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Berlin
A “History Repeats Itself” game for the piecepack.2-4 Players, more in variant 4,
30-45 minutes for main game.Copyright ©2003, by Eric Witt, Ver. 3.0 04/25/03
License Restrictions: This game may be distributed freely without charge, as long
asthis header stays in place. The author retains full ownershiprights.
Encyclopedia Britannica Entry on Berlin Wall;Barrier surrounding W. Berlin that
closed off E. Germans' access to W. Berlin from 1961to 1989 and served as a symbol
of the Cold War's division of E. and W. Germany. Thebarrier was built in response
to the flight of about 2.5 million E. Germans to W. Germanyin the years 1949-61.
First erected on the night of August 12-13, 1961, the walldeveloped into a system
of concrete walls topped with barbed wire and guarded withwatchtowers, gun
emplacements, and mines. It was opened in the 1989 democratizationthat swept
through Eastern Europe.URL:
http://education.yahoo.com/search/be?lb=t&p=url%3Ab/berlin_wall Be the first
player to break through the wall to freedom! Object:The First player to collect 12
pieces of the wall wins the game. Equipment:One Piecepack is required to play; an
opaque bag is optional for variant 1.
Definitions: Pawns are hammersTiles and Coins form the wall, and individually are
known pieces of the wall.Tiles and coins only have one “space” on them, and two
hammers may share the samespace with out penalty.A Hole is an empty section in the
wall with pieces of wall on all 4 sides.A Gap is an empty section in the wall with
pieces of wall on 3 or less sides.Unless Otherwise stated, hammers may end a turn
in a gap or hole.Numbering: Aces rank low, Nulls rank High. (A,2,3,4,5,N) Aces=1
Nulls=6 Setup: The wall is the board itself, and parts of the wall will be removed
during play.The wall is formed with alternating 12 columns 4 deep of tiles and
coins, all face-down.Each player chooses a colored die, and the corresponding
colored hammer which heplaces any where on the wall.Each player rolls a die;
highest number goes first. Re-roll in case of ties.
(Your layout may vary, but this is the required layout for Variant #1) Game Play:
In turn, each player rolls his die, and chooses to move his hammer or someone
else’shammer that exact number of spaces on the die in any combination of
orthogonal (up,down, left, or right) moves. You may not pass through or land on a
space twice in oneturn. (This includes the space you started on and the space you
finish on). If you havemoved your own hammer, and the piece you land on is face
down, you may flip it over. Ifthe piece is face-up, you do not flip the piece
over. If this piece matches the number onyour die roll, you may remove that piece
from the board add it to your collection and rollagain. Keep playing until you
don’t match a piece of wall to your die. (Pick the piece ofwall up when you move
on to it, leaving your hammer where the piece of wall was).‘Dumb Luck’ can and
more often than not will occur with pieces of wall face down, ifyou match your die
roll to a face-down piece of wall, that player receives no bonusbeyond the
additional turn. If you moved someone else’s hammer, no pieces of the wallare
flipped, and no pieces are collected by that hammers owner. If you land on a piece
ofwall that does not match your die roll, your turn ends. Holes in the wall should
be treatedas an empty space hammers may pass over and end their turn on these
holes with out
penalty. The first player to obtain 12 pieces of the wall wins. The game is over
themoment a player picks up his twelfth piece of wall. Variants Variant 1: The
Crazy 8’s Rule Set up the game as described in Setup, with the coin-pieces of the
wall in a diagonalpattern. (Although Crowns is shown as the first coin, any coin
may be placed here, aslong as all of the coins of the same color are in the
diagonals shown.) Instead of rolling their own die, at the start of each players
turn, the player randomlyselects one of the dice, either from an opaque bag, or
from the table with eyes closed.Once a die is selected in this way, the play opens
his eyes and the die is rolled, and playcontinues as normal. (The player is allowed
to know what color his die is before he rolls.)If the color on the die (the ace
symbol) matches the wall piece you land on, you may pickit up. You may turn the
piece of wall over to check color, just be sure to turn back overwhen done
checking.(This is an additional rule, and works with the number rule in the main
game) You stillreceive an extra turn if you remove a wall piece. There is no bonus
if number and colormatch. When your turn is over, return the die to the bag or
table with the other dice. Thisshould make for a considerably faster game. Variant
2: GravitySet up the game as described in set-up. Choose one side of the wall to be
the “ground”.When a player removes a piece of wall, at the end of his turn, he must
shift all pieces ofwall above the hole towards the ground.
In this example, if the side indicated by the brown line is the “ground”, you
would movethe single red piece down, (and any other pieces in that column if other
pieces arepresent). If the side indicated by the purple line is the “ground” the
piece of wall to theleft of the hole and all other pieces of wall on its left
‘down’ towards the ‘ground’. If nopieces remain above a hole, the player who made
the hole can decide which row orcolumn to shift to fill in the hole. Hammers slide
on the pieces of the wall. If a hammerwould get “squished” between two pieces of
wall, simply put the hammer on the piece ofwall that moved into the hammer(s)’s
space. Always fill in holes, always leave gaps.
Variant 3: Nullo GravityLike variant 2, except that there is no ground, the player
who made the hole can choosewhich row or column to shift to fill the hole. That
player must move all the pieces of wallin that row or column to leave a gap, a
player cannot leave a hole unfilled. Variant 4: Wall of ChinaPlay the game as
normal, but lay out the wall in a 2 by 12 array, or any other array ofyour choice.
The pattern formed must be a rectangle. If you are not playing withoutGravity, or
Nullo Gravity, you may setup the game with holes already “in place”. Youcan add an
additional piecepack or even a piecepack “stack” (A piecepack stack isexactly one
fourth of a piecepack) to the wall to include more players. If two hammersare the
same color, use pennies and other monetary coins or some other small object toavoid
ownership confusion. Variant 5: Wall Of JerichoPlay the game as normal, but the
next turn after you collect your seventh piece of wall,before you roll, you may
flip over any additional face down piece of wall. If there are noface-down pieces
of wall, ignore this rule. You don’t get to collect it if it matches yourdie roll
(or color if playing variant 1). Variant 6: Fast Forward BerlinSet up the game as
normal, except, leave an agreed upon number of pieces face up beforeplay begins.
Variant 7: On again, Off againAn additional rule to moving, if your hammer ended
your last turn on a coin piece of wall,it must end this turn on a tile piece of
wall, and vice versa. Variant 8: “Berlin is a Pair-a-dice”Roll two dice, ignoring
color, choose one die for movement, the other to determine whatnumber piece of wall
you may pick up. Version History:1.0 4/24/03 Main Rules written2.0 4/25/03 Variants
added, piecepack graphics added3.0 4/26/03 Wall of Jericho, Fast Forward, On again
Off Again variants added. Non-repetition landing or passing rule added.
Clarification of Variant 1 (checking the piece-color) added. Clarification of
“Hole” and “Gap” definitions.4.0 5/15/03 Variant 8 “Berlin is a Pair-a-dice”
added. Moving clarified, and Dumb Luck condition addressed. Hammer and wall
sliding clarified.
