HOW TO PLAY

To play Groats you'll need:

• Your iPhone or iPad

• A flat stable surface with an edge (table, desk, shelf, bar etc.) Perhaps not the best game on a boat or plane!

• A bit of skill!

 

This game is loosely based on the old pub game of Shove Ha'penny and features a real "shove' mechanic - no having to flip the coins up the board with your finger in this one. You have to give your device a gentle shove to make your groat travel up the board and this can be as fun or frustrating as playing real Shove Ha'penny. Just make sure your device can travel a little across the surface.

 

It's a two player game with players taking turns from opposite ends of the board. Like Shove Ha'penny, the objective is to score points by landing your groats in the 'beds' each of which is between two horizontal lines and without touching them. The winner is the first to score three points in each of the five beds.

 

There are three modes of play:

 

Play: Plays on a single device with the players playing from opposite ends of the device.

 

Practice: This is a simple practice game for one player in which the three red groats are placed randomly on the board so that you can polish up your skills. This mode also offers you the ability to retry the last turn or reset the practice game from scratch.

 

Match Play: Allows you to play games with other players on-line. This requires that you are logged into Game Center (usually with your iCloud account) and you can either invite friends to play against or request a match against anyone who is also waiting for a game. You can start and play multiple games at the same time as this is a turn based game.

 

The Rules of Groats:

 

The objective of the game is to why by scoring three points in each of the five beds on the board before your opponent.

 

The board consists of five ‘beds’, each between two horizontal lines, two equal sized ‘home areas’ at each end of the board, before the first and after the last horizontal lines, and two equally sized ‘out of bounds’ areas marked by vertical lines running along both sides of the board which includes the scores.

 

Each player begins with a stack of three groats (red or blue) and take turns to play from alternate ends of the board. In each turn, starting with blue always, a groat is placed at the bottom of the players home area and to play do the following:

1 - Drag the groat left or right with your finger until it is in the position you want

2 - Hit the 'Done' button, this now freezes your groat in place horizontally

3 - Give your device a shove, a little for the lower beds or a bit more for the upper ones

4 - The groat now travels up the board, how far and at what angle depending on the shove.

 

Once the groat comes to rest (or groats if it has collided with any others on the board) then following rules apply:

 

• Any groat which has entered the side out of bounds areas (completely or partially) is lost to the opponent

• Any groat which comes to rest completely inside the opponents home area is lost to the opponent

• Any groat which does not reach the edge of the players home area (first line) and has not struck another groat can be replayed but any groat which strikes another and does not make it to the edge of the home area is lost to the opponent

• Any groat which has come to rest inside a bed (irrespective of colour) scores a point to the player provided that the player has a score of less than three in that bed and in this case the groat is returned to the player. If the player already has three then the groat is lost to the opponent who also gains a point in the bed if their bed is not already full

• Any groat which comes to rest in the playing area but crossing one of the horizontal lines remains on the board for the next turn

 

If the player scores any points then they get to play again, otherwise the turn passes to the opponent unless the opponent has no groats left to play. If neither player has any groats left then all the groats are returned to their respective players and play resumes.

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