Fuga de Creta — How to Play

Game Objective

In Escape from Crete, you control heroes trapped in the confusing labyrinth of the Minotaur's Island. The main objective is to lead your heroes from the central Temple to the island's exits at the corners of the map. Upon reaching the exits, you collect valuable trophies and accumulate points through created paths and special achievements.

The game offers two game modes: Island Escape and Challenge of the Gods.

Setup

To play Island Escape mode, follow these steps:

1. Randomly create a 6 x 6 labyrinth tile island, positioning the exits at the edges and the temple in the center.
2. Place one trophy of each color (there are 5 colors) in each of the 4 exits.
3. Shuffle the remaining labyrinth tiles to form a deck and place it face down next to the board.
4. Flip 3 labyrinth tiles and place them next to the board. If a tile is a minotaur, replace it with a simple tile from the deck (shuffle the minotaur back in).
5. Each player chooses a hero color and places all their heroes in the central temple.
6. Give one score sheet to each player.

Gameplay Flow

In Island Escape mode, players play clockwise. During your turn, you must perform:

1. Up to two actions (which may be repeated).
2. One movement action.

Pro tip: For experienced players, it is recommended to use a timer of 1min and 30s for the two actions. If time runs out, the player loses their turn.

In Challenge of the Gods mode, rounds are simultaneous. Players attempt to visualize the longest path to an exit and announce their intention. After the announcement, the timer is started and players compete to announce longer paths until time runs out.

Actions and How to Play

In Island Escape mode, the available actions are:

• Rotate a labyrinth tile: Rotate a labyrinth tile to any angle to create new paths. You cannot rotate tiles with a minotaur, an exit, or the temple on them.
• Swap two labyrinth tiles: Swap two orthogonally adjacent labyrinth tiles (maintaining their original orientation). You cannot swap tiles with a minotaur, an exit, or the temple.
• Replace a labyrinth tile: Replace any labyrinth tile (including a minotaur) with one of the tiles in display. The removed tile goes to the discard pile. You cannot replace tiles with a hero, exit, or temple.

Movement Action: The player moves a hero along a clear path to its conclusion. The hero cannot stop in the middle of a path before traversing the entire clear section. Heroes cannot pass through other hero tiles or through a minotaur (except for the devotee of Ares). If the hero reaches an exit, the labyrinth tiles of the path traveled are removed and replaced with new random tiles from the deck.

Blessings of the Gods (Special Abilities)

Each hero is a devotee of a god, granting an ability during the movement action:

• Ares: Can move through minotaur tiles as if they were simple tiles.
• Athena: Can position the devotee on any tile in the second row (outer row), but not directly on the exit. Upon reaching the exit, collects two trophy tokens.
• Hermes: Allows performing one free rotate action at the end of movement, on the tile where the hero stopped.

End of Game and Scoring

End of Game: In Island Escape mode, the game ends when one player removes all their heroes from the island. In Challenge of the Gods mode, the game ends after the resolution of 11 challenge cards.

Scoring (Island Escape):

• Labyrinth Tiles: Each labyrinth tile collected is worth 1 point.
• Trophies: Each trophy collected is worth points according to a table (e.g., 1 trophy = 3 points; 10 trophies = 36 points).
• Achievement "Most Heroes at the Same Exit": 5 points for the player with the most heroes at a single exit (no ties).
• Achievement "Most Trophies of the Same Color": 5 points for the player with the most trophies of the same color (no ties).
• Achievement "Most Labyrinth Tiles": 5 points for the player who collects the highest total number of labyrinth tiles (no ties).

The winner is the player with the highest total score. In case of a tie, the player who played last wins.

Scoring (Challenge of the Gods):

• Each successfully resolved challenge card is worth 1 point.
• Each unresolved challenge card is worth -1 point.

In case of a tie, the player with the fewest negative cards wins.

Tips for Winning

• Build trophy sets: In Island Escape mode, pay attention to paths to obtain trophies that allow you to complete sets and earn extra points.
• Plan the path: Choose your paths wisely to maximize the collection of labyrinth tiles and trophies simultaneously.