Game: Rat Hot

Thread: Re: Air below question

todi — 2008-10-20T00:50:59+00:00

Thought as much. Thanks John

Thread: Re: Air below question

modboy — 2008-10-19T17:37:46+00:00

Hi Sanjay,
All second and third, etc. level tiles may not have ANY air below them. This means an entire tile must either have the table directly below it (first level) or tiles directly below it (in the case additional layers).

Also remember you cannot place a tile directly on top of another tile. A second layer tile will always have 2 or 3 tiles underneath it.

Thread: Air below question

todi — 2008-10-19T13:20:05+00:00

Does the "Not have any air below" refer to only the first tile placed or subsequent tiles also. For instance I have already placed a tile over a set of tiles without any air below. In case I want to place another tile as a second layer should the 'air below' rule be observed. That is when a third tile is placed should it have the second tile completely below it? What if the third tile had only the first tile below it? Would this have air between the 1st and the 3rd tile? Is that allowed. Sorry about this rather long winded way of asking, but I hope I got across my doubt.

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Howitzer_120mm — 2008-10-14T06:38:12+00:00

My PnP tiles. These were printed out on a 3mil self adhesive floor tile and cut out.

Thread: Re: In the end, the rats got me

spearjr — 2008-09-30T19:27:48+00:00

RDHan wrote:
(Note, you can play it with RatHot, you just need to remember that each Rat is worth -2 points since in the Dschunke version the cards had 2 rats together instead of just one as in Rat Hot.)
I don't think that was the intention of the Dschunke rules. It states "Each "Rat" symbol reduces the score with -1 point for that player." It is my opinion that the rat symbol looks like 2 rats, but should only count as a -1 each.

Thread: Re: questions about rules:

elgmo — 2008-09-25T11:03:43+00:00

thank you very much.
You helped me.
Regards,
elgmo

Thread: Re: questions about rules:

EvanMinn — 2008-09-25T10:54:50+00:00

Yes, but all the tiles are considered goods tiles even if they only have rats on them.

As long as it joins another tile within the restrictions of not overlaying another completely and no air underneath, what is on the tile and how what is on it matches up to the exiting tiles doesn't matter except for points scoring.

The rule you are quoting is just saying it can't be off by itself or just touching diagonally but must be connected to an existing tile.

Thread: Re: questions about rules:

elgmo — 2008-09-25T10:22:18+00:00

I'm not sure I've understood you, and it's been a long time since my last play, but I'll try to help:

If I recall correctly:

1.- You're not forced to match tiles, though you're supposed to match your colour spices to get points. So, there's no way you can't join two tiles (I mean, horizontally)
2.- The only placement rules are that you can't stack a tile over another one (completely covering it) and that you can't let "air" under a tile (because there's no tile under a segment of the upper one)
3.- Of course you can. This starting tile is to balance the beginning (the first player only places two tiles, and this first one contains a spice of every color, again, IIRC...)

HI As it is written in Rules I think it should match ?
Thanks
drazen

• A goods tile must be laid so that at least one
square joins onto a goods tile that has already
been laid.

Thread: Re: questions about rules:

Marasaurio — 2008-09-25T10:06:27+00:00

Thread: questions about rules:

elgmo — 2008-09-25T07:15:10+00:00

Hi !
If I can ask to you couple a question about rules:
1. What IF i can't join tile, no spice or mouse are matching ?
2. Is it allowed to join empty 1/3 tile if there is empty 1/3 tile on another tile ?
3. S for start tile can be used to join with any spice or empty space ?

Regards and thanks from Croatia.
drazen

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GaryP — 2008-07-25T23:36:41+00:00

Other box side with happily fed rats

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SiskNY — 2008-07-07T16:08:43+00:00

Original version of Rat Hot--highly portable!!

Thread: Re: Rat cancels Goods group

GaryP — 2008-07-01T23:13:06+00:00

Old post, but did you ever try it? With which rules? How did it work?

Thread: Re: Easy DIY: Make with Jenga blocks

garygarison — 2008-06-10T18:07:22+00:00

Drew1365 wrote:
Is the distribution of goods and rats the same in "Dschunke: Das Legenspiel" as it is in "Rat Hot"?

