Meeple Circus Game Rules

Components

1 game board: The clap-o-meter
3 Scoring tiles
1 measuring ruler
32 Public demands cards
5 Circus rings (front / back)
18 Component tiles
5 Score tokens
38 Circus act tiles
32 Acrobat meeples
10 Guest Star meeples
1 First player token
2 Speed bonus tokens

Setup

Place the game board in the center of the table 1.
Each player starts with:
- A circus ring in the color of his choice 2.
- A score token of the same color that they place next to the clap-o-meter 3.
- 2 acrobats: 1 blue and 1 yellow 4.
Shuffle the public demands cards by color and place them face down in the place indicated by the board. Flip the first card of each pile face up 5.
Shuffle the Component tiles, draw the first 6 and place them face up in the places indicated by the board 6.
Shuffle the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Act tiles by color and place them in three stacks. Then draw as many tiles as the number of players plus one from the 1st Act tile and place them at the places indicated by the board 7.
Place the measuring ruler and the «speed bonus» tokens next to the clap-o-meter 8.
Acrobat meeples, Guest Star meeples and accessories (balloons, beams, barrels, elephants and horses) form a reserve of components available to all players 9.
Stack the 3 Score tiles at the place indicated by the board, in order 3, then 2, then 1 10.
The last player to have seen a circus act becomes the first player for the first act and takes the first player token

Object of the Game

On the program for tonight, 3 numbers with 2 rehearsals and a main performance in front of a crowded audience! Shine on the circus ring and receive the most applause in order to win the game!

Game Play

A game of Meeple Circus is played in 3 Circus acts:

The first rehearsal

The second rehearsal

The great performance

Each Circus act has 4 phases:

Preparation

Presentation

Evaluation

End

I. The First Rehearsal

A. Preparation

During the preparation of a circus act, players add new acrobats and accessories to their circus. Starting with the first player and proceeding in a clockwise direction, players must perform following two actions in the order of their choosing : take any one Component tile and tahe one 1st Act tile.

The players then retrieves the components corresponding to their tiles from the reserve and place them next to their circus ring.

Note: The term "component" used here in the rules and on certain game tiles refers to any accessories, Acrobat or Guest Star.

B. Presentation

During the presentation of the circus act, the players assemble their components in order to answer as much of the public demands as possible by using the expertise of their acrobats. Before beginning the presentation of their circus act, players must have all their components outside of their circus ring and have no right to manipulate them.

When all players are ready, the first player starts the music via the Meeple Circus application (or from the Matagot website).

When the music begins, all players will construct their circus act at the same time.

The players are not obliged to use all their components during their circus ACT.THE laying of a component is completely up to the player to choose, as long as it respects the following rules:

All components must be placed inside your circus ring.

All components must be placed on their side except for beams and barrels.

All components on the ground must carry at least one other component.

Components that do not follow ALL of these rules will not be counted in the evaluation of the circus act.

When a player finishes his circus act, he must spread his hands and say, « Tadaaaa! »

The first and second players who end their circus act (before the music ends) take the Speed Token and the Speed Token , respectively.

If a player has not finished by the end of the music, he must immediately stop adding to his circus act.

C. Evaluation

When evaluating the circus act, players win applause based on different criteria. When a player wins applause, he advances his score marker as many spaces on the clap-o-meter board.

A player wins applause through:

Public demands
Acrobat meeples
Speed bonus tokens

1) Public Demands

The player scores as much applause as indicated on each of the Public demands cards whose conditions are fulfilled. It is possible to make the same card several times if at least one of the elements is different.

The same component can count for different public demands cards. The figures must be taken in the direction indicated by the card.

The meeples illustrated in gray can be Acrobat meeples of any color or Guest Star meeples of the same form (the Extreme horse rider, Tarzan, the Elephant trainer or the tightrope artist).

In her circus act, Madison made 2 of the 4 Public demands cards. She met the first demand once and met the second demand twice for a total of 3 + 3 + 3 = 9 applause!

2) Acrobat Meeples

Beginners Each blue acrobat touching the ground brings you 1 applause.

Intermediates Each yellow acrobat that does NOT touch the ground brings you 1 applause.

Experts Every red acrobat that carries no element brings you as much applause as its height in the circus act. To do this, use the measuring ruler, the highest zone touched by the acrobat tells you how many applause you win.

Thanks to this magnificent pyramid, Matthew scores 1 applause for his beginner meeple, 1 applause for his intermediate meeple and 3 applause with his expert meeple.

3) Speed Bonus

Each player in possession of a speed token adds the number of applause indicated.

E. End

At the end of each circus act:

Each player keeps all his acquired components and places them next to his circus ring.

The player with the smallest score (in the case of a tie: the youngest) becomes the first player and takes the token The new first player discards a Public demands card of his choice from the game and then returns the next Public demands card of the corresponding pick.

The first player puts the remaining tiles and number 1 tiles in the box.

Then he draws 6 new Component tiles and as many 2 nd Act tiles as the number of player plus one.

Finally, the first player returns the First scoring tile back to the box, to show the first act has passed.

II. The Second Rehearsal

The second rehearsal introduces the Guest Star, who are each unique and allow players to realize even more fantastic numbers! This second act is played in the same way as the first with the following differences: