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Title: Sailboat Regatta
Version Number: 1.0.0
Version Date: January 26, 2003
Copyright © 2003, 2004 by Clark D. Rodeffer, CDRodeffer@juno.com
Number of Players: 2 to 10 (or up to 14 if your piecepack has 8 suits)
Duration: Approximately 60 minutes
Equipment Needed: one piecepack

Sailboat RegattaA tactical sailboat race for the piecepack
The sun shines brightly in a clear sky as a fragrant breeze wafts from the southeast.
One gull calls toanother, and they argue with each other as the surf gently laps over
their webbed feet. The waves teaseyour hearing as the clean fresh ocean scent
overwhelms you. It is a beautiful day for a regatta.
SetupThe tiles and pawns define the sailboat race course. Each tile has four quadrants
(NE, SE, SW and NW)that sailboats may occupy. Tile pips indicate the direction the
wind is blowing, while their values indicatehow strong the wind gusts are in the
immediate vicinity. Areas with more extreme values (five or null) arelikely to
experience stronger gusts, with winds becoming more steady toward the center of the
tile valuerange. All four piecepack dice are rolled to determine relative wind speeds
on every turn. The arms pawnmarks the start / finish line, while the other pawns are
buoys that must be sailed around. The coins arethe sailboats themselves, and depending
upon the number of players, everyone will command two ormore boats. Coin pips indicate
the direction the bow is pointed, and teams are distinguished by theirmarkings: null
through five and the various suit symbols. Individual sailboats enter the race facing
northin the northwest quadrant of the crowns two tile (shaded in the diagram below)
and travel around thecourse clockwise until someone has sailed all of his or her
sailboats past the finish line.
Arrange all twenty four tiles and the four marker buoys as shown in the following
diagram. Note that all ofthe tiles are facing the same direction, showing a wind
coming from the southeast.

K R K K

5 4 4

R M L R R M

5 5 5   R

L   K L

2 3

M M R

2 3 3

K   M L

2 4 3
N R M   L

w X e 2 M 4
s L K

L K

Next, each player takes a number of like-marked coins to represent his or her sailboat
fleet according tothe following table, putting aside any extras.

Number of Players Sailboats per Player Suggested Fleet Markings
2 to 4 5 suits only
5 to 6 4 values only
7 to 8 3 suits & values
9 to 14 2 values, suits & extended suits
Example: Amy, Bob, Carol, Doug, Ellen, Frank and Gene all want to play. That’s seven
people, so each will need three like-marked coins. Amy chooses to be arms and takesthe
null, ace and two of arms coins. Bob chooses to be crowns, Carol chooses to be
moons and Doug chooses to be suns; so each of them also take the null, ace and
twocoins in their respective suits. Ellen chooses to be threes, so she takes the three
of arms,
crowns and moons. Frank and Gene choose to be fours and fives, respectively, so
theytake coins representing their fleets. The rest of the sailboats are set aside.
Goal & PlayYour goal is to be the first player to sail your entire fleet once around
the course clockwise and acrossthe finish line. The person with the most sailing
experience goes first, and turns rotate clockwisethereafter. Each turn is comprised of
three phases: randomize wind gusts, sail, and come about. If thereare multiple
sailboats stacked in a given space, all of the ones on the bottom have had their wind
stolenby the sailboat on top of the stack. The top sailboat in any stack is considered
free, while all sailboatslower down are considered blanketed until the sailboats on
top move away.
Randomize Wind Gusts. Roll all four piecepack dice. The immediate local wind speed on
any given tileis equal to the positive difference between the tile value and one of
the die rolls (null = zero, ace = one).
Under most circumstances, you will be able to use all four dice values on a given
turn. The wind speeddetermines how far a sailboat may move forward (in the direction
the pip is pointing).
Sail One or More Boats. If it is possible to do so without going out of bounds, sail
at least one of yourfree sailboats forward as many spaces as possible using the
available wind and sail one space diagonally
with the wind. The diagonal sailing step may be taken at any time during the sailing
phase, but it must betaken for every sailboat that sails. It is illegal to sail over
the top of a buoy or around a buoy on theinside; you must go around buoys on the
outside. If possible, the same sailboat and/or additionalsailboats may then be sailed
using the second, third and fourth rolled values, but blanketed sailboatsmay never
sail until they become free again. If your sailboat lands on the same space as
anothersailboat, stack yours on top. Sailing over spaces occupied by other sailboats
is allowed.
Example: Amy has free arms sailboats on a null tile and a two tile. The rest of
hersailboats are blanketed. She rolls two threes and two twos on the dice, so she may
sail
the arms sailboat on the null tile either two or four spaces forward plus one
spacediagonally with the wind. If she wishes, Amy may also sail the sailboat on the
two tile
either zero spaces or one space forward plus one space diagonally with the
wind.Depending upon where her boats end their movements, Amy may be able to sail one
or
both of them again.
If it is not possible to legally move any of your sailboats, most likely because they
are all blanketed inlower levels of stacks or cannot use any of the die rolls without
going out of bounds or hitting a buoy,your turn is skipped. But if it is at all
possible to move at least one of your sailboats, you must do so.
Sailing additional boats is always optional.

