Sandbox

From Wikicarpedia
Revision as of 20:17, 17 July 2019 by Meepledrone (talk | contribs) (Updated)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Main Page > Safari > Sandbox

Safari cover.png

General info and comments

Originally released by Hans im Glück in 2018.

Africa swelters under the blazing sun, but an adventure on the savanna beckons! Monkeys swing in the trees, lions repose in the shade, and the ground shakes under the thunderous footfalls of elephants. While animals one and all gather at the watering holes, trek out into the bush, lie in wait, and see the majesty of nature unfold!

Overview and goal of the game

Players take turns placing land tiles, expanding the savanna and discovering bush, animal trails, and baobab trees. You place meeples in the bush or on animal trails and complete them to score points for the different animals present, and lay meeples on baobab trees to draw new animal tiles. Animal tiles can score additional points or can be used to dig watering holes in the savanna. Players score points throughout the game as well as at the end of the game. The player with the highest score after final scoring wins.

Components and setup

Components

  • 72 Landscape tiles depicting the savanna landscape, animal trails, baobab trees, and the bush where animals congregate.
Tile with animal trail and lion
Tile with elephant in the bush, and baobab tree in the savanna
Tile with bush (including birds), as well as a zebra and a lion on trails
Land tile backs - All tiles share the same back
  • 50 animal / watering hole tiles depicting the five different large animals. Each animal is represented

on ten tiles. These can be used to boost score. Four animal tiles can be connected to create a watering hole.

Animal tokens
Example of complete watering hole
  • Scoreboard - place it off to the side of the play area
  • 5 scoring markers showing 50 and 100 - put them next to the scoreboard
Scoring marker with 50 points on its front
Scoring marker with 100 points on its back
  • 30 meeples, six in each of the following colors: yellow, red, green, blue and black - Each player chooses a color and takes the six meeples to form their personal supply.
Meeples
  • 5 elephants, one in each player's color - put them on the 0 space of the scoreboard
Elephants
Elephants on the scoreboard
  • 2 white ranger vehicles - these are two neutral figures referred to as "rangers" throughout the rules
Ranger

Return all unused meeples and elephants to the box.

Setup

Shuffle all 72 land tiles, and place them facedown in stacks that are easily accessible to all players. [1]

Land tile stacks

Place the start tile (the tile the size of three land tiles) in the middle of the table.

Place the triple sized start tile in the middle of the table. The white rangers do not belong to any player and should be placed next to the start tile as shown below.

Start tile with Rangers

Shuffle all 50 animal tokens and distribute two to each player. Each player puts them face up in front of them. Shuffle the rest of them and put them aside, face down. It is much more convenient to put the animal tokens into a small bag and draw them randomly as required.

Animal tokens facing down

Gameplay

A game of Carcassonne: Safari is played in clockwise order. It is common practice to choose starting player at random or simply choose the youngest player. More on this in house rules section. The active player does the following actions in the order listed below, after which it is the next player’s turn, and so on and so forth. First, we’ll give you a brief description of the actions you have to do during one of your turns. These actions will be explained as we describe the paths, bush, baobabs, Ranger cars and waterholes.


1: Placing a Land tile

The player must draw exactly 1 Land tile from the top of any stack and place it face-up to continue the landscape.
Safari Rules Gameplay Place Land Tile.png

2: Action

The player may carry out one of three possible actions:
Place a meeple from his/her supply onto the tile just placed Safari Rules Gameplay Place Meeple.png
Move one of the two Rangers Safari Rules Gameplay Move Ranger.png
Begin or expand a watering hole Safari Rules Gameplay Place Animal Tile.png

3: Scoring

The player must score any feature completed by the tile placement. The resulting points are applied to the player's elephant on the scoreboard. Safari Rules Gameplay Score Points.png

The paths

Placing a Land tile

When a player draws a tile which contains a path segment, it must be placed in such a way that it continues the existing landscape (the tiles already in play). In the rare case that a tile cannot legally be placed anywhere, it is removed from the game, and the player draws another.

Red has drawn tile with red border. Path fits to the one already on the table


Placing a meeple on a path

After placing the Land tile, the player may place a meeple on one of that tile’s path segments, but only if the road is unoccupied by another meeple.

In our example, since the road is not yet completed, no scoring occurs (see action 3) and play moves on to the next player.

Red places a meeple onto the path


Scoring a path

When both ends of a path are closed, that road is completed and scored. The end of a road is closed when it meets a bush or it loops onto itself by meeting the other end.

