v1.0

A single-stash Icehouse game
created by Ryan McGuire and Kerin Schiesser.

Introduction

Uonga!
(Loose translation: "You stand here and draw the mastodon's attention while I circle around and jab him from behind with my pointy stick.")

It's mastodon herding season, and you and the other hunters from your tribe have managed to spook a few of them into a box canyon. Now all you have to do is kill a few for the coming winter.

Players
2 players.
One player controls the Cavemen while the other controls the Mastodons.

Equipment

• A single stash (5 pieces of each of three sizes in a single color) of Icehouse pyramids. Stacking pieces is not an issue in this game, so solid pieces may be used.

  The Mastodon player gets the five large pieces, or Mastodons.

  The Cavemen player gets all ten small and medium pieces. The mediums are the experienced Hunters, and the smalls are the Younglings.

• A 5x5 playing board. Since the pyramids will remain upright, the individual squares only have to be 1" on a side. You could use just a portion of the Alison's Chessboard Bandana folded so that only a 5x5 section shows. (Go to this page to purchase one.) Or you can use a " Volcano Board," which was made popular by such games as Volcano, Blockade , Martian Backgammon, and Martian Mud Wrestling. (Yes, I know... not all of those games explicitly require a 5x5 board, but possession of a nice 5x5 board sure makes all the games listed a bit nicer.)

Object of the Game
Each side is trying to capture at least 9 points of the opponent's pieces¹. (Smalls count for 1, mediums 2, and larges 3 points.)

Start of Game
All pieces start off the board.
The "Cavemen" player goes first.

Start of game

Placement Phase
During each players first five turns the active player places one piece of each size he controls (one Mastodon by the Mastodon player or one Hunter and one Youngling by the Cavemen player) onto any vacant square on the board. During this phase, if the Cavemen are placed so they surround either a single Mastodon, or multiple Mastodons as described in the next section, the Mastodon is not captured.

Movement Phase
On a player's turn, he must move a piece that is already on the board.

A Youngling may move one space in any direction, including diagonally. The destination square must be vacant.
A Hunter may move one or two spaces in a straight line in any direction, including diagonally. The destination square and the intervening square (if the Hunter moves two squares) must both be vacant.
A Mastodon may move any number of spaces in any of the four orthogonal (non-diagonal) directions. A Mastodon may land on a Caveman (but not another Mastodon) on the last square. Any intervening squares must be vacant. This is just like a rook in chess.

Capturing

For the Cavemen to take down a Mastodon they need to team up. If, at the end of the Cavemen player's turn, three or more Cavamen, including the one that was just moved, are adjacent (including diagonally) to a single Mastodon, the Mastodon is captured. It is removed from the board and kept near the Cavemen player.
	Multiple Mastodons can team up to keep themselves safer. Two or more Mastodons that are orthogonally adjacent to each other count as a "herd". In order to capture a Mastodon that is part of a herd, more Cavemen are required. If, at the end of the Cavemen player's turn, four 4 or more Cavemen, including the one that just moved, are adjacent to a Mastodon that is part of a herd, one of the Mastodons from the herd is captured. The captured mastodon is the one that is adjacent to the most Cavemen. If there is a tie, the Cavemen2 player decides which of the tying Mastodons to capture.
It is possible for a single Caveman move to lead to multiple captures. This can happen only if the Mastodons are NOT part of the same herd. This would be an impressive move indeed.
	A single Mastodon can capture a Caveman merely by landing on it (just like a rook in chess). Notice that in this figure, the Mastodon is surrounded by three Cavemen after the Mastodon player's turn. In such a case the Mastodon is NOT automatically captured. The Cavemen can capture a Mastodon only at the end of the Caveman player's turn and only of the Mastodon is adjacent to the Caveman that just moved.

Captured pieces are NOT returned to the board. They are kept near the capturing player.

Winning
If either player captures nine¹ points worth of enemy pieces (3 points for a Mastodon, 2 for a Hunter, 1 for a Youngling), that player wins.

Notes
All of the footnotes have to do with possible changes that might be needed to keep the game balanced.

1. The winning point totals might be changed. The most likely new values are 9 points of Mastodons for a Caveman win and 10 points of Cavemen for a Mastodon win.
2. Maybe it'll be the Mastodon player's choice of which Mastodon to lose out of a herd.

Revision History

Version	Date	Description
1.0	Jan 16, 2002	Initial Version

Credits
Initial Concept: Ryan McGuire
Hefty chunks of the rules: Ryan McGuire and Kerin Scheisser
Name/Backstory/Theme: Kerin Scheisser and Ryan McGuire
Playtesting (so far): Kerin and her crew.
Icehouse Pieces designed by:Andrew Looney
Other Icehouse Games designed by: Andrew and Kristin Looney, Jacob and John and Kory and Kristin, and many others
Comments and Suggestions are Welcome -- email Ryan