Goldener Drache (Golden Dragon) by Wolfgang Riedesser Published by FX Schmid, 1992. Translated by Ian Watters Distributed from The Rules Bank by Mike Siggins The fantastic game for 2-5 players aged 10-99. In a mysterious, long-forgotten ancient empire, mighty wizards and their dragons struggled for power in a blustery competition. Their dragons were chased through the air to the Golden Volcano. A dip in its golden lava would make the dragon invulnerable and so bring victory to his wizard. The players take on the role of the wizards and use their magical ability to control the forces of nature. They need clever planning to manage the effects of the winds on the different dragons. A lightning veto, a gale to move things along... victory beckons deep in the south! The aim of the game is to make sure your dragon is the first to reach the Golden Volcano. Game materials Five dragon figures, with five stands Five wind-stone holders Seven glittery volcano-stones, with crater stickers (six ordinary, one golden) Thirty blue wind-stones, with direction stickers Twenty gale and lightning cards (two of each for each player) One board This set of rules Game preparation Before the first game, press the holes out of the board and the five dragon-figures out of their frame. The dragons are then put into their stands. Attach the direction stickers onto the wind-stones, and the six red and the one golden volcano craters onto the glittering volcano-stones. Before each game, the volcano-stones are put into the holes on the board, with the golden volcano in the southernmost one.. Each player gets: 1 dragon, 2 gale cards, 2 lightning cards, 1 wind-stone holder, 6 wind-stones (each one per wind-direction). For games of fewer than five players, put the remaining material back into the box. Gentlemen, start your dragons... The youngest player starts. He chooses one of his wind-stones and puts it on the '1' start-field in the northern-most row, then puts his dragon onto this wind-stone. The remaining players, going clockwise around the board, place their dragons on a wind-stone in the next start-fields, '2', '3' etc. Note that the fifth player has the choice of two start position '5's. Each player then fills his wind-stone holder with the remaining five wind-stones, so that the other players cannot see in which order they are arranged. This is the only time players can choose the order of the stones in the holder: during the rest of the game, only the one on the bottom left is taken out, to be replaced by one put into the top right. The two lightning and two gale cards are left face up in front of each player. The Course of the Game Each player's turn consists of three steps, which must be carried out in order: 1 Take the bottom left wind-stone out of your holder and place it beside any dragon. 2 Move the dragon onto the new wind-stone. 3 Pick up the old wind-stone (on which the moved dragon was standing) and put it into the top right of your holder. [See diagram on p3] The wind-stone is always placed on a space directly beside any dragon. The printed wind-direction on the wind-stone determines on which space it is put. The compass on the board shows the six possible directions: [See diagram on p4. O = Ost (East)] Each turn, you can choose which dragon to move: your own or anyone else's. You might want to move your own dragon into a more favourable position, or move someone else's dragon into a worse one. You cannot move a dragon off the board, into an ordinary volcano, or into a space already occupied by another dragon. If you have a legal move, you must make one, except that you can never be forced to move someone else's dragon onto the winning golden volcano space. If not, or if all legal moves are vetoed with lightning cards (see below), simply place the wind-stone back into the top right of your holder. This still counts as completed turn. It is now the turn of the player to your left... The Gale and Lightning cards. Each player starts with two each of these cards. Each card can be played only once, and is then discarded. By playing a gale card at the start of his turn, a player makes five moves, instead of the usual one. All five wind-stones currently in the holder are used, one after the other. A player can veto any move of his own dragon by playing a lightning card. This must be done before the other player has placed the old wind-stone in his holder. The other player must then try to move a different dragon with the wind-stone that was vetoed. [You cannot veto your own moves!] Winning. The winner is the owner of the first dragon to reach the golden volcano. There are six possible final moves: [See diagram on p7] [Translator's notes: In this game, wind directions specify which direction the wind is blowing to not, as in meterology and UK weather forecasts, the direction it is coming from. Is this a German thing or just to make the rules simpler to explain to children? The German rules imply, but don't seem to specify, the 'you can't veto your own move' rule, so I've put it in brackets.]