Pokémon GOITA

Pokémon GOITA Rulebook

Table of Contents

Overview

No. of players: 4 Age: 7+ Time: 30 minutes

In Goita, you will be playing in a 2 person team. 8 pieces will be dealt to each player. The first player who played all 8 pieces wins and their team will score points.

Points would be accumulated and when either team scores 150 points or above, both players in that team will be the winner.

In this instruction booklet, a match refers to a series of rounds until either team wins by scoring at least 150 points. One round starts from dealing pieces and ends when a player played all 8 pieces and score points.
In Goita, player take turns in a counter clockwise direction. In other words, the next player means the player on your right.

32 playing pieces with 8 kinds of wordings:

Count	Piece (traditional name)	Pokémon name	Points
2	King (O) — 王	Mewtwo	50
2	King — 玉 (*)	Mew	50
2	Rook (Hisha) — 飛	Charizard	40
2	Bishop (Kaku) — 角	Kairyu (カイリュー)	40
4	Gold (Kin) — 金 (**)	Raichu	30
4	Silver (Gin) — 銀	Pikachu	30
4

(*) There are slight differences between the wordings of the 2 [Kings].

(Pokémon naming: the official product page lists "Mewtwo (王)" and "Mew (玉)" as the two King pieces and states they are treated the same. The rules below apply to [King] without distinction.)

(**) [Gold] and [Silver] are normally known as [Gold General] and [Silver General] but are abbreviated to make the instruction simpler.

Forming teams before the match

Take 2 pieces each of [King] and [Pawn] and shuffle them facing down. Each player then chooses a piece and reveals it. Players who revealed the same pieces will tag as a team. A team must seat in an opposite direction, thus facing each other. (Diagram 1: four players seated around a table, the two members of each team seated across from each other.)

The team who revealed the [King] pieces discuss either player becomes the dealer of the first round.

Sequence of a round

A. Dealing pieces B. Check your hand for [Pawns] C. Playing pieces D. Scoring

A. Dealing pieces

Shuffle all pieces facing down and form a circle using these pieces. (Diagram 2: pieces arranged face down in a circle.)
The dealer looks up to the ceiling and closes his eyes.
The next player chooses any piece and pokes that piece with his finger. That player should announce that he made his decision by announcing "This piece!"
The dealer, with his eyes closed, then announce where the pieces should be deal from (e.g. "That piece!", "One piece ahead!", "Three pieces backwards!"). After the dealer made his announcement, the dealer opens his eyes and looks back frontward. Then the dealer takes the piece he announced.
The next player on the right side of the dealer takes the next piece, which is the piece to the right of the piece the dealer took.
Each player takes a piece in turn order until all pieces are dealt.

All players should have 8 pieces in their hand.

During the round, all players shouldn't show his pieces in his hand to any other player. It is also prohibited to tell anyone what you have in your hand or what you played face down until the end of the round. However, there is an exception when you have more than 5 [Pawns] in your hand, which will be explained in the next section.

B. Check your hand for [Pawns]

If your starting hand consists of more than 5 [Pawns], you may announce it and show all players the number of [Pawns] you have in your hand. According to the number of [Pawns] in your hands, you may announce any hand as below.

5 [Pawns]

You may announce 5 [Pawns] (Goshi) and reveal your 5 [Pawns] to all players. You must not reveal the other 3 pieces.

Your partner must decide to continue to play this round or reshuffle. Again, you are not allowed to reveal your other 3 pieces and you are not allowed to discuss with your partner.

If your partner chooses to continue, return all [Pawns] to your hand and begin this round as normal.
If your partner chooses to reshuffle, redeal all pieces without changing the dealer.

6 [Pawns]

You may announce 6 [Pawns] (Rokushi) and reveal your hand to all players. This round ends immediately and you score points for the higher score piece among the 2 pieces which is not [Pawn].

If the 2 pieces which is not [Pawn] are the same, the score would be doubled. The player who announced 6 [Pawns] will be the next dealer.

7 [Pawns]

You may announce 7 [Pawns] (Nanashi) and reveal your hand to all players. This round ends immediately and you score double points for the piece which is not [Pawn].

The player who announced 7 [Pawns] will be the next dealer.

8 [Pawns]

You may announce 8 [Pawns] (Hachishi) and reveal your hand to all players. This round ends immediately and you score 100 points.

The player who announced 8 [Pawns] will be the next dealer.

2 players from different team revealed 5 [Pawns]

If both partners choose to reshuffle, redeal all pieces as in 5 [Pawns]. If either partner chooses to continue this round, both players who announced 5 [Pawns] must return all [Pawns] to their hand and continue this round.

