Game play is split into Autumn (hide stuff) and Winter (eat stuff). Your goal is to be the only squirrel to survive Winter. In the Autumn phase, you take turns hiding food and traps, setting up the board. In the Winter phase, you consume what you “squirreled away” in autumn. Try to outlast everyone else: the last squirrel standing wins.
Variants
the Birdhouse
Setup: first establish the proper death to player ratio as in the normal game, but substitute the birdhouse in for one of the food. Next, set up the 2x2 starting grid but instead of one card facedown use the birdhouse faceup.
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Autumn: is the same as the basic game except instead of swapping facedown tiles in place of faceup ones, you take any faceup tile into your hand and then play any tile from your hand facedown in any legal place on the board (still working towards a 5x5 grid.)
Note: leave the birdhouse alone. It stays faceup where it is the whole game to give players a landmark to remember things by.
Winter: is exactly the same as the basic game.
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Reverse or Die
Setup: first establish the proper death ratio as the basic game. Next instead of 2x2 grid, put all 25 cards are faceup 5x5 in the middle.
Autumn: in this variant each player has their own individual patch of cards they’re creating in any shape they desire. Each player’s turn consists of taking one of the faceup tiles from the middle and adding it facedown in their own private patch. The only rule is no diagonals.
Winter: players can choose to flip a card in any player’s patch. Otherwise, the game proceeds as usual.
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Extras
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Squirrel or Die was Fight in a Box's first game, and though it's still available, it's gone through many editions in it's life as a game! The original version of Squirrel or Die was made from laser cut wood in alder, cherry and ebony. Special Editions have come out with our other Kickstarters including Nuclear Green Edition, Alien Invasion Edition, and EotL Bunker Edition.
