Green Box of Games

The Gauntlet is a deadly race, where you want to be the first to reach the end while avoiding being hammered by your opponents and pelted with arrows. You have to climb over obstacles using the appropriate cards, keep your shield up at the right time, and maybe find a quiet spot to heal your wounds when necessary.

At a glance:

2-4 players

Playing time: 30 min

Complexity: medium/high

Components used:

• All 36 tiles
• All 54 cards (With 2 players, use only 36 cards. Use the cards with brown and pink backgrounds. This gives you a deck in which each symbol has 6 cards with values from 1 through 6.)
• 4 cubes pr player in their colour
• 1 die

Setup:

Sort the tiles and keep the Arrow, Brick and Lumber tiles face up. Turn the rest face down. Use the tiles to build a track (Gauntlet) for the players to navigate. Build it any way you want, and experiment with different setups for every game.

Place one cube from each player next to the start of the track, give the three other cubes to each player. These are the players Life Points.

Flip through the cards and find one Shield, Brick and Lumber for each player. These cards should have values of 1 or 2, each player receiving two 1’s and one 2. Shuffle the rest of the cards, turn up three cards pr player, and leave the rest face down in a draw pile. (With 2 players, the starting cards should have values of 1, 2 and 3, one card each)

Give the die to the starting player (determined randomly).

Play:

Each turn has 5 phases:

1: Roll the die.

The result is the number of movements each player must perform this turn. If you roll 1 or 2, reroll the die.

2: Draw cards.

Starting with the starting player, and moving clockwise, each player draws two cards face up from the table, and two face down from the deck, for a total of four new cards.

3: Planning.

Each player secretly selects three cards to play this turn. The cards are placed face down on the table, in sequence from left to right. One card from the hand is then discarded, so each player is back to three cards in hand. Put the hand face down on the table.

4: Action phase.

The action phase is divided into three Steps, one for each card. On each Step the players first take up their card, and state which number is on the card. The player with the highest number goes first, then the next highest, and so on. If players have the same number, play start with the starting player and moves clockwise.

The player must now move and perform an action based on the card she has played.

Movement:

You must move at least one space (not diagonally) each step, but if the movement die shows more than 3 you can distribute this movement as you choose between the three steps. You must complete the total number of moves as shown on the die during the turn. On the brown/blank tiles you can move freely. You can never move onto a tile with an Arrow. You can only move onto a tile with Brick og Lumber if you in this Step have played a card with the corresponding symbol.

Actions:

Brick and Lumber cards help you to move, the other cards are different actions. You can choose to perform these actions before or after you have moved.

Swords: Attack!

You strike at an opponent in the same or directly adjacent square. This player loses one life point, unless she has played a Shield in this step.

Arrow: Fire!

All Arrows on the board fire in the direction they are pointing. Any and all players currently placed in the line of fire are hit, and lose one Life Point (unless guarded by a Shield). Arrows will not pass through Brick or Lumber, and players standing on these tiles are also safe. It is possible to get hit by two arrows at the same time, thus losing two Life Points.

Drop (of blood): Heal!

Return one Life Point. You cannot increase Life Points beyond three.

Note: If you have lost all three life points, you are unable to act or move for the remaining steps of the current turn, and also for the complete next turn (3 steps). At the end of the next turn, you get your 3 life points back and you can join the game again.

Shield: Protect!

This is a passive action. Having played this card protects the player from all attacks during the current step.

5: Turn end

The starting player gives the die to the next player on the left. Turn up two new cards pr player from the deck. Shuffle when necessary.

Winner:

The object of the game is to reach the end of the track. If several players reach the end during the same Turn, the winner is the player with the most Life Points. If tied, then the player who reached the end in the earliest Step wins.

Now build another and cooler Gauntlet and start over!