Epleslang

Epleslang is Norwegian and means "apple thieves" and this is exactly what the game is about. The players are kids trying to sneak into their neighbours garden and steal as many apples as they can while at the same time avoiding both the neighbour and his angry dog.

The game board shows the garden with the apple tree, the dogs house and the pavement outside the garden. Before you start to play you need to sort all the round markers. Those marked with apples are placed on the apple tree and those marked with torn trousers are placed in a pile on the table, next to the game board. The event cards are shuffled and placed face-down on the table. The players pick a playing piece that they place on the pavement. The playing piece acting as the angry dog is placed on the dog house.

Playing the game

The youngest player starts. He rolls the die and will need to move to one of the three spaces on the pavement which leads into the garden. These spaces are: between the bush and the fence, through the hole in the fence or through the open gate.

When the player lands exactly on the one of these spaces he might move into the garden on his next turn. The player then rolls the die again and moves along the path up to the apple tree. If he lands on a yellow space he must draw an event card and follow the instructions. When a player manages to get safely all the way up to the apple tree he may roll the die to see how many apples he gets: one, two or three. Then he must draw an event card. The player can be at the apple tree for as many turns as he wishes as long as he don't wake up the dog nor the neighbour. For every turn the player are at the apple tree he gets to roll the die and steal more apples, but he can never carry more than 12 apples. He will also have to draw an event card for every turn he takes apples from the tree.

When the player thinks he has enough apples he need to sneak all the way out of the garden again. This is done by rolling the die and move along the path out to the pavement and if he lands on a yellow space he need to draw an event card. If the player manages to get safely to the pavement he can move the apples he had with him to a safe place - these apples are safe and can not be taken by the neighbour or his dog. On the players next turn he should try and sneak back into the garden to steal more apples.

The event cards

There are four different event cards:

• The moon: Nothing happens, only the moon sees you.
• The bone: You find one of the dogs meat bones. This can be used to interrupt the dog if he should start chasing you. Each player can have only one bone at the time.
• The neighbour: You are unlucky. The neighbour wakes up and catches you. He takes any apples you've got (these are placed back on the tree) and throws you out of the garden. (The player to your right places you on one of the spaces on the pavement).
• The dog: You are discovered by the dog and he starts chasing you. The player on your rights controls the dog who starts on the red space in front of the dog house. If you have a bone card you can play this to end the chase, if not the chase will continue until either you are safe on the pavement outside the garden or the dog captures you. (The other players must wait for the chase to end before it's their turn again). If the dog captures the player he must put all the apples he were carrying back on the apple tree and take one of the round markers with a torn trouser on and place it in front of him on the table. This is to mark that the player has been bit. A player might only have two of these markers, if he gets captured a third time he is too injured to steal more apples and is out of the game.

Winning the game

When all the apples are taken from the apple tree and all the players are out on the pavement the game ends. The players count up all their apples and he who has got the most is declared the winner.

Childrens game of the year

Epleslang is a rather amusing childrens game. I am happy to see a childrens game which there are something more to than just die-rolling like Snakes &: Ladders. The game was awarded the childrens game of the year in Denmark in 1987. Was re-publish under the name Rakkerunger by Damm (Egmont Litor) in 2000.

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