Maus au Chocolat
Maus au Chocolat Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
In the Box
- 80 ingredient cards (16 per ingredient numbered 3-7)
- 7 helper cards
- 1 scoring card
Each ingredient card shows chocolate coins (in the upper corners; the bid/action value) and a snack value (printed in the center).
Game Overview
Players will use chocolate coins on their ingredient cards to purchase other ingredients. They must decide which ones to use in an effort to build combinations for storage as quickly as possible. Trios of ingredients with either the same or consecutive snack numbers award victory points. The winner is the player who has reached 30 or more points at the end of a round.
Game Preparation
Shuffle the ingredient cards and deal 5 to each player. The remaining cards are placed face down as a draw pile in the middle of the table. Ingredient cards equal to the number of players along with an additional one are placed face up in a row next to the draw pile. Helper cards are shuffled and each player is randomly dealt one. Players then place the helper face up in front of themselves. The remaining ones are placed face up below the ingredient row. Finally, the scoring card is laid out so that all players can see it.
Gameplay
The game is played over several rounds. At the beginning of each new round, ingredient cards from the deck are placed face up in the middle of the table. The number will always be equal to the number of players. If there are not enough ingredient cards in the draw pile, reshuffle the discard pile to form a new one. Each player selects one ingredient card and plays it face down in front of him/herself. When everyone is ready, all of the played cards are revealed simultaneously and the number of chocolate coins are compared (chocolate coins are noted on the ingredient cards in the upper corners). The player who bid the most chocolate coins is first to choose two ingredient cards from those available in the middle of the table. Those are placed in their hand and the bid card is placed alongside the remaining ingredients in the middle of the table. This process now continues with the remaining players, going from highest to lowest bids.
In case of a tie, the player with the highest value helper card goes next.
Every player may now choose to lay down and score a trio of cards from their hand using the snack value printed in the center. It may be three of a kind or cards of successive value. Scoring goes in the order of each player's helper card from highest to lowest. After choosing their cards, players must have at least one remaining in their hand or scoring is not permitted. Also, if a player possesses more than eight ingredient cards, he must discard the excess.
Through the use of helper cards, other card combinations are possible.
After that, helper cards are rotated as everyone passes them to the player on their left. There are two exceptions:
- The dealer takes the leftmost card in the row of helpers.
- The player to the right of the dealer adds his helper to the right end of the helper card row.
Scoring
When scoring card combinations, do the following:
- Sequential cards of different colors: The lowest value card goes into the player's score pile. Discard the remaining two.
- Sequential cards of the same color: The highest value card goes into the player's score pile. Discard the remaining two.
- Three of a kind with different colors: Any card may be added to the player's score pile. Discard the remaining two.
- Three of a kind with the same color: Two of the cards go into the player's score pile. Discard the remaining card.
Helper Cards
In each round, the players receive a little help from one of Nestor's animal helpers. Every helper provides a special action that can be used once per round.
- Etienne, the squirrel: The player may discard an ingredient card and pull a replacement from the draw pile. This action may be taken only during a player's turn.
- Henri, the hamster: Henri increases the amount of chocolate coins on the played bid card by 2.
- Maurice, the mole: The player may raise the snack value of a card by 1 in order to score a combination. If the player keeps the card whose value was increased, the victory point value is the same as the printed snack value.
- Mathieu, the manure bug: The player may reduce the snack value of a card by 1 in order to score a combination. If the player keeps the card whose value was decreased, the victory point value is the same as the printed snack value.
- Lilly, the bee: When scoring a combination of multicolored successive cards, the player receives the highest value card for victory points.
- Amélie, the ant: The player may score a combination of four cards. Legal combinations are still required to have successive or duplicate snack values. The player may then keep the first two cards in the combination.
- Claude, the Cockroach: The player may change the color of a card in order to score a combination.
Game End
The game ends when one player's score pile has ingredient cards with a snack value total of 30 or more points. Finish scoring combinations for the round. The winner is the player with the most points. In case of a tie, the player with the highest value helper card wins.