Influenza

Under development

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This game is currently under development, in the Playtesting stage. Feedback is strongly encouraged! Feel free to give comments on game design or structure on the talk page.

An Icehouse influence game for 3-5 players by Joss Ives

Influenza
Joss Ives
An Icehouse influence game where different bacteria fight over creating the greatest infections
:Players	Players:	3 - 4
:Time	Length:	unknown
:Complexity	Complexity:	Med
Trios per color:		5
Number of colors:		1 per player + 1
Pyramid trios:
Monochr. stashes:		1 per player + 1
Five-color sets:		5
- - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - -
pencil and paper
Setup time:		5 minutes
Playing time:
Strategy depth:		Medium
Random chance:		Very Low
Game mechanics:
Theme:		Bacteria
BGG Link:
Status: Not Specified (v1.0), Year released: 2007
I thought the name Influenza would be a funny name for an influence game (and still do!)

What you need

• One monochrome stash per player and an additional monochrome stash. All stashes must be different colours.

• Pencil and paper or some other way to keep score

Overview

Coming soon

Setup

• Each player chooses a colour and takes a piece of each size in their chosen colour. Note that this is not the player's colour, but the colour in which the player will have the most strength at the beginning of the game
• The remaining colour is used for leaders and neutral hosts
  • Give each player a large of this colour as their leader.
  • From the small and medium pieces, grab 3 plus the number of players (4 player game would be 4+3 = 7 pyramids) pyramids to use as neutral hosts
  • Set aside two of these neutral hosts and place the others on the table (there should be the number of players plus 1) standing up to represent the starting hosts
  • Remove the rest of the pieces of this colour from the game
• The rest of the pieces are mixed up in the middle of the table,
• Randomly count out enough pieces to make the following three piles
  • One with 5 pieces per player, these are the reserves for the first viral stage
  • A second one with 4 pieces per player, these are the reserves for the second viral stage
  • A third with 3 pieces per player, these are the reserves for the third viral stage
• Put aside the second and third piles and have the first one handy for all players to grab from.
• Each player places their leader at a different host. Indicate leader ownership by having the leaders laying down and pointing away from that player
• Choose a starting player

A Players Turn

A player can make one placing action and one moving action during their turn. Each player must make a placing action, but does not have to use their moving action. These actions can be taken in any order including mixing them up

• Placing actions:
  • Mutation: From your personal bacterial supply (the pyramids you have in front of you that are not in play), place a pyramid on top of a host to indicate it's new mutation colour. This will affect the influence of the bacteria present trying to infect the host. Your leader does not have to be present at this host to do this action. If another player's leader is present at this host, you are unable to do this action
  • Place ship: Also from your personal bacterial supply. You may only place bacteria at a host where your leader is present or if your bacteria's colour matches the host's mutation colour
• Moving actions:
  • Move bacteria: you may move one of your bacteria from one host to any other host in play. Your leader does not have to be present at either host nor do you have to match the mutation colour of the host to move the bacteria.
  • Move leader: Move leader from any host to any other host. No mutation colour restrictions apply to this move
  • Swap: As long as one of the two bacteria is at a host which includes your leader, swap any two bacteria you control. Your leader may be one of these ships
• At the end of a player's turn, they draw any one bacteria from the current viral stage's reserves

Play

The game is divided into three viral stages. During each viral stage, each player will take 4 turns and score on their fourth turn (similar to Tikal).

• After all players have scored during a viral stage, the starting player marker will rotate one player to the right and a new viral stage will begin
• When the first and second scoring rounds occur, there should be the same number of ships left in the reserves as there are players. The reserves for the next viral stage are combined with these remaining bacteria to form the reserves for the new viral stage. After the third viral stage, there should be no bacteria remaining in the reserves.
• A new round begins
• The game is over after the third viral stage has been scored. The player with the most points wins.
  • The first tie-breaker is highest total bacterial influence in a system
  • Second tie-breaker is total bacterial influence on the board

Scoring

During a player's scoring phase, a player will score points based on their bacterial influence at each host. A player's scoring phase occurs after their fourth turn of a given viral stage.

• A player's bacterial influence at a host is determined as follows using the bacteria under that player's control: one influence per bacteria, one additional influence for each bacteria that matches the mutation colour of the host, and one additional influence for each bacteria whose pip count matches that of the host (this bonus does not apply if the host is still the neutral mutation colour), for a maximum of three influence per bacteria
• A player's leader has no size or colour in terms of determining influence bonuses. It is always worth exactly one influence toward that player's total influence at the host
• If a player has the most bacterial influence at the host they are awarded 5VP, second 3VP, and third 1VP
• In the case of ties between any number of players for first, the player is awarded 3VP
• In the case of ties between any number of players for second, the player is awarded 1VP
• VPs are totaled from all three viral stages to determine the winner

Version History

V1.02 - Apr17/07 - Clarified that leader influence bonus is zero

V1.01 - Apr14/07 - Rules for setup clarified.

V1.00 - Apr11/07 - Rules posted. The rules and theme have been slightly modified from the original version found here

License

http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/88x31.png This work is distributed by Joss Ives under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.