Waterhole

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Setup
4. Playing a turn
5. End of the game
6. Tips for beginners
7. Variants
8. Differences from the model game

Overview

In Waterhole the cards are animals gathering round a waterhole: the Aces are the smallest, the 8s the biggest. On your turn you add one or more cards of the same rank to their place. As soon as three or more of a kind are at the waterhole, they chase off the nearest weaker animals, and you capture those cards. There is one surprise: the Aces are the only animals that can chase the 8s. Every captured card is worth a point; the player with the most captured cards wins.

• Players: 2–4.
• You need: two standard 52-card decks, and paper and pencil for the score.

Waterhole is our own adaptation for ordinary cards, inspired by Kariba (Reiner Knizia, 2010). It has not been playtested in this form yet.

The cards

Take the Aces to 8s of both decks: 64 cards, eight of each rank. The Ace counts as 1, the weakest animal; the 8 is the strongest. Suits don't matter.

Setup

1. Leave room in the middle of the table for the waterhole: eight places in a ring, one for each rank – A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 – with the 8 next to the Ace. If it helps, write A to 8 in a ring on a sheet of paper and play the cards around it.
2. Shuffle and deal 5 cards to each player. Put the rest face down as the draw pile.
3. Choose a start player; play goes clockwise.

Playing a turn

1. Play: put one or more cards of the same rank from your hand onto their place at the waterhole. Fan them out so that everybody can count them. You must play at least one card.
2. Chase: if that place now holds three or more cards, these animals chase off the nearest weaker animals at the waterhole: look at the next lower rank; if its place is empty, look at the one below, and so on (down to the Aces at most – never on round to the 8s). Take all cards of the first place you find with cards and put them face down in front of you – they are your captured cards. The cards that did the chasing stay where they are. If there is no weaker animal at the waterhole, nothing happens.
3. The Aces and the 8s: three or more Aces chase the 8s – and only the 8s. The 8s can't be chased by anything else.
4. Draw from the draw pile until you have 5 cards again.

A place with three or more cards chases again every time someone adds cards to it.

Example: At the waterhole there are one 7, two 6s and three 4s (as in the picture). Anna plays two 7s: now there are three 7s, and they chase the 6s – Anna captures the two 6s. Ben adds another 7: four 7s. The 6s are gone and there are no 5s, so the 7s chase the 4s – Ben captures three cards. Carla plays one Ace: three Aces, which chase the two 8s.

End of the game

When the draw pile is empty, play on without drawing. The game ends as soon as a player has played their last card. Cards left in the other players' hands don't count.

Everybody counts their captured cards: 1 point per card. The most points win; tied players share the win. A full game is three deals – add up the points. Before each new deal, clear the waterhole and shuffle all 64 cards again; the start player moves one seat clockwise.

Tips for beginners

• Don't be the one who makes it two. Two cards at a place invite the next player to add the third and chase the animals below.
• Big herds are worth hunting: wait until a weaker place has several cards before you chase it.
• Keep pairs in your hand. Playing two cards at once can turn one card at the waterhole into three straight away.
• Watch the 8s: they are safe from everything but the Aces, so they pile up – and three Aces take the lot.
• Look at the gaps: when the next lower place is empty, your chase goes further down.

Variants

• Single deal: play just one deal instead of three.

Differences from the model game

The original has its own animal cards and a small board showing the waterhole. Here the ranks A to 8 of two decks give exactly eight cards of each animal, and the ring of places replaces the board. Sharing the win on a tie is our own rule.