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How to play Army of Frogs

Please note that this is just a summary of the Army of Frogs rules. A more comprehensive guide is enclosed with each game.

Blue wins

Army of Frogs is a game for 2-4 players, in which players place differently coloured Frog stones to build an island. The aim is to be the first player to link all of the Frogs of your own colour together once seven or more of your Frogs are part of the island.

The basic rules

Each player chooses a colour and places the corresponding colour indicator disc on the table in front of them. Discard any Frogs that do not belong to any of the players and put the remaining Frog stones in the bag provided. Each player then picks a 'hand' of two Frogs from the bag. One player starts by placing either of their two Frogs in the centre of the table and taking a replacement Frog from the bag. Play then continues in a clockwise direction. During each turn, the players must undertake the following three actions in the order shown:

1)	move one of your own Frogs, if this is possible
2)	then add one of the Frogs from your hand to the island
3)	then take a replacement Frog from the bag

The three actions of each turn in detail

1) Move one of your own colour Frogs that is already part of the island to another position.

Frogs move by jumping over other Frogs

Frogs move by jumping to the next free space along a straight row of one or more joined Frogs. The Frog you choose to move may make multiple jumps in any one turn but it may not finish in the space where it started.

If no Frogs of your own colour are in play or you cannot move any of your Frogs without violating the rules below, go on to the next action instead.

2) Add one of the two Frogs from your hand to the island where it touches the side of at least one other Frog.

You can add Frogs of any colour to the island. You may add your own colour Frogs only to places where they are not in contact with any of your existing Frogs, but you can place your opponents' Frogs anywhere. Once all Frogs are in play, the game continues without new Frogs being added.

If you cannot add a Frog without violating the rules or you have run out of Frogs, steps 2) and 3) can be ignored and play moves on to the next player.

3) Take a new Frog at random from the bag to replace the one you have just added to the island. Each player may have a maximum of two Frogs in their hand at any one time.

Special Rules

There are two special rules that control the structure of the island and ensure that the game is kept flowing, the one island rule and the string rule.

One Island rule

You may not move a Frog to a position where it would create more than one island. If a Frog is the only link between two or more parts of the island, the only way you may move it is to move it to a position where it re-links the island.

String rule

You may not create a string of Frogs with three or more single connections e.g. in the diagram on the right you may not add or move a Frog to the position marked x. In the diagram below, the space marked ✓ is the only place the red Frog may be moved to. If the red Frog is moved to any other position, it will create an illegal string with 3 or more single connections as shown.

String rule: two single connections are ok, three are not

Exceptions to the String rule

The string rule only applies to strings which end in a single Frog. If a string has multiple connections at both ends or if the Frogs form a loop, the string can have any length:

Exceptions to the string rule

Who wins?

The game ends as soon as one player's Frogs are all joined up provided that at least seven of their Frogs form part of the island. If eight, nine or ten Frogs of one colour are part of the island, they must all be linked for that player to win the game. The Frogs can be connected in a line or cluster of any shape (see the picture at the top of this page.)