Strato
Strato Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Material
- 54 Weather cards
- 6 Tornado cards
- 10 Challenge cards
- 6 Player aid cards
- 16 Tiles
Goal of the Game
As a team, manipulate the weather to overcome the challenges you are set.
Example of a Challenge Card
A. Current level B. Weather in play C. Victory condition D. Maximum number of cards that can be lined up along each half-row. E. Number of lines that must fulfil the victory condition.
Setup
- Select the challenge card of your choice. We recommend you start with the first one, number 0.
- Take the player aid and tornado cards with the same weather as the weather shown on the current challenge card. Place the tornado cards in pairs in the middle of the table. If you have more than 2 kinds of weather, randomly place a right-hand tornado with a left-hand tornado on as many different rows as the row limit you are given. You can also vary the composition of each tornado to make things different each time.
- Take the weather cards that are the same as those shown on your chosen challenge card. Shuffle them and randomly place 2 cards on either side of each tornado card. You mustn't have 2 cards next to each other showing the same weather; whether it's a weather or a tornado card, it has to be next to a card showing a different kind of weather. When you only have 2 kinds of weather, you automatically end up with the setup shown on the next page of these instructions.
- Deal 2 cards to each player (take 3 if you're playing on your own).
- Underneath the tornado cards, lay out the tiles to reflect the maximum card limit in the challenge (if the card limit is 6 in each half-row, lay out 6 tiles for each half-row). This helps you keep track of your progress.
- Choose the first player.
Example Setups
Challenge 0 setup (diagram): a single row of six cards with a pair of tornado cards in the middle, with the tile track underneath.
Example of challenge 1 setup (diagram): two rows of six cards each, with a pair of tornado cards in the middle of each row, with the tile track underneath.
Reminder: the cards should be placed randomly with the only constraint being that the tornado must be in the middle and must have a left and right part, and that all cards must never be adjacent to another card with the same weather.
How to Play
Take it in turns to play 1 card at one end of a row and immediately activate the effects of this weather card (the effects are explained in the Weather Actions table below). At the end of your turn, draw a new card.
When you play a card, you must follow these rules:
- The target of the action cannot be the card that has just been played.
- Tornadoes can never be moved.
- Actions must change something. For example, you cannot swap 2 identical cards, as this would not change anything.
- An empty space in a row must always be filled after an action; if there is an empty space, simply move the cards in the direction of the tornado. This also applies to the card that has just been played.
- You can always make room for a card that has just been inserted by moving the other cards towards the outside of the row. This also applies to the card that has just been played.
Weather Actions
| Weather | Action |
|---|---|
| Wind | Take a card from the row where you just placed the wind and move it somewhere else in the same row, swapping in a direction away from the wind. Ensure you are definitely changing the situation. |
| Rain | After placing the rain card, take the card from the opposite end of that same row. Insert it next to any tornado card in that row. |
| Sun | After placing the sun card, take a card from that same row and put it in the discard pile. |
| Fog | Swap 2 cards that are in the same column. A card can also be swapped with an empty space as long as it's in the same column. It does not matter which row of the column you place the fog card in. |
| Cloud | A cloud card copies the action of the last card played. Apply the same action, as if the cloud card had the same weather as the last card played. If you start the game with a cloud card, nothing happens (no action). |
| Storm | Swap 2 cards at the end of a row. |
Redraw!
Instead of playing a card from your hand, you can try your luck. Discard all the cards in your hand, and play the first card from the draw pile. Place it down immediately and apply the action.
Note: you must announce where you're going to place the card before revealing it.
After you have redrawn cards like this, refill the rest of your hand. So a redraw means that multiple cards will be used up.
Empty Draw Pile
Continue to play with the cards you have left in your hand until a player can no longer play. The discard pile is never shuffled to form a new deck.
Discussion
You cannot show your cards or name them to other players. You can, however, talk about the tactics you need to use to succeed in the game, which row is the one where you plan to fulfil the victory condition or where you want to place your card this turn.
End of the Game
Victory!
At the end of a player's turn, if the victory conditions have been met without exceeding the card limit number on either side of the tornado cards, you win the game!
Defeat!
A. If, at the end of a player's turn, you have more cards than the card limit number on either side of a tornado card. B. If the draw pile is empty, and one of you has no more cards in your hand.
Try again, you might find you get the right strategy at the right moment this time.
Challenges
In each of these examples, there can of course be other cards to the left and right of the combination while remaining under the card limit.
Challenge 0: The challenge is to get 4 rain cards adjacent to the rain tornado and 4 wind cards adjacent to the wind tornado.
Challenge 1: The challenge is to get the following row: 3 winds and 2 rains next to the rain Tornado card, and 2 winds and 3 rains next to the wind tornado card.
Challenge 2: The starting tornadoes can be one of the pairs shown on the challenge card (the printed page shows two groups of starting tornado pairs, separated by "or"). In the second case, you need to get the following combination (shown as two rows of eight cards, each with a tornado in the fifth position).
Challenge 3: This is one possible solution: (the printed page shows one solution as two rows of twelve cards, each with a tornado in the middle).
We've Got All the Way to Level 9, So Now What?
Levels 0 and 1 are simply introductory levels for learning the rules and becoming familiar with the game. Levels 2 to 9, on the other hand, are more complex because the starting setup changes all the time.
Try to win levels 2 to 9 in one go!