'Dillos In Austin

Release Date: 
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Setup Time: 
Play Duration (new players): 
Play Duration (experienced): 
Minimum number of players: 
Maximum number of players: 
Minimum Age: 
13

by Jonathan Leistiko

Object

Get from your home to the capitol building in the middle of town without getting captured by the dillo hunter.

You Need

  • Two 6-sided dice.
  • A city map.
  • Road pieces.
  • An opaque bag or other container.
  • A five pawns of different shapes or colors – one for each dillo and one for the Dillo Hunter).
  • Pieces and the small or large large version of the board.

Setting Up

Put the city map in the middle of the table where everyone can reach it. Put the road pieces in a bag, shake it to assure randomness, and put the pieces face-up on the board. Fill every space except the center space and the corner spaces.
Pick a pawn and put it in an unoccupied corner. This is your home space.

Put the Dillo Hunter on the capitol in the center of the board.

Choose someone to go first.

Play

On your turn, roll two dice. If you roll doubles, the player to your left moves the Dillo Hunter the ammount shown on one die.

Pawns may only move to any adjacent (but not diagonal) square containing a road that connects to the road in the square occupied by that pawn. If a pawn enters a space occupied by a stop sign, it must stop moving.

After the Dillo Hunter moves (if it moves), choose one of the dice you rolled. Look up that number on the Action Chart.

Action Roll:

  1. Twist
  2. Swap
  3. Push
  4. Twist or Push
  5. Swap or Push
  6. Twist, Swap, or Push

 

Take the action indicated by your chosen roll.

Twist: Turn an unoccupied road section 90 degrees.

Swap: Switch the location of two unoccupied road sections without changing the orientation of either section.

Push: Push an entire row or column of unoccupied road sections one square to the north, south, east, or west. Take the section that moves off the board and place it in the unoccupied space at the opposite end of the moved row. Do not change the orientation of any moved sections.

After you complete your action, move your dillo pawn the amount shown on the unused die. You may not enter a square more than once during your turn. You do not have to move your full allottment, but unused movement is used by the player to your left to move the Dillo Hunter.

If the Dillo Hunter lands on you, place your pawn on your home space. If you land on the Dillo Hunter, you and the player to your left each roll one die. Add any unused movement to your result. If your total is greater than what the player to your left rolled, you get to move the ‘Dillo Hunter spaces equal to your unused movement or the difference between your totals – whichever is greater.

If you enter a space occupied by another dillo, then theres a Dillo Battle! Each of you roll two dice. The player with the highest total wins and gets to move the other player spaces equal to the difference in totals. If you force a player to land on the ‘Dillo Hunter, place that ‘dillo on its home space.

Once any conflicts are resolved, or you’ve used all of your movement, your turn is over. Play passes to the left.

Winning

If you land on the capitol in the center of the board, you win the game.

Variants

City Planning
During Setup, let players take turns picking a tile from the bag and placing the tile face-up in a vacant space on the board.

Houston
All tiles are placed face-down. Flip tiles face-up when a pawn is adjacent to them.

Home Again, Home Again…
The winner of the game is the first player to get to the Capitol and home again. Any pawn who has landed on the capitol is sent to the Capitol instead of home if captured by the ‘Dillo Hunter.

Again Home , Again Home…
The winner of the game is the first player to get to the Capitol and home again. Any pawn who has landed on the capitol is sent to the home space on the opposite corner of the board instead of home if captured by the ‘Dillo Hunter.

Its a Small World
The tiles on the center of each side wrap around to their corresponding squares on the opposite side of the board.

Origin and Credits

I made this game up back in April of 2003. It came together pretty rapidly; I dont remember how long it took from inception to first playtest.

The main reason I havent posted it sooner is that it felt like it was too much like other games that wed released at and around that time (Rocketball, and Yield!). Later on, we released Quadruple Agent, which was very similar as well. Another strike against it is that the game has lots of fiddly bits. I try to avoid games with lots of fiddly bits and tokens that you have to cut out.

Thanks to many members of the Monday Night Games Night group for playtesting, including (but not limited to) Kathy, Dave, and Sharon.

Unedited as of April 29th, 2005.