Even though it is an opponent that placed the tile, this still completes your path. Scoring a path depends on the number of animal types. The number of points can be found in the table below and on the scoring track

Number of animal types  1 2 3 4 5
Points  1 3 6 10 15

The total number of animals on the path does not matter, only the number of different species. After scoring, return the player's meeple to their resources.

Blue player finished your path. There are three species of animals. Red player receives six points.

Additional points

To get additional points during path scoring a player can use exactly one animal token to increase the number of species on the path. Naturally this has to be a different species than those already on the path.

In the example above, there are three animals - elephant, zebra and giraffe. If the player adds a lion from his/her resources,there would be four species and the player would gain 10 points.

Used animal tokens are put aside, face-up. Whenever new tokens need to be acquired and there are no more face-down tokens available, take the face-up tokens and shuffle them to create a new, face-down, pool.

It is now time to note the player's score. The player's score is tracked with the elephants placed on the scoreboard before starting the game. Each time, after scoring points for a feature, the player returns his/her meeples from the scored area (if it is completed) to their supply. If a player's score exceeds 50 points, he/she receives the 50 score token, which is flipped when the player receives over 100 points.

Safari Rules Animal Path Example 03c.jpg

The Bush

Placing a Land tile

When a player draws a tile containing an area of bush, the tile must be used to continue the landscape. As with other landscape features, the illustration must match the tiles it is to be placed against. For example, a bush segment must be connected to another bush segment.

Example of a tile with a bush segment (lower right portion of tile)


Placing a meeple

Then, the player can put his meeple in the bush on the newly placed tile (if there are no meeples on any connected area of bush).

Red player places the tile so that the bush is extended. It was not already occupied, so Red can put a meeple there.


Scoring a bush

If, later in the game, a player places a tile so that the bush is closed, points can be scored for it. Bush is considered closed if there are no empty holes inside it (missing tiles). If there is at least one meeple in a closed bush its' owner can score points for it. Scoring an area of bush depends on the number of animal types. The number of points can be found in the table below and on the scoring track.

Number of animal types  1 2 3 4 5
Points  1 3 6 10 15

Additional points

When scoring points for areas of bush, a player may use exactly one of their animal tokens to boost the score (for animal diversity).

Additionally, every bird Safari Rules Bushes Bird.jpg flying over the bush grants 1 additional point. After scoring return the meeple from the bush to the player's resources.

Red adds another tile to close that area of bush. In Red's bush there is a giraffe and an ape.Red adds a zebra animal token - now there are three species, so Red gets 6 points. Additionally, there are three birds, so that adds up to 9 points in total.

Baobab

Placing a Land tile

When a player draws a tile containing a baobab, the tile must be used to continue the landscape. Baobabs are always depicted in the center of a tile. As with other landscape features, the illustration must match the tiles it is to be placed against.

Example of a baobab tile


Placing a meeple

A player can place a meeple on a baobab. If so, the player draws two animal tokens and puts them, face up, in front of themselves.

Player places a baobab and can put a meeple on the baobab and gain two animal tokens.


Getting animal tokens

A baobab is completed when it is surrounded by tiles (surrounded by 8 tiles). The player whose meeple is on the baobab tile can draw two animal tokens and get the meeple back. Unlike completing a path or area of bush, the player gets no points for completing a baobab, just the animal tokens.

The Red player's baobab is surrounded from all sides. Red gets the meeple back and receives two animal tokens.

Interim rule - note on interim rules

{{{rules}}}

Ranger car

There are two ways to move the Ranger, but this is dependent on whether the tile being placed is in a location where the Ranger is already located. One of them provides points (see option A below), the other does not (option B).

Option A

A1. Placing a Land tile

The player places the drawn tile according to the standard rules. If this is on one of the places where a Ranger car is located, the player must take the ranger car and add it to their resources.

Pushing away a ranger by placing a tile


A2. Placing a meeple

The player can then place a meeple on any unoccupied feature on the placed tile.

Placing a meeple


A3. Scoring

The player scores points for any completed features. For removing the Ranger from the table (A1) the player receives 3 points. The player must then place the Ranger back on the table in an open space next to any tile.

Ranger Scoring


Option B

B1. Placing a Land tile

A tile is placed to extend the landscape where there is no Ranger.

Safari Rules Ranger Example 01a.png


B2. Not placing a meeple

If the player decides not to put a meeple on to the placed tile this turn, one of the two Rangers may be moved to a different "space" adjacent to any existing tile.

Safari Rules Ranger Example 02a.png


B3. Scoring

The player gains no points.


Note: In one turn you can move only one Ranger. If you removed the Ranger from the board (A1) by placing a tile on its place, you can only move that one to another location, even if you do not place a meeple on the tile Two Rangers cannot be placed on the same space.

