Drunter und Drüber (Above and Below)

A game by Klaus Teuber.

Published by Hans im Gluck.

Game Idea

The people of Schilda are building a new town. Up to now they've only completed the crazy buildings, that they think will make their town famous. Still missing are the town walls, streets and river. Each player takes on the role of one of the Schildans, and tries to preserve as many as possible of one type of building. Each type of building is represented five times on the board. The nearer a building is to the centre of the board, the higher it's value.

Town walls, streets and the river will during the course of the game, be laid onto the board in the form of tiles. This will cause some of the crazy buildings to be covered over. Each player tries therefore to ensure that the five squares containing his particular type of building remain uncovered. To help him he has the help of other inhabitants of Schilda, which he receives in the form of a set of cards.

Contents

Preparation

The six building cards are well shuffled, each player receives one , face down. They may look at it, but the card then remains a secret until the end of the game. The rest of the building cards are returned, face down to the box. The 32 Schildan cards are divided into 4 sets of 8, (The different designs on the backs will help here). Each player receives one set. If there are only 2 or 3 players then the unused set(s) are returned to the box and are not used. A building gang figure is placed onto each of the four corner squares. The streets are laid, starting at the corner square with the coaching inn on it, the river starts from the corner with the waterworks, and the town walls start from one or both of the corners with the watchtowers on them.

All the tiles are well shuffled. The players then receive them, according to the following table.

With 2 players, 6 triple tiles, 12 double and 12 single tiles per player. With 3 players, 4 triple tiles, 8 double and 8 single tiles per player. With 4 players, 3 triple tiles, 6 double and 6 single tiles per player.

The players lay out their tiles, face up, in front of them. It's best to sort them out into wall. street and river tiles. Triple tiles are divided into three parts. The start field is marked with a soldier, a coach or a boat depending on the type of tile, in the middle is a bridge, and at the other end is the end filed. Double tiles comprise just a start field, again marked. and an end field. Single tiles are simultaneously start and end fields.

Once the players have chosen a starting player, then the game can begin.

Play of the Game

Laying Tiles

The player whose turn it is may lay one tile, of any size or shape, onto the board. The tile must be laid with it's start field adjacent to a building gang figure, and must be laid squarely onto the board so as to cover exactly 1,2 or 3 squares. The building gang is then moved onto the end field of the newly laid tile. Now it's the turn of the player to the left. He may lay a tile by the new tile, or adjacent to any of the other three building gang figures. It's possible that a player may be temporarily unable to lay any of his tiles, in this case the turn passes immediately to the next player. In this way four separate lines of building are laid across the board. The buildings already printed on the board may be freely built over. The toilets however constitute obstacles, their importance is explained in section B.

The following rules must be observed when laying tiles. (The illustrations on page 5 of the rules will help here).

  1. A tile must always follow on from another tile of the same type, ie wall must be added to wall, street to street and river to river.

  2. A tile may only be laid on the adjacent square to a building gang figure, ie at the end of the building in progress. At the beginning of the game these figures stand in the corners so that the first build must be on one of the squares adjacent to the corner squares.

  3. Single tiles may be laid in any orientation. Double and triple tiles however must always be laid with their start field, (shown by a soldier, coach or boat), next to the building gang figure. No tile may be laid so as to cover part or all of another tile. Also tiles may not be laid with part of the tile outside the edges of the board.

  4. Once a tile has been laid the building gang are moved onto the end field of the new tile. Now a further tile may be laid onto one of the three free squares adjacent to the gang.

  5. If a building gang comes to a position where all three adjacent squares have already been covered with tiles, then that building gang figure is removed from the board, since that particular stretch of building may not be further added to.

  6. Walls, streets and river can be added to via a bridge, ie, if the end field with the building gang lies next to a bridge field, then the next tile may be laid on the other side of the bridge field, providing that that square has no tile on it already.

Covering Toilets, and How to Vote About It

If a player wishes to lay a tile which will cover a toilet square, there must first be a vote to decide whether the people of Schilda will permit the lay. Each player puts one or more of the Schildan cards face down in front of them. If a player agrees that the toilet should be built over, then he should lay a Ja (yes) card or cards. If not, then a Ne (no) card. If he's undecided or indifferent then he should lay the card with the question mark on it. Now all the players simultaneously turn over their cards and the number of yes and no votes are counted.

