Quintazone-Chaser
| Quintazone-Chaser | ||
|---|---|---|
| Designed by Matthew Rogers | ||
| ||
| Further play to follow on a game of Quintazone | ||
| Players: | 2 - 5 | |
| Length: | Medium | |
| Complexity: | Low | |
| Trios per color: | 5 (fewer with more players) | |
| Number of colors: | 1 per player | |
| - - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - - | ||
| Aquarius deck (newer version is better), unique token for each player, Color die | ||
| Setup time: | [[Setup Time::45-60 minutes (includes a game of Quintazone)]] | |
| Playing time: | 5 minutes - 20 minutes | |
| Strategy depth: | Low | |
| Random chance: | Medium | |
| Game mechanics: | race, capture | |
| BGG Link: | Quintazone-Chaser | |
| Status: Complete (v1.0), Year released: 2012 | ||
The end of a game of Quintazone leaves the players with an elaborate design of Aquarius cards occupied by Looney Pyramids. You could just score that design, congratulate the winner, and put everything away. Or you could go on to play a game of Quintazone-Chaser.
Setup[edit | edit source]
The first (and longest) step of setting up Quintazone-Chaser is to play a game of Quintazone. You can use the original Aquarius deck for this purpose, but the larger 2.0 deck is better for Quintazone-Chaser. At the end of Quintazone, any un-played pyramids are set aside; they will not be used in Quintazone-Chaser.
Next, beginning with the winner of the Quintazone game, each player places one of the action cards from the Aquarius deck face-down, connecting to a card edge on the table. On this start card the player places a unique token or counter.
Then, all players pass their Element goal cards from Quintazone to the left.
Finally, in the reverse order of the start card placement, each player puts down the Element goal face-up, connecting to a card edge on the table, as the finish card for the player whose goal it was during Quintazone. The finish card should not be connected to a panel of the Element that it shows.
Turn Play[edit | edit source]
Play begins with the winner of the Quintazone game, and turns proceed clockwise.
For each turn, the player rolls the Rainbow color die from IceDice; if necessary, a d6 may be used. The results are interpreted as an Element according to this table:
| d6 | Rainbow | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | BLACK | Space |
| 2 | RED | Fire |
| 3 | BLUE | Water |
| 4 | YELLOW | Air |
| 5 | GREEN | Earth |
| 6 | ATOM | Wild: Player’s choice of Element |
The player then moves his or her own token from its current position into an adjacent zone of the Element shown on the roll. If there is no such zone, then the player must pass. If the player rolls the color of the zone where the token is presently placed, treat it as a Wild result.
Once the token has left its start card, all movement is by zones, rather than by cards or panels. Transition from one zone to another must be made across orthogonal boundaries, not diagonally across corners.
When a player moves into a zone, the player collects any and all pyramids in that zone, regardless of pyramid color. Keep these captured pyramids visible to other players.
Game Finish and Scoring[edit | edit source]
As soon as any player moves his or her token onto the proper finish card, Quintazone-Chaser ends. (The player must roll the color of the finish card Element to move onto it from an adjacent zone.)
Players total the pip value of all pyramids collected during Quintazone-Chaser, doubling the value of any pyramids of their own original color from the Quintazone game. The player who reached the finish receives a five-point bonus.
High score wins.
Aquarius-Chaser[edit | edit source]
Although Quintazone-Chaser was conceived first, it is also possible to play a non-pyramid variant with an Aquarius deck, player tokens, and color die. For that one, start by playing a game of standard Aquarius. If someone wins with seven connected panels before the deck is exhausted, then the winner retires, taking his or her goal out of the game. The remaining players continue to compete for second place by making a seven-panel sequence. The second-place winner then retires. Once all places in the original game have been determined, the last remaining player continues to play Element cards until all of them are in the design on the table.
Then set up start and finish cards as for Quintazone-Chaser, and use the color die for zone movement as in Quintazone-Chaser. The winner is the first player to reach his or her finish card.
Aquarius-Chaser is a fun game for younger players, and Basic Aquarius can be substituted for standard Aquarius rules.