Undercover in Europa
Undercover in Europa Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 1 game board
- 47 country cards
- 73 question cards
- 36 guess stones (in 6 colours, each set consisting of 1 large and 5 small stones)
Paper and a pencil are needed to record the points.
Setup
The game board is placed in the middle of the table. Each player chooses a colour and takes his 6 guess stones (1 large and 5 small).
The cards are separated into country cards and question cards. Both decks are shuffled face down and placed next to the game board.
The player who most recently travelled becomes the starting player of the first round.
The Country Cards
The country cards show the following information:
- Name of the country
- National flag
- Capital city
- Vehicle registration code (Autokennzeichen)
- Area in km², with the country's rank in the world ranking of all countries on Earth
- Population, with the country's rank in the world ranking of all countries on Earth
Object of the Game
In each round the other players try to find out where the undercover player is hiding. Each player who places a guess stone on the correct country scores points. The player who has collected the most points at the end wins.
The Game
The game is played over several rounds. The role of the undercover player passes clockwise after each round. In the first round, the starting player is the undercover player.
Laying Out the Country Cards and Going Undercover
At the start of each round, the stack of all country cards is shuffled. 16 cards are laid out face up around the game board.
No more than 4 cards of one colour may be face up. If a 5th card of one colour is drawn, it goes back under the stack.
Once all 16 cards are face up, the player who is going undercover in this round secretly chooses one of the laid-out countries without giving his fellow players any hint as to which country it is. This is the country the other players must work out in this round. For later checking, the country may also be written down on a sheet of paper.
Questions from the Other Players
The player to the left of the undercover player takes the top question card from the stack and reads the question on it aloud. The role of reader passes clockwise after each question.
Note: if the question is about the other players, the reader replaces the "X" in the question with the name of a player in the round, except the undercover player.
The undercover player then answers the question with "Yes", "No", "I am not sure", "Probably", or something similar.
All question cards of a round are laid out next to the game board, so that the players can keep track of which questions the undercover player has already answered in this round.
Guessing
After each question, all players may guess a country they believe the undercover player is in. To do so, they place one of their guess stones on a laid-out country card. The player who read the last question begins placing stones. A player does not have to place one of his stones if he does not want to.
Any number of stones may be placed on one country card, including several from the same player.
Note: each player has one large guess stone. In scoring, this stone is worth 2 points.
End of the Round
A round can end in one of two ways.
The undercover player is discovered. Once all players have had the opportunity to place a guess stone, if 6 or more guess stones lie on the correct country, the undercover player must reveal himself.
The undercover player is not discovered. In any case, the round ends after the 12th question card. The undercover player reveals himself and tells his fellow players which country he was in.
Scoring
In both cases, points are awarded to all players who placed their guess stones on the correct country. Each small guess stone is worth 1 point; the large guess stone is worth 2 points.
Example (from the rulebook): the correct country is Turkey. Red receives 3 points, Yellow and Black each receive 2 points, and Green receives 1 point.
The points are recorded and totalled after each round.
New Round
All country cards are shuffled again. The question cards already used are placed on a discard pile. When the stack of question cards is used up, the discard pile is shuffled and becomes the new draw stack.
The role of the undercover player passes to the next player clockwise.
End of the Game
The game ends:
- with 5 or 6 players, once every player has been undercover once;
- with 3 or 4 players, once every player has been undercover twice.
The player who has collected the most points is the winner. If there is a tie, there are several winners.
Variants
Changing the number of country cards, or selecting certain question cards, can make the game easier or harder for the seekers.
Fewer Country Cards
For an easier game, only 12 countries (instead of 16) are laid out at the start of a round. Care must be taken that no more than 3 cards of one colour are laid out.
Removing Question Cards
The more question cards about the country are in the stack, the easier it becomes for the seekers to identify the undercover player.
For a more demanding game, the players remove part of the question cards about the country at the start of the game.
Notes
- The question cards are described in the rulebook as "questions about the country" (Frage über das Land) and "questions about the players" (Frage über die Mitspieler). The rulebook's sample question card reads: "Is the country known for its winter sports areas?"
- The rulebook's sample country card for Spain shows the name, flag, capital (Madrid), registration code (E), area (504,645 km², rank 50), and population (44,879,000, rank 28).
- Inconsistency in the source: the introductory text says the hidden player answers only YES or NO, while the rules section says he answers "Yes", "No", "I am not sure", "Probably", or something similar. Both are transcribed as printed.
- Source note printed in the rulebook: data are taken from the Fischer Weltalmanach 2009; figures from other or newer sources may differ.