English Deutsch hier Here we will post rules clarifications as questions come in to us. Please keep your questions and 'house rules' coming. For an overview of ICE FLOW, go here For full rules PDFs, go here Rules Questions & Clarifications: ICE FLOW is an easy game to learn. It is also a dynamic game, so the permutations and combinations created by movement across the moving ice floes may offer situations not covered in the rules. In the words of one satisfied player: "the ICE FLOW rules are not complicated, but complexity arises from simplicity during game play"; we couldn't have said it better. Rules Notes: If our rules lawyers had had their way, the rule booklet would have been at least 12 pages long! As ever, we had to make some decisions about keeping in and cutting out. An early suggestion was to have a 'quick start' page: one page to get the casual player going, but this was not popular with our early read-testers: it generated too many questions! This has turned into summary boxes at the end of the first edition rules (page 4). Throughout the rules we have tried to keep the main text for the essentials needed to play the game, leaving questions not essential to immediate play in the yellow side-bars. This won't please everyone, but one of the melancholy joys of board gaming is that nothing ever does. For ICE FLOW the general 'rule of thumb' is this: play is intuitive; if you think the answer is "yes", it probably is. Erratum: Page 3: (Fii. Distract 1 Polar Bear) German rules Unfortunately, a line of text has been missed from this section of the German rules. More details in German here. HINTS for play: 1. After the initial setup phase, new items only appear on new ice floes. If you choose not to discover new ice floes, fish and rope will inevitably become scarce. 2. Plan ahead. It is often more efficient to hold back, get items and ice floes in place, and then make longer single movements to safer or more powerful positions. 3. The last explorer is the hardest to get home, mainly because it becomes harder to collect fish and rope. Try not to leave this explorer the toughest Siberian stations, ie: those not on the headlands. 4. Be prepared. If you approach Siberia with your last explorer carrying no rope or fish, expect to get caught by the other players. 5. Please remember: polar bears are not pets, they are very dangerous wild animals. As with all arctic expeditions: walk softly and carry a big fish. Q&A: Some player questions have been edited slightly for clarity and language. Q. When you think that you are stuck with one of your explorers (for instance the last one) can you instead of taking a turn "teleport” him back to any space in Alaska? A. No. Sorry. A more comprehensive answer to this question can be found at the ICE FLOW our Board Game Geek entry here. Another detailed swimming question... There is another full response to a question about using fish to swim around a pack ice obstacle here. Q. It's my turn. After I have bounced a polar bear - and others have moved out of the way - can I collect an object? A. Yes. This is the end of your movement turn, so you can collect 1 object from the ice floe on which your explorer is standing (rules: see page 2, Bii for details). Q. When does the deck get shuffled? A. This is covered in the "Ice Floe Questions" side-bar on page 2: "Re-shuffle and re-use". We tried to use these yellow boxes for rules that were intuitive (which this perhaps is), or, as mentioned above, rules that are not necessary to immediate play. The deck cannot run out during the setup phase. Q. What if you draw Diomede during setup? What if you draw it twice? A. Yep, this is an oversight in the "Setup" section (page 1). It was pointed out to us by André Bronswijk at Pegasus, but for some reason we forgot to add it to the final cut. Apologies to André for that. However, the situation is covered elsewhere - see page 2, Aiii: "If you turn a Diomede Islands Card, place the items shown on the islands instead, then place an empty ice floe..." Q. What happens after you've done an ice floe action and an explorer action? Presumably it's the next player's go? Play passes clockwise or anticlock? A. Remember: you MUST complete an ice floe action (this keeps the Bering Straits active), but you MAY complete an explorer action (your choice). As with most games, play then moves to the next player. Clockwise feels intuitive, but this is covered in the "Player Turn Summary" on page 4: "At the end of a turn, play moves clockwise to the next player". Q. Why do the setup turns go anticlockwise? A. Not strictly a rules question (more a development note) but here goes. As with many games, the Starting Player has a small advantage when 'play proper' gets going. Setup play is in reverse order so that the other players get more options when placing their explorers and the starting ice floes. The Starting Player places last in the setup phase to counter his/her slight advantage during play. This tested well, so we kept it in. Q. What should happen if you're stuck at the start with no rope, no fish, and someone is deliberately standing on the only bit of ice that you could have reached, but can't move/rotate it and haven't got the right equipment anyway? A. Each player starts with 3 explorers, 1 rope and 1 fish, etc., so this should not be an issue (see "Preparation and Setup", page 1: "Each Player Receives:"). If you start your explorers from different stations in Alaska, the chances of getting stuck in turn 1 are very small. If you bunch them together there may be a problem, but that, of course, is part of game play. Q. Can I use all the objects in my rucksack together in one turn? A. Yes. You may move one explorer as far as all the objects in your rucksack and the ice floes will allow. This means that you could potentially move from Alaska to Siberia in one turn, but this is unlikely. Remember: you can only use the items in your rucksack at the beginning of your turn. As soon as you stop to collect an object, your explorer action is over. Q. Can I use a fish to swim from an ice floe to Siberia? A. Yes. Although the rules state that fish allow movement across the sea "from ice floe to ice floe", this extends to dry land: i.e. a solid base. Therefore, you may use fish to swim to and from Siberia, Alaska and the Diomede Islands. Q. When you step off land and onto an ice floe, do you pay the cost of 1 rope as per usual to move over broken ice, and then leave the rope on land? A. Yes. The payment is to cross the pack ice, anchored at your starting spot. Q. If you move 'empty handed' onto an ice floe containing a polar bear, can you pick up any fish and then use it to move the polar bear, or does the effect of the animal happen before you get a chance to act? A. You may never move 'empty handed' onto a floe containing a bear. An object is collected at the end of your turn, so any objects used in a given turn must already be in your rucksack at the beginning of that turn (see top of page 3).