Just a couple tiles are different. As is the scoring. There's a thread in the forums that discusses the differences.

Thread: Re: Easy DIY: Make with Jenga blocks

garygarison — 2008-06-10T18:04:50+00:00

Yes, I wavered on using original natural Jenga. I had the colored ones already and passed over plain wood Jenga at thrifts multiple times. Though I was concerned the tri-color background might prove distracting, in the end I like the Mondrian Broadway Boogie-Woogie look of the completed game.

Thread: Re: Easy DIY: Make with Jenga blocks

Drew1365 — 2008-06-10T18:02:20+00:00

What a great idea.

Is the distribution of goods and rats the same in "Dschunke: Das Legenspiel" as it is in "Rat Hot"?

Thread: Re: Easy DIY: Make with Jenga blocks

GaryP — 2008-06-10T17:51:23+00:00

Great idea! ~~Please post a picture of a completed game. I'd love to see how it looks with all the blocks stacked up.~~ I'm happy with my copy of Rat Hot, but I'm tempted to make a copy of the original this way. Drawing Jenga blocks out of a sack and stacking them is a kinesthetic treat!

EDIT: I saw the pics. Very cool indeed! Although, I'm inclined to stick with the original Jenga blocks with natural wood finish.

Thread: Re: Easy DIY: Make with Jenga blocks

garygarison — 2008-06-10T09:01:34+00:00

Well, first of all, Rat Hot is not Dschunke: Das Legespiel. Those wanting the original (and in the opinion of many, superior) version must make their own.

Many households have an old, ignored Jenga lying around. And in the US, Jenga are frequently found in thrift stores. Besides, a homemade version on thick wood blocks feels better than cardboard. And mine has pictures of poop!

Thread: Re: Easy DIY: Make with Jenga blocks

Motorkopf — 2008-06-10T08:35:32+00:00

Why would you do that?
Rat Hot is about half the price of Jenga.

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garygarison — 2008-06-10T03:12:49+00:00

Poops 'n Blooms endgame. Poop prevails, 24-17.

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garygarison — 2008-06-10T03:11:02+00:00

Rat Hot girlfriend

Thread: Easy DIY: Make with Jenga blocks

garygarison — 2008-06-10T01:44:04+00:00

Forget cutting wood and foamcore. Just print out the tile images on full sheet labels and affix them to Jenga blocks. Jenga blocks are a perfect 3 X 1 size, and their chunkiness makes it easy to distinguish levels.

If you're the creative type, make your own re-theme with stickers. See my version, Poops 'n Blooms:

]]>

And completed game:

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garygarison — 2008-06-10T00:56:13+00:00

Homemade version, Poops 'n Blooms

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garygarison — 2008-06-10T00:54:54+00:00

Homemade version, Poops 'n Blooms

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Nimrod6 — 2008-05-08T19:39:00+00:00

DIY on wood tiles - bag pocket holds start tile

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ArtEmiSa64 — 2008-01-30T17:00:34+00:00

box inside

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ArtEmiSa64 — 2008-01-30T16:59:29+00:00

game components

Thread: Re: Ran out of points discs

Reprint — 2007-12-21T00:59:01+00:00

Take two grey coins and paint them another colour (white, black?) and have this coin count as a 10. Or, stick on a coloured sticker, if you don't want to mar your game.
When you get 10 points trade in for this coin.
If that's not enough for your scores, dress up another grey coin.

Thread: Re: In the end, the rats got me

Rompcat — 2007-09-09T06:28:47+00:00

Rompcat wrote:
Out team is what?

RAT HOT!

Our team is what?

RAT HOT!

Our team is . . .

R! A! T!

H! O! T!

RAT HOT! RAT HOT! RAT HOT!

Thread: Re: In the end, the rats got me

Gnomekin — 2007-09-08T16:32:30+00:00

Rompcat wrote:
Out team is what?

Each player is a specific color. If, at the end of their turn, three rats of their color are showing, they automatically lose the game.

