Rules

Each player will lead a pack of eight animals, each with a different level, and the goal is to reach, with any of them, the Den in the opponent's side of the board.

Meet the animals

In order to play, place the pieces as indicated on the board. Players will alternate turns ― in which they move one piece ― starting with the one controlling the darker pieces.

The movements

The basic movement is the same for all pieces. They can move up, down or sideways, but never diagonally. Except for the Rat, none of them can enter the River (the blue spaces in the middle of the board). The Lion and the Tiger can, however, jump over the River, moving straight to the space on the other margin. They cannot, though, jump over any Rat that might be strolling in the River.

No animal can move onto a space occupied by an allied animal. They can, however, move to a space occupied by an enemy animal with equal or lower level ― an animal's level is indicated in the pieces, and varies from 1 (Rat) to 8 (Elephant). When this happens, the enemy animal is captured and taken out of the game.

Usually, an animal cannot be captured by a lower level enemy, but Rats have a special ability: since they are so fast and small, they can capture the enemy Elephant, and cannot be captured by it. Check out the animal's levels on the side chart.

Besides the River, there are two more special spaces on the board: the Traps, marked by Xs, and the Dens, marked by circles. When an animal is lying on a Trap in the opponent's side of the board, it can be captured by any of the opponent's animals, regardless of level. And lastly, there are Dens. Your animals can never land on the Den on your side of the board, and when any of your animals land on the Den on your opponent's side of the board the game ends and you win!