4
Animal Upon Animal
A wobbly stacking game
for 2 - 4 animal piling players ages 4 - 99.
Author: Klaus Miltenberger
Illustrations: Michael Bayer
Length of the game: approx. 15 minutes
The little penguin carefully tries to reach the top of the animal pyramid.
He gently climbs on the back of the crocodile and quickly jumps over the col-
lar lizard. From there he balances with utmost skill over the snake and quickly
stands on top of the tucan. He just has to pass the bleating sheep and only an
inch or so is left to the top.
Skillfully the penguin pulls himself up onto the tail of the monkey. Quite breath-
less but overjoyed he reaches the top of the animal pyramid and proudly looks
down. Down below the ant hegdehog is already waiting, thinking: “How, for
heaven’s sake, will I climb up there?”
Contents
29 wooden animals
1 die with symbols
set of game instructions
Aim of the Game
Who is the most skilful at stacking and will be the first left without
any animals?
be the first to stack all
animals
ENGLISH
5
Preparation of the Game
Play on an even surface.
Select the crocodile and put it in the center of the table. It is the first animal of
the pyramid.
Each player selects seven different animals and puts them in front of them as
provision. If there are two or three players the remaining animals are kept in the
box.
How to Play
Play in a clockwise direction.
Whoever can balance on one foot like a flamingo for the longest time, starts the
game. If you can’t agree, the youngest player rolls the die.
What Appears on the Die?
A dot
Take an animal from your provision and place it carefully with one hand anywhe-
re on the pyramid.
Two dots
Take two animals from your provision and pile them carefully one
after the other, with one hand, onto the pyramid.
The crocodile
Take an animal from your provision and put it next to the mouth or tail of the
crocodile so that both animals touch. Thus you enlarge the piling surface used
for piling animals. Each time this symbol appears on the die, you can place an
animal from your provision next to the animals touching them.
crocodile into center
of table,
seven different ani-
mals per player
throw die
ENGLISH
6
The hand
Choose any of your animals and give it to another player who now
has to pile the animal carefully on the pyramid.
The question mark
The other players now determine which of your animals you have to pile.
Do this with utmost care.
Collapse of the animal pyramid!
Have animals tumbled down during stacking? Or does the whole pyramid
collapse? The stacking ends immediately.
Important rules in case of a collapse
• If one or two animals have fallen off, the player who tried to pile them has to
take them into their provision.
• If more than two animals have fallen off, the player takes two of them and
puts the rest back in the game box.
• Has the entire pyramid collapsed? The player has to take two animals. The
crocodile is put back in the center and all remaining animals are returned
to the box.
• All animals fall off the pyramid without anybody intervening? In this case all
the animals which have fallen off are placed back in the box.
End of the Game
The game ends as soon as a player is left without animals. They win and are
elected best animal stacker of the day.
Variation for Animal Stacking Experts
Experienced players also take the following supplementary rules into account!
• If you are less than four players you distribute the remaining animals at
random between you.
• If animals fall off the pyramid, the piling player has to take up to five animals.
• If it is the turn of a player who is left with just one animal the die isn´t thrown,
but the player takes the animal and stacks it immediately onto the pyramid.
If you want to pile animals on your own
How many animals can you pile on the crocodile without the pyramid collapsing?
pyramid collapses =
stacking ends
animals fall off or
pyramid collapses =
take up to two animals
player places their last
animal = victory
ENGLISH
8
JAPANESE
9
JAPANESE
10
•
•
•
•
JAPANESE
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
-
5
-
6
-
7
-
8
