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Ubongo - Original Edition

Gameplay tips

• The puzzle card decks take a while to load
  
• Set rotation degrees to 90°
  
• Set lift height low, but not too low
  
• Shuffle the card deck before dealing to players
  
• The puzzle cards are two-sided. The 3-piece puzzles are easier and 4-piece puzzles harder. Pick the difficulty before playing.

BoardGameGeek page: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/16986/ubongo

Video review and rules: https://youtu.be/CxwrKX_FZ6c

Quick start rules

OVERVIEW: Race to finish 9 puzzles with Tetris-like pieces. Collect the most gems of one color to win the game.

SETUP:
Assemble the board, place jewels in all the holes. Make sure no one row has too many gems of one color.
Place the puzzle boards in a stack where everyone can reach.
With 4 players, use all 36 boards. With 3 players, use 27. With 2 players, use 18.

Each player:
Chooses a pawn and places it on a red space on the board.
Takes a set of puzzle pieces
Takes a puzzle board from the stack (don’t look at it yet!)

HOW TO PLAY
Pick a starting player. That player rolls the die.
Turn the sand timer over and the race is on!
The symbol on the die tells you which puzzle pieces you will use to solve the puzzle on your board.
Separate the puzzle pieces from your set that match the symbol rolled
NOTE: everyone’s separated group of pieces will be different, since each board has a different set of puzzles!

Your job is to take these pieces and fit them onto the puzzle board so that all the grid squares on the board are covered up. No overlaps allowed. You must solve the puzzle before the timer runs out.

When you solve your puzzle, say “UBONGO!”

If you solve the puzzle: your reward is to collect 2 gems from the board!

You collect the next two gems in the row your pawn is in.

BEFORE COLLECTING YOUR REWARD:

If you finish 1st, you may move your pawn up to 3 red spaces, and then take 2 gems
If you finished 2nd, you may move your pawn up to 2 red spaces and then take 2 gems
If you finish 3rd, you may move your pawn 1 red space and then take 2 gems
If you finish 4th, you may not move your pawn at all and MUST take the 2 gems in your current row.

After collecting gems, the round is over. Discard your current puzzle board and draw another.
Roll the die, find your pieces. Solve the puzzle, collect gems. The game ends after 9 rounds, when all the puzzle
boards in the stack have been used.

HOW TO WIN
The winner is the player who has the most gems of a single color. (For example, Ben has 7 red gems and Jerry has 6 green gems and 2 blue gems. Ben wins because he has more gems of a single color). In case, of a tie, the player with the most gems in their second best color wins.

Source: http://thespiel.net/files/spiel-quickstart-ubongo.pdf