Rules to Mouse Island

Object: To eliminate all of the opponent's mice or to prevent the opponent from repositioning or removing a tile.

Pieces: The board consists of 10 rectangular tiles, which have dark undersides. Each player controls either 3 light or 3 dark mice.

Setup: Place the tiles and mice as shown in Figure 1. Tiles are placed light side up.

Sequence of Play:

(I) In turn, each player must move one friendly mouse forward one "square" (Figure 2). (Sometimes a mouse must dive off the tiles, in which case it is removed from play.) Only one friendly mouse may occupy a square. If a friendly mouse enters a square occupied by another mouse, the latter is removed from play. A player wins the instant that all of the opposing mice have been removed.

(II) After moving, the player must reposition one unoccupied light colored tile. This tile may be relocated anywhere on the board as long as all tiles are connected to each other by at least one edge.

Once repositioned, a tile is flipped over, to reveal the dark colored underside.

If no light colored tiles can be repositioned, players instead must remove one unoccupied dark colored tile from play. One loses if by removing a tile, one creates another "island" of unconnected tiles. Similarly, one wins if one's opponent has no alternative but to remove a tile with a mouse on it.

(III) At the conclusion of the move, a player may rotate some or all of his/her mice north, south, east, or west, as shown in Figure 4.

Scoring: If players wish to score a sequence of games, award the winner points equal to the number of mice he controls at the end of the game.