2 players from the same team revealed 5 [Pawns]

If both players in the same team revealed 5 [Pawns], they score 150 points for the team and win the match immediately.

C. Playing pieces

How to play pieces

Each player will play his pieces in front of him in 2 rows. The top row will be the defense row and the lower row will be the attack row.

During your turn, you may play by playing 2 pieces together. 1 piece will be played on the defense row and another piece will be played on the attack row. After you played both pieces, the next player will commence his turn (It is possible to pass your turn, as explained in later section). If you have already played any pieces, you must place your next pieces to the right of the played pieces. (Diagram 3: the defense row (top) and attack row (bottom) with pieces numbered 1 to 8 in play order: 1 and 2 are the first pair, 3 and 4 the second, 5 and 6 the third, 7 and 8 the fourth.)

During a single round, you may play pieces up to 4 times, in the manner of [①,②], [③,④], [⑤,⑥], [⑦,⑧] as shown in Diagram 3.

Dealer's first turn

At the beginning of a round, the dealer plays a piece facing down as the first defense piece. (Diagram 3, piece ①)

After that, the dealer plays a piece facing up, as the first attacking piece. (Diagram 3, piece ②)

After the dealer plays both pieces, his turn ends and the next player will commence his turn.

During later turn

After the dealer first turn, you may choose either action stated as below:

Play a defense piece, followed by an attack piece.

◆ Playing a defense piece

If any other player, regardless of team, is playing a valid attacking piece, you may play a piece of the same wording as the attacking piece as a defense piece. If you do so, you stop the current attacking piece and you must play the next attack piece.

If you played an attacking piece and no player played a defense piece, you must play your next defense piece facing down.

As in Diagram 3, if no player played a defense piece to stop your first attacking piece (piece ②), you play a defense piece facedown during your next turn.

◆ Playing an attack piece

To play an attacking piece, you must first play a defense piece. After that, you must play an attack piece facing up. After you played your attack piece, the next player will commence his turn.
Pass your turn

Regardless of any playable pieces in your hand, you may pass your turn without playing any piece. The next player will then commence his turn.

D. Scoring

If any player played all 8 pieces, that player will be the winner of this round and score would be added to their team according to the last attacking piece played.

Score

[King] — 50 points
[Rook] [Bishop] — 40 points
[Gold] [Silver] — 30 points
[Lance] [Knight] — 20 points
[Pawn] — 10 points

Doubling your score

If your last defense piece (7th piece) is played face down and it is the same as your last attack piece (8th piece), the score earned in this round will be doubled.

Checking match point

If both team score is below 150 points, shuffle all pieces face down and start a new round. The player who won the previous round will be the dealer of the next round. Continue to play a sequence of rounds until either team scores 150 points or above. The first team who did so will be the winner of this match.

Special rule regarding [King] piece

[King] piece is a special piece which acts differently as other pieces.

Defensing with [King]

[King] may be played as a defense piece to any attacking piece, except for [Lance] and [Pawn].

Attacking with [King]

There are 3 conditions where you can play the [King] piece as an attack piece.

When 1 [King] piece is already in play: If a [King] piece had been used as a defense piece by any player in this round, you may play your remaining piece of [King] as an attack piece.
When you have 2 [King] pieces: If you have both [King] pieces, you may play your first [King] piece as an attack piece. You may play your second [King] piece as attack piece too, since the first [King] piece will be in play by then.
Playing as your last attack piece: You may play [King] piece as your last attack piece (Diagram 3, piece ⑧) under any condition.

Example of a round

You are the dealer and you have [King] [King] [Bishop] [Gold] [Gold] [Knight] [Lance] [Pawn] in your hand.

Firstly, you played a [Knight] facing down as a defense piece, followed by [Lance] as an attack piece. → Your next player stops your attack by playing a [Lance] piece and attacks with a [Bishop].
Both following players passed their turn and it is your turn again. You defense by playing your [Bishop] and attack with a [King], since you have both of them. [King] is unblockable so all other players must pass their turn and it is your turn again.
You played your [Pawn] facing down as a defense piece and attack again with your second piece of [King].
Again, no one could defense and it is your turn again. You played your [Gold] piece face down as a defense piece and played another [Gold] as your scoring piece. Since your last defense piece (7th piece), [Gold] is facing down and it is the same wording with the final attack piece (8th piece), your score for this round would be doubled. [Gold] scores for 30 points and since it is double, you scored 60 points for this round. (Diagram 4: the final layout of the 8 pieces of this round.)