Rules of play

+8 15Min. 2~6

1 Overview

‘Dark Horse’ is a horse racing game, anyone can easily enjoy. Players must
make their horses move forward while trying fine out competitor's horses
in fierce racking competition. But all games need appropriate strategy
and luck. ‘Dark Horse’ has speedy deployment as the actual racing and
unexpected drama.

1
 2 Contents

7 horse cards 14 betting cards

33 action cards
3 dark horse tokens

Attach +5 sticker on front side

of token and -3 sticker on back side of token.

3 Objective

You try to make your horse on higher rank with using your action cards.
The higher rank gets more points. The player with the highest score wins
the game.

4 Preparation

Betting cards and Action cards

Each player takes 2 betting cards (3 cards for 2 players). Each player checks it
secretly and place it face down in front of themselves. Remaining betting cards
are placed face down as a stack. Shuffle all action cards. Each player takes action
cards according to table below. Remaining action cards are not used for this
game.
2 players 3 players 4 players 5 players 6 players

8 cards 7 cards 6 cards 6 cards 5 cards

2
 Determining the starting order of horse cards

Choose the first player. The first player chooses front of card
a horse card and places it faced up in the middle
of table. The left player of the first player in
clockwise chooses a horse card and places it to
back of card
left side or right side of previously placed horse
card. Then third player chooses and places a
horse card to left side of right side of all
previously placed cards. In the same manner,
when all 7 horse cards are placed, determining
the starting order is finished.

Example for 5 players

The first player chooses the number 4 horse and places it.
The second player chooses the number 7 horse and places it on the right side of number 4 horse.
The third player chooses the number 1 horse and places it on the right side of number 7 horse.
The fourth player chooses the number 5 horse and places it on the left side of number 4 horse.
The fifth player chooses the number 3 horse and places it on the right side of number 1 horse.
The first player chooses the number 6 horse and places it on the left side of number 5 horse.
The second player chooses the number 2 horse (the last one) and places it on the right side of
number 3 horse.

player 1 player 4 player 1 player 2 player 3 player 5 player 2

Front

(You cannot place a horse card between already placed horse cards.)

3
 Determining the dark horse
Flip the 7th horse card after determining the starting order of horses.
This horse card becomes the dark horse for this game. According to
player numbers, place dark horse tokens next to horse cards.

2 players 3 players 4 players 5 players 6 players

1 token 2 tokens 2 tokens 3 tokens 3 tokens

Front

5 Gameplay

The game starts with the first player and conduct following actions. The
game goes in clockwise.

You can take a dark horse token.

Each player can have only 1 token. If you already have one or if there
is no tokens, you cannot take a token.
You cannot take a token when you have only 1 action card in hand.

Open an action card from your hand and place it in front of you.

According to the action card, change the order of horse cards with
moving horse cards. (See the below description of action cards)

4
 In this manner, each player plays an action card in their turn. Until all
action cards are used, the game proceeds. When the last card is played,
the game ends.

Description of action cards

Number 4 horse Target 3rd horse (Now 3rd position

horse
from the front)
Move 1 space forward Front or rear
direction,
or 1 space backward Moving Move 2 space foward
(player’s choice) distance

Examples

5th (number 4) horse and 4th (number 7) horse switch their position. The
number 4 horse ranks up 4th from 5th. (However, if the player decides to
send 5th horse backward, 5th horse will be switched with the 6th (number
5) horse.

5
 7th (number 6) horse moves forward 2 spaces and gets 5th rank. Number 5
horse gets 7th rank and number 4 horse gets 6th rank.
Caution : + 2 action card makes the horse (on action card) move forward 2 spaces. This
action makes passed horse to move lower for 1 rank each. It doesn’t mean to switch
with the horse that is placed in front of 2 spaces.

Example of 2 horses on action card

You must move both horse according to description

of action card.
Both horse can only move in the same direction.

Examples of special cards

Rider fall off card Exchange betting card

Player can choose one of the following actions.
Move the 3rd You discard one of your betting cards and
rank horse to take a new betting card from top of the
the 7th rank betting card stack.
You choose a player. The player must discard
a betting card and take a new betting card
from top of the stack. (Discarded betting
cards are open to everyone.)

6
ETC

You must use an action card in your turn even if it gives you disadvantage.

When you play an action card, you must move the horse according to the
description of action card.

Example When you play below action card, you must move backward number
4 horse because the horse at 1st rank cannot move forward.

6 Game end

When all players play their all action cards, the game ends.
The final position of horses decides the score. The first horse (upmost right)
gets 1st rank. Ranks are getting lowered in the left direction. The leftmost
horse is 7th rank.

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 All players open their betting cards and score.
Check the ranks of horses on your betting cards and score according to
scoring table on back of betting card. Each player scores the sum of 2 betting
cards (3 cards for 2 players).
If you have 2 same betting cards, you score double of that horse.
If the dark horse (7th rank horse at the starting position) gets within 3rd rank,
the players who have dark horse token gets + 5 bonus points. If the dark
horse fails to get within 3rd rank, the players who have dark horse token gets
–3 points.
The player with the highest score wins the game.

illustrator Tae - Hyun Kim

game design Ju-Hwa Lee