Ostriches

In Ostriches, 2 players confront their armies of special-powered ostriches in an ever changing landscape.

Unfortunately, the ostriches bury their heads in the sand, so you cannot tell which is yours and which is not! Not even which powers they have!

Wait! Special-powered ostriches? Yeah, well... It is a game. Just have fun!

Components

- Four 3x3 tiles
- 12 ostriches pawns, 6 in each color, with identical backs.
- 2 bush tokens
- A bag

Setting up the game

- The four parts of the board are placed in a large 6 x 6 square, each player facing an opposite side of the square.
- The two bush tokens are placed in the center spaces of two of the tiles, on on each side.
- Each player takes the six pawns of one color.
- The first player is randomly determined.
- Each player on turn places one of his pawns, face down, on an empty space on one of the two 3x3 tiles nearest to him, until both players have placed their six pawns.

Playing the game

Players play on turn. On his turn, a player
1) moves a pawn.
2) rotates a tile 90° in any direction

1. Moving a pawn

- The player moves any pawn, save the one just moved by his opponent.
- Pawns move like chess knights, but must land on an empty space.
- If a pawn lands on one of the six spaces of the row nearest to the opponent, it is turned face up an remains so until the end of the game.
- If a pawn is revealed and has a special ability, the player who moved the pawn now uses this ability, even if the pawn belongs to the other player.

Special abilities:

Move bush : move one of the two bush tokens to any other space on the board.
Swap pawns : Swap any two face down pawns on the board
Eye : look at any two face down pawns.
Swap tiles : Swap any two tiles, without rotating them

2. Rotating a tile

- The player rotates 90° clockwise or counterclockwise any one of the four tiles, save the tile where his pawn has landed.
Note : if rotating a tile moves a face down pawn to the row nearest to the opponent, the pawn is NOT turned face up.

Winning the game

First player with four face up pawns wins the game.