Snakes of Wrath
Snakes of Wrath Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 90 Tiles
- 2 Double Racks
- Cloth Bag
- Rules
Objective
Carefully choose and place your tiles, adding to one of your existing snakes, starting a new snake, injuring your opponent, or going rogue. You can't add to your opponent's snake - but you can steal it by connecting one of your snakes to theirs with a Body Tile on your turn.
Closed snakes score points. A snake is considered closed when it has no open ends, is at least two Body Tiles in length, and is not injured.
You score 1 point for each body tile in a fully closed, uninjured snake, and the first player to reach 13 points wins. Heads don't score any points, only bodies matter.
Tip: Snakes can and will have many heads, and loop back into themselves. Seriously, look it up online. It's messed up.
Set-Up
- Find the starter tile and put it in the middle of the table, then put the rest of the tiles in the snake sack.
- Each player takes a set of Privacy Racks and picks a color. You will play as either red snakes or blue snakes.
- Each player randomly draws 8 tiles from the Snake Sack and arranges them length-wise on their Privacy Rack, hiding them from the other player. Keep healthy Body Tiles flipped to your color and Injured Body Tiles flipped to your opponent's color on your rack. Pick a first player. Don't make a big deal out of it.
Place your set of racks next to each other to form a single 8 tile rack.
Types of Tiles
Starter Snake - This starts every game. There's only one of these. It's hard to find in the bag, isn't it? Sorry.
Body Tile - Play Body Tiles to add to your snake, or heal an Injured Body Tile of the same shape.
Armored Body - Snake of steel. Same as a Body Tile, but cannot be injured. If it's got a black belly you can't stab it. That's in the bible.
Injured Body - Play Injured Body Tiles on your opponent's Body Tiles of the same EXACT shape. Snakes with injuries can't be added to.
Head Tile - Close one of your snakes, or lay plans for a new one. These can be played in any legal spot, but never on an opponent's snake.
Todd - Worth 1 point. Can be played anywhere on the build as long as it does not interrupt other snakes. We love you, Todd!
Body Tile & Head - Same as a Body Tile, but with a head! Any team can build off that head, regardless of color of the body. It's a different snake, man!
How to Play
On your turn play 1 tile and carry out one of the four actions described below. Tiles must be placed adjacent to an existing tile, with no gaps, and only horizontally. You cannot place a tile that blocks the open end of a snake or head. After placing a tile, draw from the Snake Sack until you have 8 tiles.
If you cannot play - or choose not to - you may either pass or discard half of your tiles (4) back into the bag and draw 4 new ones. This counts as your turn.
1 - Build
Attach a healthy Body Tile next to a Head Tile to start a snake, OR attach to one of your Body Tiles to grow one of your existing snakes.
You can't play a tile that would add to your opponent's snake, and you can't play a tile that would block one of its open ends.
2 - Cap It
Place a Head Tile on an open end of one of your snakes. If all open ends of the snake have heads or connect to each other, then congrats, this snake is closed. Count the Body Tiles in that snake and add it to your point total.
Tip: Your tiles cannot interrupt the paths of other tiles, so you cannot block open ends of Head or Body Tiles. For example, an open end of a Body or Head Tile cannot abut the blank side of another tile.
3 - Injure or Heal
Injure an opponent's snake by stacking an Injured Body Tile on top of one of their body tiles of the same exact shape. Injured tiles can only be played ON TOP of an existing tile. You can never injure armored tiles or any tile on a snake that has been fully closed.
If you have an injured snake, you must first heal it before you can close or add to it. Heal it by placing the exact same shaped healthy Body Tile on top of the Damaged Body Tile on your turn. Tiles may only be injured/healed ONCE, but the same snake can be injured again on a different non-armored tile.
Injured snakes can't be closed or added to by their owner until healed, but they can be STOLEN - didn't know you could steal snakes did you? That's because we didn't talk about it yet. That's how come why.
4 - Go Rogue
Play a Head or Body tile adjacent to another tile, but not connected to an existing snake. This can be a strategic move to block an opponent or to prepare for a steal.
If a Body Tile is played rogue and doesn't connect to a head somewhere, it is considered "stray" and can be claimed by either player by adding a head. When you claim a stray flip it to match your color.
Stealing Snakes
"The key to success"
Stealing snakes is key to winning, and there's two ways to steal, but both require playing a body tile. You can never steal a snake by just playing a head tile.
Method 1: If you play a Body Tile that connects the body of one of your snakes to the body of an opponent's snake, it becomes yours. Flip any Body Tiles of the stolen snake to your color. You own that whole snake now.
Method 2: This one is tricky, but important: You can ALSO steal a snake by playing a tile that attaches an already-played open Head Tile AND your opponent's snake.
You are allowed to steal injured snakes, but you'll have to heal it before you continue building on it, or close it for points.
Tip: Snakes with Injured Body Tiles cannot be built on or closed until they are healed! Hmm, might make them more susceptible to a steal? I don't know, I'm not your dad.
Tip: Stole a snake with an injury? It's your problem now. The injury must be healed before that snake can be built on or counted towards your point total.
Closing Snakes
A snake with open ends is not closed and scores no points. A snake that is closed but still injured also scores no points - this can only happen if you steal an injured snake. A snake with no open ends, at least two Body Tiles in length, and no injuries is closed, and scores points equal to its Body Tile count.
Things You Can't Do
- Injure an Armored Body Tile.
- Play a tile that blocks an open Head or Body tile.
- Add tiles to the other player's snake - unless you're injuring or stealing.
- Build on a snake that's injured, unless you're stealing it.
- Close a snake that has less than 2 Body Tiles.
- Curse at Grandma.
How to Score and Win
Points are awarded for every healthy Body Tile in an uninjured closed snake of your color. Head Tiles don't count towards your point total, remember? Those are just a formality! A snake is considered closed when it has no open ends, is at least two Body Tiles in length, and has no injuries.
The first player to score at least 13 points wins. If every tile has been played and no player has reached 13 points, the player with the most points wins. If there's still a tie, both players have to kiss.