El joc de les rajoles d'Antoni Gaudí


	Here you are in the Passeig de Gràcia in Barcelona. Isn’t Gaudí amazing?. You’ve just visited the Pedrera, and after a look at the dazzling façade of the Casa Batlló you might still have time for a stroll around Park Güell. But wait a moment, what’s this? You find yourself staring at the pavement: these hexagonal tiles are crazy. What a brilliant idea, to introduce marine animals into the middle of the city and set them dancing in perfect harmony! All of a sudden you realize that somebody has mixed up a stack of tiles and given them new colours. Can you retile the Passeig de Gràcia, matching the colours and the forms of jellyfish, conches and starfish?

The players score points by putting down tiles that match animal and colour and correspond to their secret objective. The winner is the player with most points at the end of the game.

Components of the game

- 84 hexagonal tiles hexagonal tiles of different colours from the Passeig de Gràcia in Barcelona.
- 12 objective cards (6 ‘Animal’ cards and 6 ‘Colour’ cards).
- 150 counters (of 6 Gaudí motifs from the Park Güell benches) to markthe animals taken.

Preparation

Before starting play, carefully separate the tiles from the cardboard sheets and place them face down on one side of the table. Each player then picks up one ‘Animal’ objective card, one ‘Colour’ objective card and a set of counters with a single motif: 35 counters each for 2 players, 25 for 3 or 4 players and 15 for 5 or 6 players. The objective cards are secret, and must not be shown to the other players until the end of the game. The remaining objective cards are set aside.

A tile with the three colours is placed in the middle of the table. Each player then takes three tiles from the pile without showing them to the other players, and the game can commence. The youngest player starts, and play then continues in a clockwise direction.

If you want to play a short game, take only fifty tiles at random, leaving the rest in the box.

Rules of the game

The player whose turn it is places one, two or three tiles on the table, in such a way that animal and colour coincide with one of the tiles already played. It may be that none of the player’s three tiles coincides with any of the tiles on the table. When this happens, the player returns one tile to the pile and takes another until he or she gets one that can be played.

You must put down at least one tile at each turn. If you put down two or three tiles you must respect the following two conditions:

1. The two or three tiles must touch each other. However, when three tiles are put down at the same time they must not form a compact block (see fig. 1).

2. If you put down two tiles you must complete at least one animal, your own or not. If you put down three tiles you must complete two animals (see fig. 2).

When you complete an animal that corresponds to one or both of your two objectives, you put a counter with your motif in the centre of the animal. If the animal does not correspond to either of your objectives, no counter is placed on it.

After each turn, the player picks up as many new tiles from the pile as he or she has put down and the next player on the left takes their turn.

End of the game and scoring

The game is over when one of the players is left with no tiles and there are no more in the pile to be picked up. Each player scores one point for each animal corresponding to one of their objectives that has been marked with one of their counters, and two points for each animal corresponding to both of their objectives that has been marked with one of their counters. The winner is the player with most points. Figure 3 shows an example of scoring.

Strategy

It will almost always be possible for you to play one of the tiles you have in your hand without replacing a tile and picking up a new one. But at times it might be to your advantage not to. And of course, you don’t know what your opponents animal and colour objectives are. At least, at the start of the game you don’t, because if you’re going to win you have to work out which combinations are good for your fellow players and try to block them. So one way or another you can always make the most of the tiles in your hand.

Rules for very young players

Young children can ignore the second condition for putting down two or three tiles. They can be allowed to put down three tiles in a compact block, and they don’t have to keep their objective cards secret, either.

Girls and boys as young as four can play at putting tiles next to one another and trying to match the colour or the animal.

Rules for 2 or 3 players

The only change is that before starting the game, three ‘Animal’ and three ‘Colour’ objective cards are set aside, so that the six cards in play are all different.