Moving Day

1 July is Moving Day in Qubec, Canada. It is no joke: more than 100,000 people move on this particular day. Why? From the 1700s, all leases expired by law on the same day. The law has since been changed, but landlords and tenants still stick to 1 July as the universal moving day. And with so many people moving on the same day, it is of course almost impossible to hire removal men or even rent a van – so everyone in the local community turns up to help you move.

In Moving Day, your job is to pack all your belongings neatly into the available vehicles. You must try to avoid crushing lighter items by putting heavier items on top, while also assigning people from the local community to each vehicle. Some of them are rather clumsy and may break fragile items if you are not careful, but if they bring delicious food it can be impossible to turn them away…

On your turn, you choose a set of two item tiles and a person card from a general display, then assign them to your vehicles. Bear in mind that your vehicles have limited space and different shapes, and that items must be loaded from the bottom up. People also have different strengths and should ideally be strong enough, between them, to lift your heavier items.

The game ends after eight rounds. Each player has now assigned sixteen item tiles and eight person cards to their vehicles, and works out their score:

• Heavy items on top of lighter items break the lighter items underneath.
• Clumsy people will break fragile items.
• Heavy items score more points than lighter items.
• Score extra points for items of the same shape that are adjacent to each other.
• Score extra points for items of the same type that lie next to each other.
• Food tokens are also worth 1 point each.

The player with the most points wins.