Thread: Re: In the end, the rats got me

RDHan — 2007-09-08T06:18:20+00:00

We find playing with the Dschunke - Das Legespiel rules to be more enjoyable. This game is about the same as Rat Hot and was available from his web page for download before Rat Hot came out. I believe the rules for this are here on the Geek under RatHot. (Note, you can play it with RatHot, you just need to remember that each Rat is worth -2 points since in the Dschunke version the cards had 2 rats together instead of just one as in Rat Hot.)

Thread: Re: In the end, the rats got me

Rompcat — 2007-09-08T05:14:47+00:00

Out team is what?

Thread: In the end, the rats got me

Gnomekin — 2007-09-07T17:36:03+00:00

Michael Schacht is a game designer who kind of snuck up on me. When Zooleretto won the Spiel des Jour, I decided to see what other games he had designed. Much to surprise, not only has he designed quite a few games, I own a bunch of them. So, I decided to make an effort at getting some of his games on the table and see what this guy was like.

Rat Hot is not one of his bigger games, either in hype or in size. In fact, the box could be cut in half with no problem whatsoever. Still and all the same, it was a Schacht game so I brought it over one night when Bryan and I were playing two-player games.

We sat down, went over the rules, and started playing. It’s a pretty simple game. My biggest problem was my color blindness. While that actually not an issue for the goods since they are also shape as well as color coded, the rats were a little tricky for me.

Much to my surprise, while not an overwhelming experience, Rat Hot was better than I expected. I’ve played a lot of tile laying games but Rat Hot managed to have two twists which added some spice to the game. The stacking rules, which I didn’t expect to have too much impact on the game, really played a big role in the way we placed our tiles.

The other twist was the sudden-death rule, which is how I lost the game. I had two rats showing and Bryan drew two tiles with my rats on them. Try as I might, I could only cover up one rat and I lost the game.

I don’t view that as a flaw in the game. Instead, I view that as an example of how I need to play better. I do want to play Rat Hot again and losing like that was definitely a valuable lesson.

Thread: Re: Dschunke: Das Legespiel rules question

lsamadi — 2007-01-29T21:27:10+00:00

The rules available here clearly state that the game ends when the last tile is played. Once ended, scores are counted and rats count as -1.

Thread: Dschunke: Das Legespiel rules question

DeanMary — 2007-01-29T20:41:14+00:00

I have a copy of Rat Hot, but I am also interested in trying it using the Dschunke: Das Legespiel rules. I think I understand most of the difference except one: the rats. In Rat Hot, if you have 3 of your rats showing after your turn you automatically lose. What happens with rats in Dschunke: Das Legespiel? Do you lose points? If so how many, etc.? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Dean Rekich

Thread: Re: Rat Hot is not the same game as Dschunke: Das Legespiel

Sandsquish — 2006-11-29T22:16:54+00:00

BilboAtBagEnd wrote:
The two different tiles:

Legespiele:
green rat, green flour, green rat
red rat, red flour, red rat

Rat Hot:
green rat, "green flour" (i.e. bubbles), red rat
red rat, "red flour" (i.e. seed), green rat

Due to the "sudden death" nature of having three rats of your own color out, tiles with two rats of the same color are now too powerful.
There are two sets of tiles with two sets of rats in them in "Junks, the Tile-Laying Game."

Both a red and a green tile have rats, a sack of rice/flour, and rats, all of the same color; and both a red and a green tile have rats, rats, and peppers/squash, all of the same color.

If the substitutes for rats, sack of rice, and rats, are the same tiles with the color of one of the sets of rats switched, is the substitute for rats, rats, and peppers, also the same tiles with one of the sets of rats switched to the other color?

I'd like to try out both scoring systems. Presumably the "Rat Hot" variant is more tactical and less strategic than the "Junks" variant.

--Walt

Thread: Adventures in the Third Dimension

ccarlet1 — 2006-08-08T22:44:37+00:00

My wife and I have played this game about 20 times (including five of its original: Dschunke das Legespiel), and think it is one of the deeper, simple games we have played. Set up time is minimal, the rules are simple, but after a few plays, the tactical and strategic decision making cause a mild brain burn.

This a tile laying game, where you can stack the tiles. The tiles themselves are 3x1 and depict a variety of spices and rats. The goal is to match as many spices as you can while covering up your colour's rats.

