How to play
Everyone builds their own patch of countryside out of hexagon tiles. Each tile is one habitat (reeds, meadow, woods, pebbles or pond) and shows one to three animals that may live on it.
The market has four tiles, each paired with an animal. On your turn, take a pair:
- Put the tile next to your patch, touching at least one of your tiles.
- Put the animal on any empty tile in your patch that shows it, or put it back. Each tile holds one animal.
A tile that shows only one animal has a dashed ring. Putting that animal on it earns a seed, worth a point at the end. You can also spend a seed to take any tile with any animal instead of a pair. When three or four animals in the market are the same, they’re swapped for new ones.
Everyone takes 20 turns.
Scoring
- Ducks: groups of exactly two. 1, 2, 3 or 4 pairs score 4, 11, 19 or 27.
- Frogs: straight lines. A line of 1, 2, 3 or 4+ frogs scores 2, 5, 9 or 13.
- Fish: runs where no fish touches more than two others. 1 to 7+ fish score 2, 5, 8, 12, 16, 20 or 25.
- Herons: herons with no heron next to them. 1 to 8 score 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 18, 22 or 26.
- Turtles: each scores a point for every kind of animal next to it, turtles included.
- Habitats: your largest group of each habitat scores a point a tile. Whoever has the largest of each gets 3 more (2 with two players, 1 each on a tie). Playing alone, a group of 7 or more gets 2 more.
- Seeds: a point each. A tie goes to whoever has more seeds.
Tips
Animals and habitats pull in different directions, so pick a couple of animals to chase and let the others go back. Herons and turtles fit in the gaps; ducks and frogs want planning.