red space, and back.
If you manage to roll the combination again while the disc is already on your space, you may pull it into your hole on the board, and thus secure it.
Secure a Disc
If the disc is in your hole, it is secured. Collect 5 of them, or secure 3 adjacent discs, and you have won!
Once a disc is in your hole, it may never be moved away from there again. If someone later rolls the corresponding combination, it counts as a miss.
Miss: Take a Joker Tile
If you could not move a disc during your turn (because you did not roll a matching combination, or the disc of the combination was already secured), you take a joker tile of your colour.
You may use the joker in a later turn to turn one die to a value of your choice. You may use any number of jokers in one turn.
Return used jokers to the supply.
Combinations
The first part of the board contains the areas for Ones, Twos, Threes, Fours, Fives and Sixes. You must have rolled the same number at least three times as your result, in order to pull the disc in the respective area over to you.
The second part contains the areas for the special rolls:
- Four of a Kind (Vier Gleiche): at least four dice showing the same number. Example: four dice showing the same number, and one die showing a different number.
- Full House: three dice showing one number and two dice showing another number. Example: three dice of one number and two dice of another number.
- Small Straight (Kleine Straße): a sequence of four consecutive dice. The fifth die may show any number. Example: a sequence of four consecutive numbers, and a fifth die showing any number.
- Large Straight (Große Straße): a sequence of five consecutive dice. Example: five consecutive numbers.
- Kniffel (five of a kind, Fünf gleiche Zahlen): five dice showing the same number. This area has no spaces. If you roll a Kniffel®, you may secure the disc immediately in your own hole! Example: five dice showing the same number.
Worked Examples
Example 1 (Small Straight): RED is on the move and has this roll: four consecutive dice plus a fifth, which makes a Small Straight. The red player moves the disc to their side. (Figure 1)
Example 2 (joker): Now it is your turn. After your third roll you have this result: you use a joker tile to change the 6 into a 5. With that you also have a Small Straight! You pull the disc onto your space. (Figure 2)
End of the Game
Whoever first secures 5 discs in their own hole, or secures 3 adjacent discs, has won immediately! It is best to play another game right away, or to play until one of you has won 3 games.
Example: In a later turn you roll the result pictured in the source (its dice faces are not reproduced here). This lets you secure the disc from the Sixes area. Now you have secured 3 adjacent discs, and so you have won!