How to play
- Everyone races a boat across the pond. Reach exactly 1000 m to finish the trip (700 m when three boats race). With four players, partners sitting opposite share a boat.
- On your turn, take a card, then play one card or throw one away. You hold six cards between turns.
- Distance cards (25 to 200 m) move your boat, but only while you’re paddling: you need a Green flag first. You can play at most two 200s a hand.
- Trouble cards go on a rival who is paddling: a Snag, being Tired, a Leak or a Red flag stop them until they play the fix (Untangle, Snack, Patch or a Green flag). After any fix they need a Green flag to paddle again. Shallows limit them to 50 m cards until they play Deep water.
- Safeties protect your boat for the rest of the hand: Expert paddler against snags, Packed lunch against tiredness, Sturdy hull against leaks, and Right of way against red flags and shallows (you never need a Green flag again). Playing a safety gives you another turn.
- Counter: if a rival hits you with trouble while you hold its safety, you can play it at once. The trouble is thrown away, you score 300 and it becomes your turn.
- A hand ends when a boat finishes the trip or nobody has a card left. Each boat scores its metres, 100 per safety (700 for all four) and 300 per counter. Finishing scores 400 more, plus 300 if the deck had run out, 300 without any 200s, and 500 if no rival moved at all.
- Play one hand, or keep dealing until someone reaches 5000.
Tips
Green flags are the most common card, but they still run short: keep one. Save your trouble for the leader, and for when they’re paddling. Holding a safety rather than playing it is a gamble: it might win you a counter, but a safety still in your hand when the hand ends scores nothing.