Waterhole

Animal tokens can be used not only to boost score but also to create or expand waterholes in the savanna.

Placing a Land tile

Place a drawn tile according to the standard rules.


Create or expand a waterhole

Create a waterhole

Instead of placing a meeple on the newly placed tile, a player can create a (new) waterhole. To do this, the player places one animal token from their supply in an empty corner of any tile (not necessarily the one just placed). An empty corner is one with just savanna (small patches of grass or shrubs are not an obstruction) - not bush. The corner of the animal token must always fit the corner of the tile. Next, the player must put a meeple on this waterhole when starting it, so cannot start a waterhole without having an available meeple.

The player immediately receives 3 points when creating a new waterhole.

Red player places a tile to expand the path. Because the player does not place a meeple, they can create a new waterhole to score 3 points.

Expanding a waterhole

Instead of placing a meeple on a newly placed tile, the player can expand an existing waterhole. The player places an animal token in the empty corner of any tile (ie Savanna) so it is adjacent to a previously placed waterhole token.

Note: No more than one animal token of the same species can be in the same waterhole. When expanding a waterhole by placing an adjacent animal token it must be a different species to one already present.

The player scores points depending on which animal token it is for that waterhole:

  • 1st animal token: 3 points
  • 2nd animal token: 4 points
  • 3rd animal token: 5 points
  • 4th animal token: 6 points
Red places a tile to expand path. Because Red does not place a meeple, the existing zebra and giraffe waterhole can be expanded with an ape animal token. This is the third different animal token, so the player gets 5 points.

Special case

A player can create a new waterhole facing (diagonally) an existing one. Because animal tokens are not touching each other at this point, the player can put a meeple there. When the waterhole is finished, there will be two meeples on it. Both will score points. In that case there can be two of the same species in one waterhole.

Red places the animal token and starts a new waterhole. Because it does not connect with the existing waterhole, started by blue, it can also contain giraffe animal token.

Interim rule - note on interim rules

{{{rules}}}


Completing waterhole

After placing the fourth (last) animal token, the waterhole is finished. It's owner gains 3 points and returns the meeple to their resources.

If two players have meeples on this waterhole, both get 3 points.

If both meeples belong to the same player, that player only gets 3 points.

Red places a tile but does not put a meeple on it. Instead the player decides to complete the waterhole. Red gets 6 points (for the 4th animal token placement). Blue gets 3 points (as owner) and gets their meeple back.

Summary

Placing a Land tile

  • You must place your drawn tile in such a way that it continues the landscape and the illustration.
  • In some very rare cases, it may be impossible to place the tile. In those cases, simply return the tile to the box and draw a new one.
  • If a player places the tile where a Ranger is located, the player moves the Ranger to their supply.


Placing a meeple

  • You may place a meeple on the Land tile you’ve just placed.
  • If the meeple is placed on a baobab, the player receives two animal tokens.
  • If the player does not place a meeple, the player can start building a waterhole. Player immediately gains 3 points if he does.
  • If the player does not place a meeple, the Ranger can be moved to another location.


Scoring a feature

  • Scoring always occurs at the end of a player’s turn. At that moment, each player with a meeple in a scored feature earns points. After each scoring, any scored meeples are returned to your supply.
  • Removing Ranger from the board grants 3 points (by placing tile in place where Ranger figure is).
  • Completed paths are counted, according to the number of species on it.
  • Completed bush is counted, according to the number of species on it plus 1 point for every bird symbol.
  • Completed baobab grants 2 animal tokens.
  • Completed waterhole grants 3 points.
  • If there are multiple meeples in a single scored feature, the player with the most meeples is awarded full points and all other players receive nothing. When more than one player has the most meeples in a scored feature, the tied players all score full points.

Game end and final scoring

The game ends immediately after the turn of the player who placed the last tile. Then, players proceed to a final scoring, after which the winner will be known.

Once the game is over, all meeples still in play are scored:

  • Each incomplete path and bush are worth 1 point per animal and bird symbol (individual species are not taken into consideration),
  • Each animal token in the player's supply is worth 1 point,
  • Meeples placed on incomplete baobab are worth nothing,
  • Meeples placed on incomplete waterholes are worth nothing.
Final scoring
A: Blue does not get points for meeple on baobab.
B: Red gets 2 points (two animals on path).
C: Red and Blue own meeples in bush. Because Red has majority in this feature, only Red receives points - 4 points for animal icons and six for birds, 10 in total.
D: Blue receives 2 points for ape and bird in bush.
E: Red receives 3 points for animal tokens in their supply.

