Objective
Kerala: The Path of the Elephants is a tile-laying game where players aim to create the largest and best-organized exhibition for a fictional Indian elephant festival. The goal is to earn the most points by skillfully arranging tiles.
Components
- 100 landscape tiles in 5 different colors
- 2 elephant figures per player
- Starting tile for each player
- Scoring board
- Rulebook
Setup
- Each player receives two elephant figures of one color and a starting tile to be placed in front of them.
- The landscape tiles are shuffled and placed as a face-down stack.
- The starting player is chosen at random.
Gameplay
Kerala is played over several rounds. A turn goes as follows: 1. Draw Tiles: The starting player draws as many landscape tiles as there are players and places them face up in the center.
- Select and Place a Tile: Starting with the starting player and proceeding clockwise, each player selects a tile and adds it to their display. The following rules apply:
- A new tile must be placed adjacent to at least one already placed tile in the display.
- After placing a tile, one of the elephants must move onto the new tile. Elephants may only move orthogonally, not diagonally.
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Only one tile of each color may exist in a player's display; if another tile of the same color is chosen, one of these tiles must be removed.
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Collect Unused Tiles: All unchosen tiles are returned to the other landscape tiles (this affects strategic decisions).
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End of Round: After placing, all players move on by drawing new tiles each round.
Special Features
- Elephant Movement: Strategic considerations for moving elephants to be flexible in further tile placement are crucial.
- Color Management: Try to have every color once in your display and minimize duplicates to avoid penalty points.
End of Game and Scoring
- The game ends when no tiles are left to draw.
- Scoring is as follows:
- Each tile in the largest connected area of a color scores points.
- Each missing color results in penalty points.
- Duplicates of tiles in one color also result in penalty points.
- The player with the most points wins.
Kerala requires strategic thinking and careful planning to optimize the tile placement and avoid penalties.
