Lass die Kirche im Dorf!
Lass die Kirche im Dorf! Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Setup
Place the pastor piece on the center square of the 7×7 game board. Place nothing else on the board. One player takes the light-colored wooden pieces and the other takes the dark-colored wooden pieces.
Goal of the Game
[Translator's note, not in the original text: the tallest piece is the spire, and the second-tallest piece is the nave. These two pieces, placed orthogonally adjacent to each other, form a "church."]
The first player to complete the town wins. To complete the town, all of the following must be true:
- All house pieces and churches are placed so that they are orthogonally adjacent to each other.
- The spire piece is placed so that it touches one side of a church piece.
- Churches (both the spire piece and the nave piece) are not placed on an edge or a corner of the game board.
Figure 1: On this board, the dark-colored player wins: all pieces are adjacent and the completed church is not on an edge of the game board.
Placing Houses and Churches
Players take turns placing pieces on the game board. Each time a piece is placed, the player decides the direction of its roof.
The player with the light-colored pieces goes first and places their spire and nave on diagonally opposite squares of the game board. The player with the dark-colored pieces then places their spire and nave on the remaining two corners. (Figure 2)
After that, players place their house pieces. A piece may not be placed adjacent to one of the player's own pieces that is already on the board. Diagonal squares do not count as adjacent. (Figure 3)
Once all pieces have been placed, piece movement begins.
Figure 2: The two types of pieces that make up a church are each placed on a diagonal.
Figure 3: All pieces have been placed so that none is adjacent to a piece of the same color.
How to Play
Moving Pieces
In this game you design a town. The final positions of the houses, spires and naves are not fixed in advance. After moving a piece, you may rotate the moved piece by 90 degrees. Rotating it changes the direction it will move in the next time it is moved. A pastor piece cannot be moved like a building piece; as explained below, the pastor instead swaps places with a building piece.
Players take turns. On a turn, a player must do one of the following two things:
- A) Move one of your own pieces
- B) Ask the pastor for help
A) Move One of Your Own Pieces
Each player tries to bring their own pieces together into a connected group. Of course, the opponent is aiming for the same thing. On a turn, move one piece. A piece can only move in the direction of its roof ridge (the top of the roof). It may move any distance, but it cannot jump over any other piece, including the pastor piece. After completing its move, the moved piece may be rotated by 90 degrees. (See Figure 4 and Figure 5.)
Figure 4: The possible moves of a light-colored piece are shown in the figure.
Figure 5: The light-colored house piece has moved two squares down and been rotated by 90 degrees.
B) Ask the Pastor for Help
If the path of a house piece (or a church piece) is blocked by another piece (of any color), by the pastor piece, or by the edge of the game board, instead of moving the piece you may ask the pastor for help. (Figure 6) When you ask the pastor for help, the pastor piece is moved to the square of the piece that could not move, and the building piece moves to the square the pastor was on and is rotated by 90 degrees. (Figure 7)
Figure 6: This piece cannot move because there are pieces blocking it in both directions. It may ask the pastor for help.
Figure 7: The board after the pastor piece and the house piece have swapped places. This satisfies the winning condition, so the game is won.
Strategy Tip
It can be a good idea to use your own pieces to block your own pieces, so that on your next turn you can ask the pastor for help and swap the blocked piece with the square the pastor is on.