Idea of the game and goal

Players play cards to occupy coloured fields on a map. A player wins by owning 4 directly adjacent fields in a line horizontally, vertically or diagonally. If no player wins after 20 rounds, the player who owns the largest contiguous area (number of horizontally and vertically related fields) is declared the winner.

Game contents

1	map
80	stackable stones (20 each in 4 colours)
60	playing cards (10 each in 6 colours)

Game preparation

• The map is placed in the center of the table
  and each player chooses a colour and takes the 20 stones of that colour.
  
  
• The playing cards are carefully shuffled and each player receives 7 cards.
  Players pick up their cards and look at them, but do not show them to the other players.
  The remaining cards are stacked face down to form a stock pile next to the map.
  
  
• The most colourful player starts, with play passing in a clockwise direction.

Gameplay

Each player, in turn, plays one or more cards of the same colour, and puts one of their stones on a field that matches the colour of the played card(s). He then draws as many cards as he played from the stock pile.

1st - Play one or more cards

• The player, whose turn it is, must play at least one card.
  If the field is unoccupied, he plays one card.
  
  
• If there are already one or more stones on the field,
  he has to play one more card than stones.
  
  

  Example: On a green field is a tower of 2 stones. The player must play 3 green cards so that he can put one of his stones on top of the tower and thereby take possession of the field.

  On Yucata.de the stones will not be shown stacked. Instead there is a little number next to the stone. This number shows how many cards you must play. It is not the height of the tower! The star shows the last move of a player.

• The played cards are placed face up on a discard pile next to the map.

2nd - Place a stone upon the map

• The player puts one of his stones upon an empty field or on top of another stone and so takes possession of that field.
  
  
• All players are allowed to put stones upon any field
  (as long as they have sufficient cards to do so).
  
  
• Stones are stacked to build a tower.
  The tower of stones belongs to the player whose stone is on the top.

3rd - Draw cards

• After a player has placed a stone,
  he draws exactly as many cards as he played from the stock pile.
  At the end of his turn he will have 7 cards again.
  
  
• Play then passes to the person on the player's left
  (in a clockwise direction).
  
  
• When all cards from the stock pile have been taken,
  the cards in the discard pile are shuffled and form a new stock pile.

No playable cards

In the extremely rare case that a player has insufficient cards of any colour to place a stone, he must change all his cards. He shows his cards to his opponent(s), who verify that the player cannot make a valid move, discards his cards onto the discard pile, draws 7 new cards from the stock pile and returns one of his unused stones to the box. This marks the end of the player's turn.

End of the game

The game ends if a player owns 4 adjacent fields in a row (horizontally, vertically or diagonally). The player with 4 adjacent fields is the winner.

Winning rows

No winning rows

If, after all players have used their 20 stones (after 20 rounds), no player owns 4 adjacent fields, the game ends and the player who owns the largest contiguous (horizontally and vertically only) field is declared the winner. If there is a tie, the players with the largest areas count all the stones (regardless of colour) in their largest area and the player with the most stones is the winner. If there is still a tie, those that tied with the most stones in the largest area are joint winners.

Red owns 5 fields, Green owns 4 fields, Blue owns 3 fields, Yellow owns 2 fields. Red wins.

Variant

For a much greater challenge, a player must own 5 fields in a row ( ) to win instead of 4 fields in a row ( ). All other rules remain the same. Since it is extremely difficult to own 5 fields in a row, the winner is usually determined by the player with the largest contiguous field after 20 rounds.