Published by Bambus Spieleverlag
Translated by Ken Tidwell
A game of tactics for 2 players.
A game board depicting twelve islands. Positions where the islands may be connected by bridges are indicated on the board.
In a dramatic card duel, two players struggle for predominance over a small archipelago. Card play decides where bridges may be placed. When a player occupies the majority of the bridge places of an island with bridges of his color, they may remove the bridges of their opponent from that island. Inevitably this changes the majority situations on the neighboring islands.
At three points in the game, players receive points for the islands they control. The player with the most points after the third scoring wins the game.
Each player receives the bridges and island stones of his color. The island cards are shuffled. Each player receives three cards as their hand. Three more cards are laid aside face up beside the game board. The remaining cards are stacked face down beside these.
Decide which player will begin.
On their turn a player may play any number of cards. At the end of their turn, however, only one card is drawn. The player may choose to take one of the face up cards or take the top card from the face down stack. If a face up card is chosen, replace it by drawing the top card from the face down stack and placing it face up.
Players must draw a card and may not pass on this step of their turn. However, a player may never hold more than five cards in their hand. If a player holds five cards and has no useful cards to play, they may choose to discard (face down) one or more cards before drawing one new card.
When a player plays several cards consecutively, each card is basicly considered separately before the next card is played (exception: see Removing and Swapping of Bridges). Drawing ends the player's turn.
A player who plays an island card may place one of his bridges on any empty bridge place between this island and an any neighboring island, providing that the player does not already control both islands.
A player controls an island if they have occupied an absolute majority of the bridge places on that island with bridges of their color. The controlling player removes all bridges of the opposing player that lie on this island, and marks the island with one of their island stones.
On an island with 3 bridge places (Ikibiti, Mosedam), a player must have 2 bridges on the island.
On an island with 4 or 5 bridge places (Arabana, Barilub, Cocotac, Elamite, Fafnuff, Garanig, Hunisch, Krapink, Lusepil), a player must have 3 bridges on the island.
On the island with 6 bridge places (Danidad), a player must have 4 bridges on the island.
An antagonistic bridge may be removed not only by acquiring of the absolute majority on the islands concerned, but also through the playing of a suitable pair of cards. A pair of cards is suitable if both cards depict the islands connected by the bridge.
Example: The connection Hunisch-Garanig is covered by a player A's bridge. Player B could remove this bridge by playing any of the following pairs of cards: Hunisch-Hunisch, Garanig-Garanig or Hunisch-Garanig.
If the oppossing player does not control both of the islands previously connected by the bridge after removing the bridge islands, the player that played the pair of cards places a bridge on the bridge place that was freed up.
In the previous example, player B would put a bridge between Hunisch and Garanig, if player A no longer possesses an absolute majority on both of these islands.
When the stacks of cards is depleted and all of the face up cards have been taken, count the number of islands each player controls. The player with the most islands under their control makes a note of the difference between the number of islands they control and the number of islands their opponent controls. Their opponent recieves no points for that scoring. The results of the second and third scorings are added to this total.
After the first and second scorings the discards are shuffled. Three of them are placed beside the game board face up. The rest are once again stacked face down beside them. The players keep the cards that remained in their hands at the time of the previous scoring . All previously placed bridges also remain on the game board.
The third scoring is similar to the first except that after the last card is drawn both players have the opportunity play cards one last time.
Normally, the game ends after the third scoring. The player with the most island points wins the game. The game ends prematurely in the second or third round as soon as either player has no more bridges on the game board. In this event, the player who still has bridges on the board wins.
If the two players are not equally matched, one may take a handicap: Before or even during the playing of the cards, the weaker player may place one to three bridges for free. Or the weaker player may receive more cards at the start of the game and/or their hand size may be increased by one card.
If you play several games or form a tournament, assign points as follows:
| Tie | 2 : 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Simple Victory | 3 : 1 | |
| Victory by Premature Ending | ||
| Victory in the third round | 4 : 0 | |
| Victory in the second round | 5 : 0 | |
The results of the individual games can provide an additional scoring criteria (the island points then correspond to the goal differences in soccer). The winner in a game with a premature end in the third round is awarded 12 additional points and in the second round 24 additional island points.
At the start of the game one should think twice when adding cards to your hand. It is best to pick up cards for the islands neighboring the islands on the cards you already have so you can score better in that region.
If you cannot use the face up cards, there is a large probability that there is something useful on the face down stack. Drawing cards from the face down stack, however, also gives your opponent no information about your hand. That is especially important just after you have played out all of your cards when your opponent can easily keep track of which cards you are collecting.
From the very beginning of the game you should attempt to control islands. If you control several neighboring islands, you are harder to attack.
Little islands like Ikibiti and Mosedam are easier to control. However, if you take the card of a bigger island you will have more options when placing bridges (Ikibiti: 3, Danidad: 6).
The sequence in which the cards are played is also very important. You can steal control of a neighboring island by leading a card and subsequently launch further attacks from that newly controlled island.
It costs two cards to remove a bridge, however it will only cost your adversary one card to put a bridge there again. Therefore, you should normally only remove bridges when it brings an instantaneous advantage, e.g.: you can place a new bridge there or elsewhere; you would otherwise need to pointlessly discard the cards.
If you place several bridges on an island but cannot maintain control without them, your opponent may remove them on their next turn. It is always important to be aware of which cards your opponent has picked up.
You should watch for the turn just before the first and second scorings when there are only two cards left to pick up since this will be your last chance to play cards before the scores are figured.
Since all modern games should have a seafaring expansion, Arabana-Ikibiti has a
The variation is played with usual game materials. However, the island stones are used as ships and an overveiw of the board is necessary.
If a player plays the cards of three islands which border the same sea space, they may place a ship in that sea space. (Example: Krapink-Hunisch-Elamite. If you play Hunisch-Hunisch-Elamite, you may choose to place a ship on the sea space Krapink-Hunisch-Elamite or at Danidad-Hunisch-Elamite.) The ship counts as a bridge to each of the three neighboring islands. Important: A new ship could not only change the majority situations on those islands, but also the number of the bridges required to hold the absolute majority.
If a player does not play any cards on their turn, they may move a ship onto a neighboring sea space, provided that the path to the new sea space is not blocked by a bridge. The player may still draw a card after moving a ship even though they played no cards.
There are three ways to pound antagonistic ships:
1. Playing a ship on the exact spot where your adversary's ship sits. Naturally you must play the corresponding combination of cards.
2. Enclosing the sea space containing your adversary's ship with three of your own bridges.
3. Abstaining from the playing of cards and moving one of your own ships onto the same sea space as your adversary's ship. In this event, both ships are removed.
Pounded ships are removed from the game board.
| Item | Placed using | Influences | Destroyed by | Is exchanged | Mobility |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bridge | 1 card | 2 islands | change in majority | 2 cards | stationary |
| Ship | 3 cards | 3 islands | 3 bridges or ship collisions | 3 cards | movable |