So you’ve seen the purdddy pebbles of Mandala Stones, but want to know a little bit more about how they go from stacks to scores, eh? Well, You have come to the right place friends!
The game is simple to set up. Each player gets:
- their own player board,
- reference card, and
- tiny black tracker token
Then, the central mandala scoring board and main board are placed within easy reach. And believe me, you are going to want to be up close and personal with those gorgeous stones!
Having tipped all 96 stones (24 of each colour) into the cloth bag, tiles are then drawn at random and placed in stacks of 4 upon each circular space on the main board. They only go on those spots printed with a small mandala icon, however. There should be no stones left in the bag when the final stack is set.
After that, randomly pick and place the four artist pillars onto their starting locations – essentially N, S, E, and W around the central 4 stacks.
Finally, shuffle the objective cards and deal two face down to each player. Both are kept (secretly, mind you!) as players will get to decide which one best boosts their score at the end of the game.
With your player token sitting eagerly at zero on the score tracker printed on your own player board, that’s it. You are ready to play!
Pick Or Points?
As the review of Mandala Stones suggests, the rules of the game play are no tricker than the set up. You effectively have only two possible actions each turn. You either pick some tiles or you score some points using some tiles.
Oh alright, so you can’t just give into temptation and grab a stack of tiles in a Gollum worthy display of stone stealing. There would be no fun or crunch in that. And with tiles like these, they would definitely be gone in seconds!
So, you must think before you choose whether to pick or score. It won’t be an issue on your first turn. As you have nothing to score, you have to pick. But after that, the decisions become squeakier!
Picking Pretty Pebbles
So, let’s start with picking stones. This is done by moving one black Artist pillar to a free empty circle space. Once there, you can take any tiles that match the pattern on top of that pillar. Unless, that pillar has been moved to a space which is adjacent to an existing one. Then, the tile in between the two pillars can’t be taken, even if it matches the pattern on the pillar you just placed. Starting to see the potential for hate-drafty play yet? Oh it’s there alright!
Once you have worked out which tiles you can take, you then pick in a clockwise direction around the pillar. And the first tile you pick will be the bottom tile in your stack.
You then take your stack and decide which one of the 5 scoring opportunities are going to receive it. Note that once you place a stack on your player board, you cannot add more tiles to it. If you want to free up a scoring condition on a subsequent turn, you will need to have removed them by scoring.
You can’t pick and score on the same turn. So each round you will have to decide whether to build up your point potential by picking, or go for the VPs and sacrifice the chance to take some sweet stones.
Obviously, if you have filled your 5 scoring spaces, then no matter how much you want more stones, you are going to have to score in order to clear some space!
Scoring Sweet Stones
The scoring conditions vary from simply having a certain number of tiles in your stack to the variety of colours and the VPs for each one differ.
Plus, they are only triggered on a scoring turn when (a) there are tiles actually on them and (b) at least two of your stacks have a matching colour on top.
That is not to say you can’t simply score tiles – you can. You could, for example, use your turn to score a single stone of any colour, or several random top stones. But that will only ever get you one VP per stone. As will be seen, however, that can sometimes be a handy tactical move!
So, once you have decided which “colour” you are scoring, you add up the VPs awarded by the columns with the same coloured top stones and move the tracker token on your board that number of spaces. Or, if going for “any” stones, then award yourself 1 VP per top stone being removed. With the top stones removed, you place them onto the central mandala board. And if any of those stones cover up a bonus (+1, +2), add that to your VP total for the round. Don’t forget to move the small black token on your scoring board along the appropriate number of points. And then the next player takes their turn.
Gameplay continues until either (a) the tiles on the mandala board reaches the hand symbol which matches the number of players around the table, or (b) a player cannot pick up any tile or score anything on their player board.
And then the winner is the player with the most points and end game. Pretty simple but pretty strategic!
I hope this little guide helps you on your way in your first game of Mandala Stones!
