Start 11! The Board Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Object of the Game
• Setup
• Course of Play
  • Placing 1 to 3 Tiles
  • Placement Rules
  • Special Features of Placing
    • 1. Placing in a Connection Area
    • 2. Placing on a Bridge Space
    • 3. Bridge Bonus
    • 4. Passing a Tile
• No Suitable Tile?
• End of the Game
• Variant
  • Setup
  • Course of Play
  • End of the Game

Contents

• 1 game board (with symbol spaces, joker spaces, number spaces, bridge spaces, number rows, connection areas and bonus tile symbols)
• 88 game tiles (+2 spare tiles), consisting of:
  • 64 number tiles
  • 16 joker tiles
  • 8 symbol tiles
• 4 tile holders
• 1 cloth bag

Object of the Game

Each player tries to be the first to get rid of all their tiles by placing them on the four differently coloured number rows of the game board. As soon as a player has no tiles left, the game ends immediately. This player has won the game.

Setup

• Place the game board on the table within easy reach of all players.
• Sort out the 8 tiles with the large symbols "square", "triangle", "star" and "circle". You only need these for the variant explained at the end of these rules.
• Put the remaining tiles into the cloth bag and mix them well. They form the general supply.
• Now each player places a tile holder in front of them and draws the following number of tiles from the bag:
  • with 2 and 3 players: 20 tiles
  • with 4 players: 15 tiles
• Stand your tiles in your tile holder so that your fellow players cannot see them.

Course of Play

Play proceeds clockwise. The youngest player begins.

• If they have an 11, they may start by placing it on the matching space on the game board.
• If they have no 11, the next player is up, and so on.
• If no player has an 11, all players take turns drawing one tile at a time from the bag until a player draws an 11 and thereby starts the game. The drawn tiles that do not show an 11 are stood by the players in their tile holders with their other tiles.

Placing 1 to 3 Tiles

The player whose turn it is must place at least 1 tile from their tile holder on the game board. They may then place up to 2 further tiles ("3-tile placement limit"). These do not have to be in the same number row.

Explanation: Each player may therefore place at most 3 tiles per turn. The starting player, for example, begins with an 11 and may then place up to 2 further tiles.

Placement Rules

1. A tile must always be placed adjacent to a tile already on the board. Exception: 11s may always be placed.
2. Number tiles (tiles with yellow, red, blue and green numbers) must be placed face up on the corresponding space on the game board.
3. Joker tiles (tiles with grey numbers) are placed face up on a still empty space with the respective number (e.g. a 7 may be placed on any empty 7 space that is adjacent to a tile already on the board).

Special Features of Placing

1. Placing in a Connection Area

If a tile already lies on a number space in a connection area, all other tiles with this number may also be placed, in any order (this applies to the 1, 11 and 20 tiles, even if no other tiles are adjacent yet).

Example: Frank places the yellow 1. He also has the blue 1 in his tile holder. He may now place this as well.

2. Placing on a Bridge Space

Bridge spaces connect neighbouring number rows. If a tile already lies on a bridge space, then later in the game the adjacent tile in the neighbouring number row may also be placed.

Example: Luisa is up. The yellow 18 is already on the board, so she may place the red 18 next to it.

3. Bridge Bonus

On four bridges a bonus tile is pictured in the middle. For each bonus tile symbol the following applies: if a player places the first tile on one of the spaces adjacent to the bonus tile symbol, they immediately draw a tile from the bag and place it face up on the corresponding place on the game board.

Example: Philipp places his grey 13 on the space in the yellow row. Since it is adjacent to a bonus tile symbol, he must immediately draw another tile from the bag and place it on the game board (red 16). The first placement rule does not apply here. André is next. If he were now to place a 13 in the red row, he would not get a bridge bonus.

Note: When placing the bonus tile, the first placement rule does not have to be observed!

Afterwards the player can play further tiles from their tile holder, if they have not yet placed three tiles beforehand. The added bonus tile therefore does not count toward the 3-tile placement limit per turn.

4. Passing a Tile

If, during their turn, a player places two adjacent tiles within a number row (joker tiles and tiles that came into play in this turn through a bridge bonus count too), then at the end of their turn they may once pass any tile from their tile holder, face down, to their left neighbour, who must stand it in their own tile holder.

No Suitable Tile?

If a player cannot place any of their tiles, they must draw a tile from the bag up to 3 times. As soon as a drawn tile can be placed, they must place it on the game board and can then place up to two more of their own tiles (3-tile placement limit). Afterwards the next player is up.

Note: A player who can place a drawn tile on the game board may not draw any further tiles afterwards!

If there are no tiles left in the bag:

• and a player can no longer place any tile, they must pass.
• no bridge bonus can be triggered any more.

End of the Game

The game ends immediately when a player has got rid of their last tile (this can also happen through 4. Passing a tile!). This player has won. The other players receive, for each tile in their tile holders, as many minus points as the value shown on the tile.

Tip: For a longer game, simply play as many rounds as there are players! Whoever has the fewest minus points at the end has won the game.

Variant

All rules remain in effect and are supplemented as follows.

Setup

Put the 8 symbol tiles into the bag together with the other tiles before each player draws their own tiles.

Course of Play

The symbol spaces are located on the game board at the ends of the number rows. The matching symbol tiles can only be placed when the adjacent tile is already on the board.

Explanation: For each symbol tile there are thus two ways to place it, namely once next to the 1 and once next to the 20.

If a player places a symbol tile, they may then immediately place any one of their number or joker tiles on the game board without having to observe the placement rules. This number tile does not count toward the 3-tile placement limit.

Note: If you place two adjacent tiles in order to pass a tile to the next player, only number and joker tiles count when placing! Symbol tiles may, however, certainly be passed on to the next player.

End of the Game

Each symbol tile that has not been placed by the end of the game counts 11 minus points.