How to play
Each side has a master duck (with a star) and four ducklings on its back row. The master starts on the middle square, its nest.
There are sixteen move cards and five are in play: two for each of you and one at the side. Each card shows a small grid: the dark square is your duck and the colored squares are where it may go. On your turn, pick one of your cards, then one of your ducks, then a square it shows. You can land on an empty square or on a rival duck, which is caught. You can’t land on your own.
The card you used goes to the side, and you take the card that was there. So the card you just used is the one your rival will get next. Your rival’s cards are shown from their side of the board, so you can see where their ducks can reach.
You win by catching the rival master, or by walking your master onto the rival’s nest. If none of your ducks can move, you swap one of your cards without moving. After 200 moves in all, the game is a draw.
Tips
Before you use a card, look at what it would let your rival do next turn. Keep your master guarded but not boxed in: a master that can’t step aside is easy to catch. Trading a duckling for a duckling is fine when it opens a path to the nest.