Bits:

The game comes with 42 tiles of good quality cardboard. The artwork is cartoonish, and you may find yourself wondering what some of the spices are. We have given some their own names, like cauliflower and bamboo. There are four different green and red spices: each spice is represented ten times and each coloured rat is represented eight times.

Also included are wooden disks for scorekeeping: grey for single points; yellow for double points.

Rules/Play:

The rules are quite simple. A starting tile is laid, and then players take turns laying tiles. The first player lays one, and thereafter each lays two, until the last turn, when the second player lays only one.

Tiles are laid so that at least one of the three squares of the new tile is aligned with one of a previously laid tile. You can also place a tile on top of other tiles, but there must be no spaces under the tile. Also, you cannot place a tile directly on top of another: that is, it must rest on at least two different tiles (this adds a very cool wrinkle to the game).

The goal is to match your spices when you lay tiles and this is how you get points: one point for two matching spices; two points for three or more matching spices. These points are given to the player immediately. At the end of the game, all matching spices that are still showing (many will get covered up during the game) are scored again for the player's grand total. Whoever has the most points wins.

The game can end before the last tile is played. If a player has three rats showing at the end of his turn, he automatically loses. You have to be especially careful when you have two rats showing as you can draw another tile with one of your rats and not be able to cover either of the two already showing.

Strategy:

After a few plays I found this game increasingly more engaging. Whenever possible, you need to take advantage of tile stacking. If you have matching spices on two or more different levels, it is a lot more work for your opponent to cover them up (keeping in mind the re-scoring at the end of the game). Also, if you can get an opponent's rat surrounded by different levels, they will have to waste a few tiles to cover it.

I found getting into the mindframe of using the third dimension very challenging and interesting. You have to carefully consider how each tile is laid, or you will find your spices covered very quickly, and you opponent's very difficult to cover. The original of this game, Dschunke das Legespiel, is even more strategic as there is no scoring until the end of the game.

Conclusion:

We enjoy this game immensely, and I give it a very solid 8. It's rather light on theme, and will not scratch that itch. However. if you are looking for a quick and easy thinker, this is definitely it. We will be getting many more plays out of this game.

Thread: Re: Dschunke Das Legespiel vs Rat Hot

clearclaw — 2006-08-08T08:09:30+00:00

ccarlet1 wrote:
So which one do we prefer? My wife prefers DdL because the end game is so crucial. I prefer Rat Hot because the game doesn't depend so heavily on the end game. Both are really fun though, and I like that Rat Hot is really two games in one!

I prefer D:dl. It is also the game I first learned, having made my own copy from the images on Michael's website. Rat Hot's later example seemed pale and insipid by comparison. I like the fact that in D:dl more forward planning is required, that the game is more cutthroat, that the 3D stacking nature of the game is more significant to good play, and that tile counting is better rewarded.

Thread: Dschunke Das Legespiel vs Rat Hot

ccarlet1 — 2006-08-07T22:20:40+00:00

When my wife and I heard from an earlier session report I did about the original version of Rat Hot, we had to try it for comparison purposes. We downloaded the rules from BGG and had a best of seven of each.

One thing both games have in common is that my wife kicked my butt in both series DdL: 4 games to my 1; Rat Hot: 4 games to my 2.

DdL is definitely the more strategic of the two. You don't score points until all the tiles have been laid, so you have to think ahead, and the decisions can be quite agonizing. In Rat Hot you get points immediately for matching tiles so you can take the money and run, and worry about the end game later.

In DdL it is all in the end game. One of our games ended with a score of 3-0. The rules give scoring for formations of 11 matching spices: we never had more than 4. In another very hard fought match I was leading 4-3; then my wife drew the last avilable tile. She won 10-1 by covering one of my formations and one of her rats, and creating a new formation for herself. That is kind of frustrating when one tile--the last tile--can change the game so thoroughly, so you have to play with that in mind.

There is a similar species of frustration in Rat Hot. In one match I drew the last tile and it had one of my rats on it. There was no way I could cover either of the two I already had showing so I lost. In DdL, the rats just count as -1, so it is not always so important to cover them up.

