Components

  • 61 Anthill tiles
  • 6 Foundation tiles
  • 45 Soldiers
  • 1 Red army token
  • 2 Architect tokens
  • 1 Scoring pad
  • Instructions

The Anthill Tiles



Object of the Game

Build the most attractive anthill and score as many victory points as you can.


Setup

1 Each player takes a Foundation tile and places 5 Soldiers on it. The soldiers form that player's army.

2 Make a reserve with the rest of the Soldiers and the 2 Architect tokens.

3 Shuffle all 61 Anthill tiles, and place them face-down to form a draw pile.

4 Draw the first 7 Anthill tiles and line them up on the table, face up. The first tile is the one that is the furthest away from the draw pile.

5The youngest player is the first player. The first player takes the Red army token, places it in front of him, and becomes the Military leader.


Setup example for a 4-player game.


Game Play

The game is played in clockwise order in a succession of rounds.

Starting with the Military leader, each player must perform the following actions on his turn:

  1. Choose a new Anthill tile
  2. Expand the anthill

1. Choose A New Anthill Tile

The active player chooses one of the Anthill tiles from the line. The first Anthill tile of the line is free, but if he wants an Anthill tile further in the line, he must place one Soldier from his army on each Anthill tile in front of it in the line.

If there are Soldiers on the Anthill tile he takes, he adds them to his army.

Note: The number of Soldiers you can have in your army is limited to 10 soldiers.



Example: Matt chooses the 3rd Anthill tile in the line. In order to take it, he must place one Soldier from his army on the 1st tile of the line and another one on the 2nd tile of the line.


2. Expand the Anthill

In the first round, the first Anthill tile is simply connected to the Foundation tile.

For the rest of the game, players have to place new Anthill tiles directly to the right or directly to the left of the Anthill tiles that are already in play.

If a specialist or a barracks is on the Anthill tile, the player must apply its effect (see page 3).



At the end of each Round

When all players have played their turn, check the number of Anthill tiles that are left in the line.

  • If there are more tiles than the number of players, play a new round.

  • If there are fewer tiles than the number of players, refill the line and determine the new Military leader.

    • Slide the remaining tiles towards the beginning of the line 1, and draw new tiles until there are 7 tiles in the line 2.

    • If a player has as many or more Soldiers in his army than the current Military leader, he takes the Red army token and becomes the new Military leader.

      Soldiers in barracks do not count towards a player's army. In case of a tie, the current Military leader decides which of the tied players gets the Red army token.




Example of the end of a 4-player round: Since only 3 tiles are left in the line, players refill the line and determine the new Military leader.



Specialists, Barracks and Fruits

  • Queen

    At the end of the game each queen gives you victory points equal to the number of Anthill tiles over which the Gallery she is in stretches.

    Caution: This bonus is canceled if there is more than one queen in the same Gallery!


  • Nurse

    The nurse takes care of the precious eggs from which the Soldiers hatch.

    When you add a nurse to your anthill, add as many Soldiers to your army as the number of eggs she is holding.


  • Architect

    Take one Architect token from the reserve.

    On any of your subsequent turns, you may discard your Architect token to take your Anthill tile for free this turn, regardless of its position in the line.


  • Recruiting Sergeant

    The player in possession of the Red army token must discard one Soldier from his army (Soldiers in barracks are protected).

    Then, the player who just played the Recruiting sergeant adds one Soldier to his own army.


  • Sentry

    You may rearrange the Soldiers in your army and your barracks.

    After you are finished rearranging your Soldiers, each of your barracks much be totally empty or totally full.


  • Barracks

    You may immediately move Soldiers from your army to all of the available slots in the barracks on this tile.

    If you do not have enough Soldiers to fill all slots in this barracks, you may not move any Soldiers.

    Soldiers in barracks are no longer part of your army and are protected from the Recruiting sergeant.


Fruits



Certain Galleries contain some precious fruits.

There are six different types of fruits: cherry, lemon, grape, blackberry, fig, and pomegranate. The gift is a wild fruit. Each Gallery will give you a bonus of 2-5-10-15-20 or 25 victory points for 1-2-3-4-5 or 6 different types of fruits in that Gallery.

In the same Gallery, each gift can count as a different fruit of your choice!


End of the Game

The game ends when all players have completed their anthill.

Take a scoring sheet and add up the victory points following these steps:

1 Population: 1 victory point for each ant (specialists and workers) in your anthill.

2 Colony: 5 victory points for the player(s) with the most ants (specialists and workers) in one Gallery.

3 Harvest: 0 to 25 victory points depending on the number of different fruits in each Gallery:



4 Royal Gallery: Each Gallery with only one queen gives you as many victory points as the number of tiles over which that Gallery stretches.

5 Red army: 5 victory points for the player(s) with the largest army.

Reminder: Soldiers in barracks are not considered as members of the Red army.

6 Barracks: 2-4-7-10 victory points for each full barracks of size 1-2-3-4.



The player with the most victory points wins the game. In case of a tie, the player with the largest army wins the game. In case of a second tie, players share the victory.


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