Once the final score is known, the winner is the player with the most points. The rules do not include tiebreakers. That is, rules explaining the situation when two or more players share the same score at the end of the game.

Special cases

Multiple meeples on the same feature

It is forbidden to put a meeple on an already occupied feature. It may happen that after joining two features, there will be more than one meeple on it. If one of the players gains majority (has more meeples than one or more opponents), that player gets all the points and the opponents get nothing. If two or more players have the same number of meeples, they all get full number of points.


Before placing the new tile blue and red have their meeples on two separate paths. After placing the tile those features join, creating one completed feature with four animal species (ape, lion, giraffe and elephant). Red decides to add a zebra animal token and receives 15 points. Blue does not add an animal token and receives 10 points.
Before placing the new tile, three meeples are located on three separate bush features. After placing the tile all features join creating one completed bush. Red decides not to use an additional animal token so scores 11 points (6 points for 3 species and 5 points for birds). Blue does not get any points.

Use of a Table

A number of questions have been asked about rules related to the play area itself, including what happens when the edge of the area is reached, or if a table has to be used for play. The following clarifications are from Georg Wild from HiG (5/2013):

  • The edge of the table is the limit for the game if, as stated in the rules, a table is used.
  • The rules state that the starting tile is placed in the middle of the table. If all of the tiles are shifted to allow more room, the starting tile would no longer be in the middle. So in principle, total shifting of the tiles is not allowed. Additionally, with a manual shift of all of the tiles, the tiles and figures on the field can slip, which could lead to incorrect positioning of tiles or figures.
  • Addition of a second table is possible if one of an appropriate height is added to the first table. If a table is extended (as with an additional panel), make sure that the tiles and figures on the playing field do not slip.
  • Playing on the floor: The rules technically do not allow this, because the rules state that the first tile is placed in the middle of the table. Playing on the floor is not forbidden, however, if use of a table is not feasible. If the floor is used, tiles must be placed so all tiles are visible to all players. Tiles cannot be placed under the sofa, cabinet/shelf, etc.
  • It is important generally, that all the players in the round agree how to play:
    • Table - Standard
    • Table - with "total shifting" of tiles
    • Table - with extension
    • Floor
  • Continue to play fairly and not intentionally unfair to other players.

Tile reference

Total Land Tiles: 72 Tiles + 1 Start Tile

link={{{link}}}  x2
- | -
link={{{link}}}  x1
E
link={{{link}}}  x4
E | G | G | Z
link={{{link}}}  x3
A | E | L
link={{{link}}}  x1
L
link={{{link}}}  x4
A | A | E | L
link={{{link}}}  x5
E | G | G | L | Z
link={{{link}}}  x1
AA
link={{{link}}}  x1
AA
link={{{link}}}  x2
LL | ZZ
link={{{link}}}  x3
GG | ZZ | ZZ
link={{{link}}}  x1
Z
link={{{link}}}  x2
G | Z
link={{{link}}}  x3
A | AE | ZZ
link={{{link}}}  x1
AE
link={{{link}}}  x1
Z
link={{{link}}}  x1
G
link={{{link}}}  x1
EL
link={{{link}}}  x1
EGG
link={{{link}}}  x5
A | A | G | L | Z
link={{{link}}}  x4
E | L | Z | -
link={{{link}}}  x1
L
link={{{link}}}  x1
AEE
link={{{link}}}  x1
EEL
link={{{link}}}  x3
AL | AL | L
link={{{link}}}  x5
EE | EG | EZ | LL | LZ
link={{{link}}}  x2
AG | AL
link={{{link}}}  x2
G | Z
link={{{link}}}  x1
E
link={{{link}}}  x4
G | G | L | Z
link={{{link}}}  x1
LZ
link={{{link}}}  x1
GG
link={{{link}}}  x3
A | A | G
link={{{link}}}  x1
AEG (Start Tile)

If several tiles of one type are present, it is listed which and how many animals are on each one.

The individual tiles are separated by a pipe symbol. Birds are not listed.

A = ape | E = elephant | G = giraffe | L = lion | Z = zebra | "-" = no animal


Total Animal tokens: 50

link={{{link}}}  x10 A
link={{{link}}}  x10 E
link={{{link}}}  x10 G
link={{{link}}}  x10 L
link={{{link}}}  x10 Z

Letters indicate the animal included on each Land tile:

A = ape | E = elephant | G = giraffe | L = lion | Z = zebra


Total 50/100 scoring tokens: 5

link={{{link}}}  x5
  1. Interpretation from the Community Tiles can also be placed into a bag or box to be drawn randomly.