Panda
Panda Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Goal of the Game
Score the most points by placing wildlife in the park and by strategically placing your predators. The player with the most points wins the game.
Setup
- Give each player a set of ten predator cards*. Place them open in front of you. Each set has its own color. There are four sets, one for each player. When playing with less than four players, return any unused sets back into the box.
- Give each player a set of two point cards.
- Take all water cards, these will form the starting position of the park. There are multiple approaches for the setup.
- A. Players will place one water card on the table, in subsequent order, until all water cards have been placed.
- B. Players may also choose to pick one of the starting scenarios for set-up (see end of the rulebook).
- C. Players may agree on a shape of their own choosing.
- Shuffle all prey cards to form a face down draw deck.
- Pick a starting player.
*If you play this game for the first time, we advise you to play with five predator cards per player. Give each player the Panda, Red Fox, Grey Wolf, Jackal and Raccoon dog. Put the rest of the predator cards back in the box.
Gameplay Overview
Players will draft cards from their hand in order to keep certain cards and give away unwanted cards. After drafting, players will place one prey or predator card in the park in subsequent order. When all players have played their prey cards, the round ends. After playing four rounds, the game ends and the players will count their score by adding their predator points to their prey points.
Round of Play
A round of play consists of two phases. Phase 1: drafting. Phase 2: placing.
Phase 1: drafting
All players will draw a number of cards, according to the table. Do not show your cards to the other players. Now we will draft cards. This means that the players will take a number of cards from their hand and pass the card(s) to the neighbor on their left. They will also receive cards from their neighbor on their right.
| Number of players | Number of cards per player per round |
|---|---|
| 2 | 6 |
| 3 | 4 |
| 4 | 3 |
Draft as follows for a three or four player game: Keep one card on hand and give the rest to your left neighbor. Then, keep two cards on hand* and give the rest to your left neighbor (you are ready for Phase 2 in a four player game). Keep three cards on hand* and give the last remaining card to your left neighbor (you are ready for Phase 2 in a three player game).
Draft as follow for a two player game: Keep two cards on hand and give the remaining four cards to your left neighbor. Then, keep four cards on hand* and give the remaining two cards to your left neighbor. You are ready for Phase 2.
*cards that you've kept may be given away again during drafting.
Phase 2: placing
Starting with the starting player, players will place a card in the park in subsequent order. The park is the play area on the table. Water is always already present in the park. In your turn, you must play one card if you still have prey cards in hand. The card that you will play may be a prey card from your hand or a predator card from your own supply. Each card that you place into the park will stay there for the rest of the game. You can't move them to a different location (except for the Snow Leopard).
It may happen that you still have prey cards in your hand while other players have already played all their prey cards. This happens when you play more predator cards than your opponent(s). When you have no more prey cards in hand, you can still play a predator card or you may choose to pass. But once you passed, you can't place another card this round. Keep on playing until everyone has played all their prey cards. The round ends. The player on the left of the current starting player becomes the new starting player. Start the new round with Phase 1.
Rules of placement
You may place cards in the park according to the following rules:
- Cards must be placed adjacent to an existing card in the National Park. (Cards may not overlap and cards that are diagonally adjacent aren't connected)
- Place cards with the short sides or long sides next to each other.
- When placing cards with the long sides next to each other, you may place them fully next to each other or semi next to each other.
- You may only play up to two predator cards per round.
- The first card of the game has to be placed next to a water card.
- It may happen that there will be open spaces between cards.
End of the Game
The game ends after four rounds. The player with the most points wins. In case of a tie, the tied players all win.
Scoring
You can score points in two ways; with prey and predator cards. When placing a prey card, you immediately score points for that card. When placing a predator card, you do nothing. Predator cards will be scored at the end of the game. In order to track your points, use the two point cards according to the example. You can also use the reliable pen and paper if that has your preference.
Example: Dave has 25 points. By placing a card he scores 6 points, making his total score 31. He adjusts his point cards accordingly.
Iconography
+1 / +2 icon. Whenever you see +1 or +2 next to an animal, water or tree icon, that card will get respectively one or two points per card of that kind that is adjacent to the card that you play. In case of prey cards, those points will be scored immediately. Predator cards will be scored at the end of the game, so you can add more of the desired kinds of cards to your predator throughout the game.
Link symbol. When you see a link symbol, that card scores points for each identical card that is connected to the adjacent card. For example, a Brown Bear gets one point for each linked Giant Chinese Bitterling. The requirement is that there should be an adjacent Bitterling to start with. If there is a Bitterling linked to that Bitterling, and a Bitterling to that Bitterling and so forth, you will get a point for each linked Bitterling.
Alpha male (+2 icon with an outline). Some animals travel in groups with one alpha male. Red Deer, Golden Pheasants and Takin fall in this category. Per species, there is only one male in the deck of prey cards. Predators will not score extra points for alpha males. An alpha male counts as one of their kind, giving them one point if they are shown on the predator card. (The icon for an alpha male has an outline.)
Solitary animal (crossed-out animal icon). Whenever you see this icon, it means that you are dealing with a solitary animal. It is not allowed to place this animal next to the same type of animal. For example, it is not allowed to place a Brown Bear next to another Brown Bear.
Small predator (-1 / -2 icons). Whenever you see these -1 or -2 icons, you are dealing with a small predator. You will get respectively minus one or minus two points per card of that kind that is adjacent to that card at the end of the game. For example, Beech Marten get minus one point for each adjacent South China Tiger and minus two points for each adjacent Grey Wolf.
Snow Leopard (move icon). The Snow Leopard is the only card that has this icon. The Snow Leopard is a very cautious animal and will walk away from other predators. Whenever you, or another player places a predator next to a Snow Leopard, that Snow Leopard has to be moved to another available space in the park. The owner of the moved Snow Leopard decides where to place it. When placing a Snow Leopard, you are not allowed to place it directly adjacent to a predator in the park.
Giant Chinese Bitterling. The Bitterling may be placed next to water cards, not on top of them. Also, the Bitterling will extend the bodies of water in the park. You can find a water icon on the bottom left corner of the Bitterling. Some animals score points per water card adjacent to them. The Bitterling is also considered as water and as a Bitterling. So placing a Bitterling next to another Bitterling will give you extra points since you get points for both Bitterling and water.
Scoring examples
Scoring example A: End game scoring of yellow predators. The Wolf scores 3 points (1 for the Deer and 2 for the Takins). Dave scores 5 points for the Bear (2x1 point for the forest cards and 3 points for the connected Bitterlings).
Scoring example B: In his turn, Dave places the female Takin. For this he scores 5 points (1 point for the adjacent Forest, 2 points for the male Takin, 1 point for the other female Takin and 1 point for the adjacent Bitterling (Bitterlings count as water)).
The Giant Panda National Park
In this protected park, you can find a beautiful selection of rare and common animals. Because you are building this park in this game, we would like to give you the names of the species that you are playing with.
Predators: Giant Panda, Brown Bear, Grey Wolf, South Chinese Tiger, Red Fox, Beech Marten, Raccoon Dog, Snowleopard, Jackal, Mong Pit Viper.
Prey: Snub-nosed Monkey, Red Deer, Takin, Bobak Marmot, Golden Pheasant, Chinese Giant Bitterling, Malayan Porcupine.
Different Starting Scenarios
The original rulebook shows four starting scenario layouts of water cards as diagrams (not reproducible in text), plus a starting layout shown at the top of the section.