In the rare case that a player did not have any cards in their field when the mandala was completed they still take cards from the mountain but place them straight in the discard pile without adding them to their river or cup. You can play multiple cards of the same colour to one of your fields, but you don't get to draw any cards. When all six colours are present on a mandala then it will score. The person who played the most cards to their field will get to choose one set of same coloured cards from the mountain. If this colour isn't already present in their river they place one of the cards face up in the leftmost space and any further of the same colour face down in their cup. The players switch turns choosing from the remaining colours on the mountain. Then give each player two cards which only they look at and then place face down onto their own “cup."

Add in matching stone patterns to constantly moving artists, the adjacency rule, and the possibility that your opponents are sacrificing the big points through grabbing those mandala bonuses by simply scoring a few tiles at a time, and you’ve got pretty predicaments! But, when colour, patterns, and abstract strategy collide, the planets in my gaming universe align. And not even meddling Mercury can mess things up! Think Calico, Sagrada, Azul, Azul Summer Pavilion, Azul Sta…..ok, so basically all the Azuls. You get the pretty picture. Mandala Stones is another example of how crunch and colour can make sweet music together. Or, rather, a beautiful work of art! You must respect the Rule of Color for that Mandala. Spread out the Mountain cards so that all of them are easy to see.On each turn, you will be trying to gain cards that are of value to you by taking them from one of two central mandalas being built up over the course of a round. Discard. Place as many cards of one colour from your hand into the discard pile (next to draw pile) then draw as many cards from the draw pile. Mandala is a 2 player only game and it has to be one of the prettiest games available. The playmat included is so pretty that it also includes washing instructions in case you get it dirty. But you don’t want to just stand there all day admiring the game, you want to actually play it. So how do you? Read on to find out. Set Up Most of the time during play, a player is going to either want to place a card in the mountain area of a chosen mandala, or on their field of a chosen mandala. The rules of placement are a bit different for each.

One very important rule to consider when taking the first two actions is the rule of Colour. Each of the 6 sand colours can only be in exactly one of the 3 areas of the mandala (the mountain, your field and your opponent’s field). This basically means that if your opponent has a red sand in their field you cannot play a red sand into that mountain or your field. However you may be able to play it to the other mandala. Keep in mind you may play it to an area you have access to. So if red sand is in the mountain or your field you may add it to the same one (just not a new area). Hand Limits Each time you add a card of a new color, place it on the next highest numbered space next to the other cards in your River. When scoring, each player will take the cards from their Cup and score them based on where that color sits in their River. The cards in the River do not score, only cards in the Cup. Add up the total points and the player with the most points is the winner. Scoring is completed by using the cards in your river and multiplying them by the cards in your cup. Each position in your river is worth a different amount of victory points from 1 point for the first position to 6 points for the sixth position. Take your cards from your cup and place them below the matching position (same colours) in the river. Multiple the number of cards in your cup by the position it is in the river for all of your river cards and add all of your scores to get a total. The player with the highest score wins. Note that some river cards may not score you any points if you do not have the same colour represented in your cup. In the event of a tie the player who has the fewest cards in their cup wins. ConclusionRepeat for each colour along your river and the player with the most points in total is the winner! Starting with the player who played the most cards in their Field, the players take alternating turns to choose one of the colors present in the Mountain of the just-completed Mandala.

When drawing new cards you must never go over your hand limit of 8 cards. Also you may never end your turn with no cards in your hand. If you were completing the action ‘grow fields’ and you had 4 yellow cards in your hand you would not be allowed to place all 4 cards in the field. Completing A Mandala This is one of those games with very little rules but lots of strategy. On your turn you can do only 1 of the following 3 actions. Note: if both players have the same number of cards, the player who didn’t complete the mandala goes first. You cannot move the cards in your River, and must place each new card beside the previous one, without leaving any gaps. Finally, shuffle the objective cards and deal two face down to each player. Both are kept (secretly, mind you!) as players will get to decide which one best boosts their score at the end of the game.

Components

To begin, each player receives a hand of six cards. Each player receives two random cards face down in their cup, then two random cards are dealt face up into the central mountain strip of each mandala. The first thing that hits you upon opening the box is a rather overpowering smell. It emanates from the player board which looks a bit like a tea towel, and if you end up hating the game would function as one rather well. Annoyingly I keep forgetting to air it out, but that’s ok, because that smell is the biggest, perhaps only, real misstep Mandala makes. I hope this has helped you to learn the rules and how Mandala plays. Obviously I would always recommend people use the official rule book to learn the rules in depth but this blog should give you a really good flavour of how the game flows. The other way you can score is to remove any number of top stones on your player board. This isn’t as lucrative, since you score a meagre one point per stone you remove. But you might do this to plan ahead, removing certain ‘odd’ stones, leaving same-colour stones in prime locations to score on later turns… In the mountain area, players can only place one card each turn, following the rules of color. After placing a card in the mountain, that player draws up to three cards. Keep in mind the maximum hand size is eight, so if three would take you over that hand size limit, you only draw as many as you can. You do not overdraw and discard.