The end game is still important even though you score points along the way in Rat Hot. Usually I score more during the game than my wife, but she always scores more at the end. She does seem incredibly lucky in the last two turns, but she claims it is all in the set up. So, while Rat Hot is definitely more of a tactical game, strategy will win out more often than not.

So which one do we prefer? My wife prefers DdL because the end game is so crucial. I prefer Rat Hot because the game doesn't depend so heavily on the end game. Both are really fun though, and I like that Rat Hot is really two games in one!

Thread: Review from Gameblog

msaari — 2006-08-06T14:40:38+00:00

Rat Hot is a small two-player tile-laying game from Michael Schacht. It was previously web-published as Dschunke: das Legespiel, but this edition is from Queen Games and Rio Grande Games.

The game is about merchants storing goods in a storage; they try to pack similar goods together for easy access. They also have to worry about rats. The theme doesn't make complete sense, but the game is quite abstract in the end, so it doesn't really matter.

Piles of boxes

Players pile 3x1 tiles on the board, two each turn. Each square in a tile can have goods of either player, nothing or a rat (which are also colour-coded). When a tile is placed so that two similar goods are together, the owner of the goods scores one point. If a group of three or more is formed, it's two points.

Rats are a threat. If player has three rats of her own colour showing up in the end of her turn, she loses immediately. So, better cover up those rats! It's a great mechanic to add tension in the game; unfortunately it can rarely lead to situations where players loses on the last turn without any chance to prevent that.

However, it's easy to recognise those situations (and separate them from failed risk-taking) and avoid them, so I wouldn't count this as a big issue. Also, as I said, it should be fairly rare.

Simple rules

The rules of the game are fairly simple and intuitive. The only thing I had problems with was one restriction for the tile placement: you can't place a tile directly on top of another tile. It must always cover at least two tiles. That's an important rule, but it's also a bit non-intuitive.

Otherwise the game is very straightforward and fun, in it's own dry way. It's not a riot, but something I found quite enjoyable, particularly as it's so fast to play. The three-dimensional approach of the game is refreshing, as it's fairly rare in tile-laying games.

Limited recommendations

The game is a tad expensive for a short filler, at least here in Finland, so I wouldn't recommend it, unless you play two-player games regularly. In that case Rat Hot is worth a try, it should give you something new and fresh for a while.

I know I won't be buying the game, as my two-player gaming is occasional and I don't think I'd get enough bang for a buck from Rat Hot. With a regular opponent (for example if my wife were more into games), I would get this without a doubt.

Thread: Re: Ran out of points discs

DougOrleans — 2006-07-31T01:28:58+00:00

It's a pretty common occurrence. I usually just have the players discard equal numbers of points discs until there's enough in the bank. Or it's usually easy enough to just count up the endgame scores without using the discs. In any case, you definitely should not consider the number of discs to be a limit on scoring.

Thread: Re: Ran out of points discs

peepeeweewee — 2006-07-29T13:36:45+00:00

Yes I was thinking the yellows should be 3 or even 5 as I went to bed last night. We only received 15 yellows and 15 gray discs, which means the total points cannot exceed 45, which seems way too low.

Thread: Re: Ran out of points discs

cymric — 2006-07-29T06:10:52+00:00

Have yellow discs count for 3 instead of 2. Problem solved.

Thread: Ran out of points discs

peepeeweewee — 2006-07-29T05:25:07+00:00

We played this for the first time tonight and really liked it, but when the game ended there were not enough point discs to award scores for groups remaining at the end. We were very close in points so this left the ending very inconclusive and we were unable to come to decision about who really won. Has anyone else had this problem? This seems so obviously broken that I am wondering if maybe we were doing something wrong to have high enough scores to get to this... I will study the rules some more I spose.

Thread: Re: His movements indicate two-dimensional thinking

ccarlet1 — 2006-07-27T05:44:01+00:00

My wife and I played two games of D:dL tonight; and found it to be more strategic and deeper--almost a brain-burner. One of our games was very low scoring; and in the other my wife soundly beat me. The trade off I suppose would be the lack of the immediate payoff that you have in Rat Hot. We will definitely be playing some more of both. It's like having two games in one.

I'll keep you posted when I have played more.

