How to play
Revised on November 8, 2021
INTRODUCTION
Let's explore the atlascardgame!
- 180 Match cards
- 18 Action cards
(6 Skip Cards, 6 Reverse cards, 6 Trade cards)
- 6 Atlas cards
Total: 204 Cards
6+, 2-10 Gamers
GOAL
Be the first one to match all the cards in hand in a round.
The gamer with the highest score at the end of the game is the champion.
MATCHING - Match Three
THREE cards of the same category of the same continent.
Example: the card played is a European land animal card while a gamer has two European land animal cards.
MATCHING - Match Four
Cards of all FOUR categories of the same continent.
Example: the card played is an American plant card while a gamer has a land animal card, a water animal card and a bird card, all of Americas.
MATCHING - Match Five
Cards of the same category across ALL FIVE continents.
Example: the card played is an European plant card while a gamer has four plant cards respectively of Africa, Asia, Australia & New Zealand and Americas.
MATCHING - Priority Match
THREE cards of the same species. Example, if the card played is a Europe red fox card, and a gamer has two Europe red fox cards. Please also refer to the rules in PLAY.
SCORING
The first gamer to get rid of all the cards in hand gets points for the cards left in the other gamers’ hands.
Atlas card: 3 points each.
Action card: 2 points each.
Match card: 1 point each.
There will be no scoring if the round of the game ends with the draw deck being depleted.
MAKE YOUR OWN CARD STAND
What you need:
Any piece of paper, preferably the strongest but foldable one you can find. The size depends on how large you want the stand to be.
All 60 Living Species
Africa
Land Animals
Elephant
Giraffe
Lion
Water Animals
Crocodile
Needlefish
Teardrop Butterflyfish
Birds
Flamingo
Ibis
Ostrich
Plants
Acacia
Bird of Paradise
Dragon Blood Tree
Americas
Land Animals
Alpaca
Bison
Squirrel
Water Animals
Bluefin Tuna
Silver Salmon
Whale
Birds
Albatross
Bald Eagle
Toucan
Plants
Jacaranda
Maple
Passion Flower
Asia
Land Animals
Orangutan
Panda
Tiger
Water Animals
Pearl Gourami
Seahorse
Sea Turtle
Birds
Laughing Thrush
Parrot
Peacock
Plants
Cherry Blossom
Lotus
Persian Ironwood
Australia and New Zealand
Land Animals
Koala
Red Kangaroo
Tasmanian Devil
Water Animals
Clown Fish
Great White Shark
Stingray
Birds
Kingfisher
Kiwi Bird
Kookaburra
Plants
Coolabah Tree
Kangaroo Paw Flower
Kuari Tree
Europe
Land Animals
Red Fox
Reindeer
Wild Boar
Water Animals
Cod
Roach Fish
Sturgeon
Birds
Bee Eater
Grouse
Swan
Plants
Black Elder(berry)
Cypress Tree
Tulip
ACTION CARDS
Skip card: The next gamer in line to play after this card is played is “skipped”, losing his or her turn.
Reverse card: The direction of play is reversed when this card is played, i.e., from clockwise to anticlockwise, and vice versa.
Trade Card: The gamer who plays a Trade card is entitled to pick ONE card from the hand of cards of any gamer. He or she must then give ONE card back to the other gamer whose card has been picked.
ATLAS card: This card can be used as joker to substitute any match card.
PLAY
- Each gamer must draw and then play a card. Any gamer whose cards in hand can match this played card must declare “match” explicitly and do the matching instantly, showing the matched cards too. Beside the draw pile, all played cards that are not matched are stacked face up, while cards matched are piled face down.
- Gamers other than the person next in line to play need not draw or play a card after a matching. The gamer next in line must draw and play a card after matching with a card played by another gamer. He or she can do as many matchings as possible within his or her own hand of cards after drawing a card.
- After a gamer has drawn a card, no matching can be done with the card previously played.
- If more than one gamer declares MATCH, priority is given to the one closest to the one who plays the card. When tied, the gamer next in line to play has priority. But he or she must give way to the gamer who has two cards identical with the card played, i.e. all three cards are of the same species. A gamer who shall win with that particular matching has top priority.
- A gamer with only one card left and that card is an Action Card does not have to draw card when it comes to his or her turn. He or she simply plays that last card and wins. If that last card is a match card, the gamer must either draw an identical species card or an identical species card is played by another gamer. This gamer has top priority to take that card played in this scenario. If competition arises, the priority rule applies.
SETUP
Gamers start with 13 cards each person. The remaining cards are placed face down in a draw pile. The gamer to the left of the dealer is the first player to draw a card (the top one) from the draw pile. The gamer then plays a card. The game follows a clockwise direction until a REVERSE Card is played. From the second round onwards, the winner of the previous round draws card first.
MATCH CARDS
All 180 cards are equally divided into FIVE groups, corresponding to FIVE continents, each distinguished by a specific colour.
- Green AFRICA,
- Red AMERICAS,
- Purple ASIA,
- Brown AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND,
- Blue EUROPE.
Each continent has FOUR categories of living species:
- land animals,
- water animals,
- birds,
- plants.
Each category has THREE species. Please refer to the table.
