Pixies

01Discover the game

In Pixies, you build a small board of cards. Choosing a nice number is not enough: you also have to prepare your colors and decide which card to keep visible. The overall difficulty is Medium, because of the compromises between validation, symbols, neighborhoods and choices left to others. This chapter concerns the Bombyx base box with 70 cards, without extension.

02Equipment

Plan the 70 cards of the base game and the booklet. A sheet and a pencil are used to add up the scores of three rounds; the score application is optional. The cards carry a number of 1 to 9, a color and, depending on the map, spirals, crosses or a color effect. Some are multicolored. The number of copies varies according to the value: do not look for nine equal packages.

The photographs of creatures do not give any extra power. To play, observe especially the number, color and symbols. The color pictogram printed on the real map is also a marker if you do not distinguish the shades. Our drawings show useful information with words; they do not reproduce the photographs.

03The goal

Cumulates the most dots on three rounds. Validated numbers, visible symbols and the largest area of a color are added. A card can help in several titles; a hidden card does not give directly any number, colour, or symbol.

04Install the table

Mix the 70 cards face down into a common pile. Choose at random that will begin. Each store in front of you nine squared slots: top 1, 2, 3; middle 4, 5, 6; bottom 7, 8, 9. No personal trays are provided or required. Initially, the nine slots are empty.

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05Select and Place

A common offer

At three, four or five, reveals as many cards as people. Each one takes and places one, starting with the first player and then in the clockwise direction. The last takes the remaining card and starts the new offer. There is no secret hand to keep: you choose and then put it right away.

The first picks and poses, then the other, and then each starts again: A, B, A, B. Each one takes two cards per complete offer. B, who took the last one, starts the next offer. The end-of-hand rules can interrupt this offer halfway, as shown below.

Three placement situations

If the chosen number is not yet visible at home, place the map visible on its numbered location. If this location already contains a hidden card alone, cover it: the new one is immediately validated. validated is a visible card with a card hidden under it; lets pass the back for everyone to see.

If you already have this number visible, but without a map below, choose which of the two cards will remain visible. Turn the other one and slide it down. You thus validate this number. Both sides can have different colors and symbols: keep the one that helps you the most.

If this number is already visible and validated, the new card cannot change the pair. Place it hidden on a completely empty location of your choice, regardless of its number. It prepares a future validation. You can't drag it under a visible card alone; neither can you stack three cards.

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When do you stop the handle?

A handle ends when someone has occupied their nine slots, even with hidden cards alone. First completes each player's pass in this round so that everyone has placed so many cards. Do not give a new choice to the person whose grid is full.

If A fills his grid with the first card of the offer, B chooses and sets a card, then we stop: the last two cards remain on the table. If the grid is completed during the second passage in the offer, finish only the passages necessary for the two people to have placed so many cards. We do not pursue an offer after reaching this equality.

06Placements to try

If you have no face-up 5, place a 5 in the center. When you later take another 5, choose which to keep face up and turn the other face down under it. Your 5 is now validated. A third 5 must go face down in an empty space such as the 6. A real 6 taken later covers it and validates immediately. The face-down 5 leaves the space numbered 6.

On the other hand, if you have a visible 8 only and pull a 5 while your 5 is already validated, you have no right to drag that 5 under 8. Choose an empty location. Future useful numbers will depend on the boxes you leave available.

Here is an example of a complete first-run count. Only the 5 and 8 are validated. Locations 6 and 9 each have a single back; the other visible cards are alone. The characteristics of the faces used in this exercise have been checked in the Bombyx booklet, but the drawings are generic.

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The six spirals of the 1, the three of the 3 and the 7 give 10. The 4 adds a spiral by visible blue card: five with multicolor 2, including the 4 itself. The four crosses, one of the 5 and three of the 8, remove 4. The largest blue zone connects 1, 2, 3 and 4; the 8 is separated from it by other locations. The detail of the calculation follows.

07Count and Victory

Starts with numbers: each validated card returns its number. A single face does not add this number. In the example, 5 + 8 = 13; the 1 visible only does not value a point of number, even if it gives spirals.

Then count the symbols of all the visible faces, validated or not: a spiral adds 1, a cross removes 1. A special card giving a spiral by color counts all your faces of this color, multicolored included. In the example: 10 spirals printed + 5 granted by the 4 - 4 cross = 11.

Finally, look for your largest area of the same color. It takes at least two cards touching one side; the diagonals do not connect anything. A multicolor can connect this color because it has all the colors. Choose a single larger area, even if several have the same size: you do not combine several zones or several colors. Each map of this area reports 2 points in round 1, then 3 in round 2 and 4 in round 3. The faces only also count, the backs alone never.

Our four-blue zone returns 4 × 2 = 8. round score: 13 + 11 + 8 = 32. In round 2, this same arrangement would be worth 36; in round 3, 40. These are comparisons of the scale, not three rounds played without redistributing.

After the first two rounds, reel all the cards to leave with empty grids. The last person who played starts the next. Add the three results after the last round: the largest total wins; the best equal totals share the victory.

08Frequent errors

Do not count the numbers of the unvalidated faces. Do not remove their spirals and colors for that reason. Do not validate one side alone with a third copy of another number. Do not stack three cards. Do not count diagonals or several zones. Do not close abruptly before the others have played so many times. At two, do not forget the four cards of the offer and the two passages each.

09Tips for starting

Look at the three ways to earn points before choosing. A small card full of spirals can stand out better than a large number still alone. A multicolored one serves as a bridge, but its location is imposed by its number. Observe the cards you leave to the next player. At the end of the round, distinguishes "occupy a box" and "validate a card": occupying the ninth box can stop the handle before having prepared all your pairs.