Thread: Re: His movements indicate two-dimensional thinking

clearclaw — 2006-07-24T23:20:41+00:00

I find it more interesting, but I'm interested in your reaction having played both systems. I started with the D:dL pattern and didn't like RH's. I wonder what the view of someone making the reverse transition would be.

Thread: Re: His movements indicate two-dimensional thinking

ccarlet1 — 2006-07-24T20:42:48+00:00

I just checked out the rules for D:dl. I can see it would be more balanced. Is the end game as interesting with only one count? Or is the two count system in Rat Hot mainly smoke and mirrors?

Thread: Re: His movements indicate two-dimensional thinking

clearclaw — 2006-07-24T18:47:19+00:00

I advise playing by the original D:dL rules rather than the newer RatHot rules. They make for a more interesting and balanced game.

Thread: His movements indicate two-dimensional thinking

ccarlet1 — 2006-07-24T17:41:36+00:00

My wife and I have played this game seven times, and they have all been pretty close, except for our last one in which I got my butt completely kicked. Nevertheless, it was an instructive butt kicking. In Rat Hot, it's all in the third dimension.

If you have never played Rat Hot, it is a domino-like tile laying game in which you can stack your tiles on top of previously laid ones. It is this element of the game that makes an otherwise simple game, a real thinker.

I was red and my wife was green, and the game started out with us trying to match up our goods. When the tiles got to a second level, then the fun began. My wife placed the first red rat in such a way that I couldn't possibly cover it in one turn. That is because the rat was surrounded on two sides by no tiles, on one side with one tile, and on the other with a stack of two tiles. It was a good tactic on her part, and an indication of the excellent game play from her to come.

Placing rats (if three of yours are showing at the end of your turn you automatically lose), or placing your matching goods (this is how you score points) in such a way that they are at different levels is crucial, but not always so easy.

By the time my wife was leading 8-6 (about 1/3 of the tiles used) we had tiles three high in places. About half way through, we were tied 10-10, and I had two rats showing to my wife's one. From there things went down hill for me.

In about five or six turns my wife placed a third red rat three times! Every time that happens, at least one tile, and sometimes two, have to be devoted to covering a rat, and often no points are scored. My wife also managed to place my third rat in such a way that it was easiest for me to cover one of her rats with one of mine. She had me on the run.

Then I drew one of my own rats, and scored no points.

It was nearing the end game now, in which it is very important to have covered as many of your opponent's formations as possible (in Rat Hot you score points as soon as you match goods, and again at the end of the game). However, my wife's goods were stacked in such a way that it was difficult to lay a single tile to disrupt the formations; not to mention that I had given up four turns to rat covering.

Unfortunately, my formations were much easier to cover, and I knew I was in for a drubbing. When we tallied our first count the score was 24-16 for my wife; after the second count, 34-20.

Like Khan, I was thinking two-dimensionally. Matching goods on multiple levels is the winning tactic, as well as placing rats in such a way that they are very difficult to cover, and I was totally outclassed. She claims you have to be able to think like a rat to win this game, so perhaps I was underclassed.

Thread: Re: 4 rats not 3

otrex — 2006-03-13T15:05:52+00:00

Don't forget that it's only on the end of your own turn where you can lose. If your opponent places your 3rd rat, you still get a full turn in which you can attempt to cover one or more of them.

Thread: Re: Rat Hot is not the same game as "Dschunke: Das Legespiel

BilboAtBagEnd — 2006-02-26T01:29:05+00:00

The start tile is actually not different, and all but two of the tiles show the same symbol distribution.

If you look at the Legespiel images, then translate the following:

Legespiele -> Rat Hot:
Green fish -> green "bamboo"
Red fish -> red "thorns"
Red salt -> "peach powder"
Green salt -> green "leaves"
Red eggplant -> red hot pepper
Green eggplant -> green hot peppers (jalapenos)
Red flour -> red "seed"
Green flour -> green "bubbles"

(I'm sure these are all real herbs and spices, but apart from the jalapenos, I don't know what they're called.)

