In English the title means Swimmers in the Desert which for some will give away the "setting" as that of the novel and film, THE ENGLISH PATIENT. The situation is that of the beginning of the film. Players secretly place swimmers on individual boards with the aim of recreating the exact placement of the swimmers on the game board.

The game is played with 19 small rocks in grey, brown, yellow or white and beautiful handmade materials, and is performed in two parts. During the first part the stones are placed onto the playing field via auctions. Two stones at a time are drawn from the bag and auctioned by having each player bidding using one big and one small card. The small cards have a value from 1 to 3, the big from 1 to 12. The player with the highest product of the two cards may place both stones onto the board. The big card is removed from the game, the small card will stay open until the last card of the same type is played. Only after 3 bidding rounds will you get more small cards in your hand.

The idea is to place the stones in the right order, which is stated on the card you have hidden from your opponents. You may score a row or column five times during the game even when it isn't your turn. When both color and position match you you place a so-called "2F" or "3F" marker at the row/column which will bring you 2 or 3 points for each correct stone - which can amount to quite a good score in the long 5 stone row. If only the color, but not the position, is correct you use the "2A" or "1A" markers. One or two points per stone won't get you far, especially in the short 3-stone row, but the most important aspect is not to use the markers too soon. Firstly, because you cannot score a particular row/column more than once, secondly because you can get your points in the second half of the game.

When all stones have been placed onto the board the second half of the game beings. Here you may rearrange the stones. Before the game is over you may you exchange two stones with each other five times. You shouldn't use your 2- or 3-marker on the short rows/columns, but rather concentrate on the longer. The board has two 5-, four 4- and four 3-rows, and if you don't get the maximum points early in the game will you have to look foolishly on as your opponent places his markers on the two 5- and three of the 4-rows to score maximum points.

Schwimmer in der Wüste

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