How to play Hide & Ride

The Phantom escapes across a city by public transport. The detectives chase him along the same lines, but they cannot see where he is. They see only which ticket he paid with, and a few times in the game the Phantom shows himself. From that they must work out where he can have gone, and close in before he runs out the clock.

One Phantom plays against five detectives, or three in the small cities. The computer can take any seat, so you can play alone, as two or as six.

The goal

• The Phantom wants to survive 24 moves. He also wins if no detective can move.
• The detectives want to catch the Phantom: ride onto the stop where he stands. They also win if the Phantom has nowhere to go.

What is in the game

The city plan

The plan is a simplified network of the city's real public transport. Stops are circles, lines are the coloured strokes between them. The rings round a stop show what calls there. You tell the modes apart by the line:

• bus: grey line, a dense net of short hops,
• tram: wine-red line,
• metro: thick coloured lines, each line in its own colour,
• train: black and white dashed line, long hops,
• boat: blue dashed line across the water, the Phantom's only.

Some cities have only some of these, or others (a trolleybus runs on bus tickets, a funicular on tram tickets). The legend next to the plan always shows what runs in that city.

Starting stops have a dot in the middle. The detectives set out only from them.

Pieces

The Phantom (a white piece marked F) and the detectives D1–D5, each with a colour and a symbol of their own. The Phantom's piece is shown only to whoever plays him, and to everyone when he shows himself.

Tickets

Every player starts with tickets of their own. How many of which depends on the city; its card in the menu shows them. In Prague, for example:

Tickets are personal: detectives do not lend them to each other. Everyone can see how many tickets each player has left.

The Phantom's record

The Phantom has 24 slots, one for each of his moves. Everyone sees which ticket he used in which move, but not where he went. The red slots 3, 8, 13, 18 and 24 are reveal slots: after these moves the Phantom shows himself.

Setting up

1. Choose a city and how you play: alone against the computer, together on one device, or with the Phantom on his own phone.
2. Decide who plays the Phantom and who the detectives. The computer takes the free seats; one player may play several detectives.
3. The detectives take their places on starting stops, drawn by the game, each on a different one.
4. In his first move the Phantom secretly chooses where he starts: any stop without a detective. It goes into the first slot without a ticket.

A round

The round has a fixed order: the Phantom moves first, then detectives D1, D2, D3 … The order never changes.

• You cannot pass. Whoever can ride must ride.
• The Phantom moves in secret. The others see only the ticket he paid with.
• The detectives move openly, each with their own piece. They may talk it over, but they move one at a time.

How to ride

A move is one ride:

1. Pay a ticket for a mode that calls at your stop.
2. Ride along a line of that mode to the next stop, in either direction.

A used ticket leaves the game, the Phantom's and the detectives' alike; nobody gets it.

Metro

The metro goes up to three stations (depending on the city; two in Paris) along one line, without changing. The legend next to the plan says how far the metro goes in one ride.

Taxi

The taxi is a joker: one stop along any line on land (bus, tram, metro, train), the metro too only one station. The taxi does not go on water. For the Phantom it also hides which mode he used.

Boat

Only the Phantom may take the boat, along the river or by ferry to the next pier. The detectives have no boat tickets.

Where you may not go

• Nobody rides onto a stop with a detective on it. At most one detective stands on a stop.
• The Phantom does not ride the metro through a station where a detective stands. The detective guards the platform. If another line without a detective leads to the same stop, he may take it.
• Detectives may ride through stations with other detectives on them, only not stop there.
• You can ride only with a ticket you have.

When there is nowhere to go

• A detective without a ride (no ticket for anything that calls at their stop, or every target taken) stays where they are this round. Otherwise staying is not allowed.
• The Phantom with nowhere to go is surrounded and loses.

The Phantom hides and shows himself

After his move the Phantom shows only the ticket. From the tickets and from where he last showed himself, the detectives work out where he can be. If he took the tram, he is only where a tram goes from a stop he could have been at.

After moves 3, 8, 13, 18 and 24 the Phantom shows himself on the stop where he stands. The stops of his hidden moves since the last reveal are uncovered too, so his whole path shows. Where he was last seen stays marked on the plan until he shows himself again.

At the end of the game the whole record is uncovered.

The Phantom's special moves

Double move

The Phantom hands in his double move ticket and rides twice in a row, each ride for a ticket of its own. Both tickets are shown. A double move takes two slots of the record, and the detectives then move only once.

• If the first ride lands on a reveal slot, the Phantom shows himself after it and vanishes again with the second.
• The second ride may lead back, and the same rules apply to it.
• A double move cannot be played when fewer than two slots are left in the record.

Escape by water

The boat is the Phantom's alone, and the detectives cannot follow him across the water. It pays off most right after a reveal.

End of the game

The detectives win when:

• a detective rides onto the stop where the Phantom stands (the Phantom is caught), or
• the Phantom has nowhere to go (he is surrounded).

The Phantom wins when:

• he survives the detectives' moves after his 24th move, or
• no detective can move at the start of the detectives' turn.

The Phantom's score is the number of slots he filled. In a tournament the players take turns as the Phantom, and whoever lasts longest wins.

Variants

Variants are switched on in the rules in the menu and can be combined.

• Expert: the Phantom starts in view and also shows himself after move 21. Harder for the Phantom, for experienced players.
• Bold Phantom: once a game the Phantom may show himself after his move of his own accord and take one ticket of his choice from every detective (nothing from a detective without tickets). He adds the tickets taken to his own. Not on a reveal slot.
• No taxi: nobody gets taxi tickets. The deduction is cleaner: every ticket of the Phantom gives the mode away.

Playing in the app

Ways to play

• Alone against the computer: you play the Phantom, one detective or all of them.
• Together on one device: you pass the device round. Before the Phantom's move the plan is covered and the others look away. The computer plays the detectives nobody takes.
• The Phantom on his phone: the plan lies on an iPad or a Mac in the middle of the table and the detectives move on it. The Phantom moves in secret on his iPhone; the two devices find each other on the local network.
• Everyone on their own device: play from afar, coming soon.

Aids

• The hint for detectives: off, count only (how many stops are still possible) or the whole map (yellow rings show every stop where the Phantom can be).
• Where you can go: on your move blue rings show the targets and the rest of the network fades. Tap a target; if more than one mode goes there, the game asks which ticket.
• The Phantom's record is in the left panel on iPad and Mac, everyone's tickets in the right one; on iPhone below the plan.
• Messages: the detectives report their rides and the Phantom drops a remark now and then. There are no clues in them, just atmosphere.
• The computer's level: easy or medium.
• Lessons: three short lessons (the chase, as the Phantom, the end of the game) walk through the rules on a small town.

Tips and tactics

For the Phantom

• Keep your options open. A stop with several modes confuses more than a dead end.
• Save the metro, the double move and the boat for the moments right after a reveal, when the detectives know most.
• The taxi hides the mode. The detectives then do not know which network you moved on.
• Do not ride towards the detectives. Wherever a detective can get next move, you can be caught.
• Watch your tickets. When your trams run out, the detectives learn where you can no longer go.

For the detectives

• Read the tickets. Every ticket of the Phantom rules out some stops. The whole map hint shows what is left.
• Hold the metro platforms. A detective on a metro station closes the whole line through it to the Phantom.
• Do not all chase him from one side. Spread round the area where he can be and draw the ring tighter.
• Save the tickets nothing else replaces. A detective without trams in a tram district stands still.
• After a reveal act fast, before the possibilities grow again.

Questions