The two different tiles:

Legespiele:
green rat, green flour, green rat
red rat, red flour, red rat

Rat Hot:
green rat, "green flour" (i.e. bubbles), red rat
red rat, "red flour" (i.e. seed), green rat

Due to the "sudden death" nature of having three rats of your own color out, tiles with two rats of the same color are now too powerful. In the old game, this was balanced out by the fact that you could play the tile in a good place (e.g., boost your flour symbols into a higher geometric score, so that the minuses from the rats don't matter much).

But think: you have two "blank" leftover tiles when you punched this game out. This means you could (if you wanted) make the two last tiles and have effectively two games with slightly different scoring.

Thread: Re: How do you score "groups"?

casterman — 2006-02-16T21:03:03+00:00

Haven't played that simply adding a spice - but not increasing the spice count - to a group actually scores. So, add one more way to score points in this simple ruleset yet fairly tactical little game.

Thread: Re: How do you score "groups"?

Colorado_Jeff — 2006-02-16T20:15:05+00:00

When I first got the game, I had similar questions which I asked Jay Tummelson from Rio Grande Games. Maybe these will help, though Jay is good about answering questions if you think you need more info than what I asked. I didn't ask about "L" shaped groups as I had assumed any cluster of similar orthogonally adjacent symbols was a group. My questions and his answers follow:

One rule states:

"Points are scored if laying the tile has created or
changed a group of the same spices."

If a tile overlays in such a way that you place an
identical spice on top of another, but the number of
spices for that group remains the same, has it
changed?

yes

If a tile overlaps and REDUCES the number of spices in
a previous group, has that group changed and does it
score again?

yes

I guess a summary question would be: Does a group need
to increase in size by one or more to be considered
"changed" and thus scored again?

no

Thread: Re: How do you score "groups"?

TrimChris — 2006-02-16T19:30:24+00:00

I have the same first question as you do about "groups". We've been allowing L configurations in the absence of any other information.

I don't think that seperating a group should trigger any points since you didn't add a new piece to create a group.

Thread: Rat cancels Goods group

GeoMan — 2005-12-28T17:07:59+00:00

I was thinking of the following variant:

A Rat next to a group(s) of goods nillifies any points from that group(s)

Can be used with the old or new rules.

Thread: Re: What are the 8 spices?

disclamer — 2005-12-23T18:34:11+00:00

I believe they are as follows:

Red
ginger
nutmegs (with mace)
red chiles
cloves

Green
sugar cane
green peppercorns
green chiles
basil leaves

Thread: How do you score "groups"?

casterman — 2005-12-13T01:07:34+00:00

The example in the rules show a group of like spices in a row. Is this the only way a group (of more than 2 tiles) is scored? What if you end up with a group in an L-shape having 3 tiles? Also, if you place a tile on top of existing tiles and say eliminate a single spice from a group or split a large group of a spice into two smaller groups do you score these? I'm thinking that you do but the rules as printed are a bit ambiguous. Can anyone who knows answer these? Thanks.

Thread: Rat Hot endgame problem, and a variant to fix it

DougOrleans — 2005-12-07T22:32:41+00:00

Since the last player only gets to place one tile instead of two, there can be an endgame problem. Suppose the first player is red and the last player is green. On the second-to-last turn, red draws two tiles, each with one green rat. He can place each of them on the edge of the layout such that neither can be immediately covered with one tile. (I believe this is always possible, if the table is large enough that the edge rule doesn't come into play.) Then if the final tile also has a green rat on it, green is guaranteed to lose!

I find this dissatisfying, so I propose a simple variant: ignore any rats on the final tile. What do you think? The last player will still lose if there are three uncoverable rats showing at the beginning of his turn, but I think this is something that can be avoided with careful planning (or the risk can just be accepted). I just wanted to eliminate the possibility of a player losing due to circumstances completely beyond his control.

Thread: What are the 8 spices?

DougOrleans — 2005-12-03T21:22:25+00:00

Can anyone identify the 8 spices in Rat Hot? I recognize ginger, red & green pepper, and maybe cloves, but I have no clue about the others.

Also, where did this theme come from? Is there some German folk tale about spice merchants and rats?

Thread: Re: Rules don't cover it

DougOrleans — 2005-12-02T20:36:28+00:00

A footnote to this thread: the rules for Rat Hot say that you can't place a tile that would go past the edge of the table. So if your table is small enough, you might have unplayable tiles!