The number of A's or E's represent how many votes the card casts. A JAAA or NEEE counts three votes, a JAA or NEE two and JA or NE one. The Schildan who says JEEIIN is a joker. His vote can be counted as two votes for or two against depending on the wish of the player. The player need not decide which way to vote until all the other cards have been turned over and counted. The Schildan with the question mark, doesn't count at all in the voting. If there are more yes votes than no votes then the player lays the tile in the normal way. If however the number of no votes beats the yes votes then the player returns the tile to his hand. His turn is now over and the next player takes his turn.

Example

At a vote, the following votes are played. The first player plays two cards, JAA and JAAA. The second player has played a NEE card, the third a NEEE card and the fourth a JEEIIN card. The fourth player decides that this card should act as a No vote so the No's beat the yesses 75, the tile is returned to hand and the next player takes his turn.

All cards played are now collected and returned to the box. They do not come back to the players hand, ie each card may only be used once during the game. The only exception is the noncounting card with the question mark. This is returned to the player and may be used as often as required.

Game End

When no player may lay any further tiles then the game is at an end. All players now reveal their building card. The points are counted for each building of that type which remains uncovered by tiles. The player with the highest point count is the winner. In the case of two players with an equal number of points the tie is broken by a comparison of the Schildan cards. The player with the larger number of votes (yes and no combined), in his hand, wins.

What Happened Next

At last the walls were finished, the streets laid and the river flowed gently through the town. The Schildans looked proudly at their extraordinary handiwork. " We should have an official opening" said the Mayor, all puffed up with pride. After all, wasn't he the Mayor of a town that was going to be world famous. So the Shoemaker found a ribbon and a pair of scissors, and while the Smith held one end, and the Swineherd the other, the Mayor officiously and meaningfully cut through the ribbon and declared the town officially finished.

The mayor was just about to start his speech when his wife softly asked, "But my dear husband, where are we going to live?". The Smith's wife heard the question and repeated it to her neighbour. Soon every inhabitant of Schilda was asking, "where are we going to live?" but no one had an answer, eventually someone said, what they were all slowly realising to be the truth, "We've forgotten to build any houses". So they stood around for a while, hitting themselves over the head. No one wanted to spend their nights in the open. But there was no more room in the town for houses, it was completely filled with walls, streets, rivers, toilets and crazy buildings. And without houses it was no sort of town. And if it was no sort of town then it could never become world famous. So, the Schildans started once more to pack up there possessions and move away when again the voice of the mayor rang out. "People of Schilda! Let us rebuild our town somewhere else, Schilda should be the most famous town in the world! And to ensure that let us build.........." Most of the Schildans followed the call of the Mayor, but some of them went off to other towns and set up as master builders there. And if they haven't died, then they're probably still there, maybe even in your town.

Variant

If you've now become a true Schildan, through playing Drunter und Drüber, and you want to go on and lose what little sense you still retain, then try this variant.

  1. Use the second set of cards with the 6 building cards and the four special cards.

  2. Tiles are laid as in the normal game. There are no votes over lays on toilets, toilets may be covered as if normal squares.

  3. To start, each player is dealt, facedown, 2 of the 10 cards. They may examine these cards, but should keep them secret from the other players. The remaining cards are returned to the box face down and are not used. Each player has now got two possible victory conditions.

  4. As soon as one of the stretches of building , either a wall, street or river, is finished, ie it may not be further extended, then each player must decide which of the two victory conditions to attempt. He places that card on top of the other, still face down. This order may not be altered after this point. Once the game has finished, each player turns over his chosen card. Scores are then counted and the player with the highest number of points wins. In case of ties, the second card of the tied player(s) is turned over, and the points earned using that card are counted. The winner is then the player with the highest combined score.

Special Cards

Alle 3er Gebaude
All uncovered buildings with a value of 3 count.
Alle 4er Gebaude
All uncovered buildings with a value of 4 count.
Von jedem typ das Gebaude mit dem NIEDRIGSTEN Wert.
The player counts lowest value building of each type that remains uncovered. If all the buildings of one type are covered then the player gets no score for that type.
Alle stehenbliebenden Gebaude zahlen 1 PUNKT.
All uncovered buildings no matter what type or value count as 1 point.

Translated by John Webley

Distributed by Mike Siggins from The Sumo Rules Bank

The Game Cabinet - editor@gamecabinet.com - Ken Tidwell