Note: Sailboats not yet entered into play are considered free, and any number of your
own boats may be
freely entered by stacking them on the northwest quadrant of the crowns two tile with
the pips facingnorth. Sailboats may be put into play at any time on your turn, but
once entered, they remain in play forthe rest of the game. Free boats already in play
may be sailed without regard to the number of sailboatsnot yet entered, but remember
that the entire fleet has to complete the race course.
Come About. After you have sailed, you may rotate any number of your free sailboats to
face any of thefour cardinal directions (N, S, E or W). If any of your sailboats are
in positions such that it would beimpossible for them to sail with the wind without
going out of bounds on your next turn, you must come
about to face them in directions where they may be able to sail with the wind if they
are still free on yournext turn.
Example: Doug has a free suns sailboat on the northwest corner of the moons three
tile.Sailing out of bounds is illegal, so he must come about to the east at the end of
this turn.
Tips & Tactics
X Sailboat Regatta plays sort of like Pachisi, so some of the tactics from Pachisi and
other racegames like Senat and Backgammon apply here. Of course, there are limits to
the analogy. Thetactical choices introduced by the come about step results in a
different range of movement.There is almost no protection from being landed upon by
other sailboats, but the consequencesare also less dire than in Pachisi – temporary
immobilization instead of returning to the start.
X In a real sailboat regatta, blanketing would be considered poor sportsmanship at
best, andpossibly grounds for disqualification. But in this piecepack adaptation, it’s
perfectly legal, andoften a good tactic. There’s also no rule against continuing to
sail using sailboats that havealready crossed the finish line!
X Sailing backwards to hinder an opponent is allowed, but it’s not very sporting.
X In games with fewer than nine players, delaying entry of one or two sailboats will
sometimesresult in a positional advantage. With nine or more players, enter both of
your sailboats and raceas fast as you can.
CreditsProofreading: Amanda J.-L. RodefferPlay Testing: Jonathan Dietrich, Kerry
Handscomb, Don Kirkby, Sheila Kirkby, Dan Troyka, DavidWhitcher, Matt Worden
Revision History0.0.1?, November 3, 2003 Initial concept, headings, credits, revision
history, license, first internalplay test version0.1.0?, November 5, 2003 Setup, goal
& play, tips & tactics, first external play test version0.1.1?, November 6, 2003 Minor
corrections & clarifications0.1.2?, December 4, 2003 More minor corrections &
clarifications1.0.0, January 26, 2004 Revised NE buoy bottleneck, revised dice rolling
& updated sailingterminology based upon play test comments
LicenseCopyright © 2003, 2004 by Clark D. Rodeffer. Permission is granted to copy,
distribute and/or modify thisdocument under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation
License, Version 1.1 or any later versionpublished by the Free Software Foundation;
with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and noBack-Cover Texts. A copy of
the license can be found at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft.fdl.html.