Schmatzspatz
Schmatzspatz Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Materials and Set-up
- 4 parent birds (decide for yourself whether they are moms or dads...)
- 20 worms
- 1 nest disk
- 1 picture ring
- 1 die-cut layer
- 4 holding pegs
- 1 die
- 12 closed beaks
- 6 corner labels
Before the first game, carefully remove all tiles from the punch-out sheet.
Before starting the game, insert the die-cut layer into the empty box (illus 1). You are free to decide which side you turn face up. Choose four of the labels enclosed and stick them in the four corner areas of the box bottom.
After you plug the four holding pegs from beneath into the holes of the nest disk, you put the nest disk on the picture ring (illus 2).
Now the parent birds land: just plug them onto the holding pegs now showing (illus 2). Have the beaks and the die ready, next to the box. Alongside, you put 20 worms as a common supply. Now the beakaful feeding of the little spunky sparrows can begin!
Object of the Game
The baby birds are hungry. As soon as they are all full and their beaks are closed, all of you together win the game! It can happen, though, that you run out of worms because you have tried too many times to feed baby birds that are not hungry at the moment. In this case, not all of the spunky sparrows get enough food, and, together, you all lose the game.
Course of the Game
The smallest player starts.
1. Choose a bird and roll the die
On your turn, you choose a bird that you want to move. It has to be a bird with at least one hungry fledgling of the same color that has not closed its beak yet. Then you roll the die. The picture that comes up shows you where to move the chosen bird (e.g. to the socks at the clothesline).
Example (illus 3): Trixie chooses the blue bird and rolls a flower. This means that the blue bird would like to visit the next flower field.
2. Move the birds
Hold the bird you have chosen. Say out loud which landscape you have rolled. Now turn the bird along with the entire nest disk until you see the complete picture of the same landscape in front of the bird. If there is already a picture of this landscape in front of the bird (before you move it), then you turn the bird to the next picture of that same landscape. As you can see, in doing this, all the other birds have also moved... (illus 4).
Example (illus 4): Now, the blue bird is in front of the next flower field.
3. Feed a fledgling
But now your chosen bird flies. Detach it from the holding peg (illus 5) and let it get a worm. Stick a worm from the supply into its beak.
Decide which of the three fledglings of the same color the flying bird now wants to feed (illus 5)!
Then you fly the bird to the chosen fledgling and try to feed it with the worm you have brought: to this end, you put the worm into the fledgling's beak!
(You can take the worm into your hand or try to feed it directly from the parent bird's beak into the fledgling's beak – like real birds in real nests do.)
By the way: The other players are allowed to give you hints and advice to help with your decision as to which baby bird to feed, if they think they know which fledglings are hungry at the moment. So you can get help from all players before you finally decide for yourself which fledgling to choose.
There are two possible outcomes:
- A. The fledgling eats the worm. Great, smack snack! After the worm has completely disappeared in its beak, this fledgling is full. Close its beak by plugging in a closed beak (illus 6).
- B. The fledgling spurns the worm. Oh no! The worm can't be shoved completely into the beak; it gets stuck (illus 7). Unfortunately, now the startled sparrow loses the worm... Now lay down the worm in front of you.
After that, you put the bird back onto its holding peg. Your turn is now over, and your left neighbor rolls the die...
End of the Game
- A. All beaks are closed – you win! If you have managed to close all beaks, all fledglings are full. In this case, you end the game by winning as a team!
- B. All worms are gone – you lose! When you have fed the last worm from the supply or had to lay it down in front of you without all beaks being closed, not all fledglings have gotten enough to eat. Unfortunately, you all end up losing. But nevertheless, you have fed as many fledglings as possible. And next time, surely it will be more... just try again right away!
Or Try This
Game Variant: Whoever Feeds Fully First Wins!
In the beginning, each player gets 5 worms of his own. (So there is no common supply.)
Each time you start flying with a bird, you put one of your own worms into its beak. If you don't succeed in feeding a fledgling with this worm, you take the worm back to your supply – and try again to feed it on a later turn.
As soon as you close the beak of the last (third) fledgling, the two other baby birds of that color get hungry again: open their beaks (and put the removed "closed beak" pieces back into your supply. See illus 8).
You win the game if you are the first to successfully feed your last worm to the little spunky sparrows.
After the Game
When it is time to tidy up, you can leave the holding pegs plugged into the nest disk. The box bottom has four little indentations. This is where the holding pegs go, if you turn the nest disk around and then put it back into the box.