Sequence Letters Board Game: Rules for How to Play

Objective

The objective of Sequence Letters is to create a Sequence before the other players.

Setup

Place the game board in the middle of the table where everyone can reach it.
Depending on the number of players, each player/team takes a set of chips. If there are two or three players, each player chooses a color of chips. If there are four players, the players divide into two teams of two players. If the players are playing in teams, the players should sit so the teams alternate taking turns.
Shuffle the cards and deal them out to the players. The number of cards to deal to each player depends on the number of players: 2-3 players – 5 cards each; 4 players – 4 cards each.
The player to the left of the dealer starts the game. Play moves clockwise/left throughout the game.

How to Play Sequence Letters

On your turn you will choose one card from your hand to play. Each card has a letter printed on it. Outside of X and Z, each letter corresponds to two spaces on the gameboard. For a full list of what spaces each letter corresponds to, check the Letter Breakdown section below.

When you have chosen what card you want to play, you will play it to your own personal discard pile. You will choose one of the spaces whose first letter matches the letter that you played. The color on the space must also match the color on the card. Place one of your chips on the space you chose. You cannot place a chip on a space that already has a chip on it.

Playing a card in Sequence Letters — The current player decided to play a M card. They have decided to place one of their chips on the monkey space.

Once you place a chip, it must remain on that space for the rest of the game. The one exception is if an X card is played.

To end your turn you will draw a card and add it to your hand. If the draw pile ever runs out of cards, shuffle all of the discarded cards to form a new draw pile. Play then passes to the next player in clockwise direction.

Letter Breakdown

While it is usually clear which letter corresponds to each picture, there are a couple pictures that could go by a couple different names. The official breakdown of which pictures go with each letter are as follows:

A – Apple, Airplane
B – Balloon, Bike
C – Candle, Cereal
D – Duck, Drum
E – Eagle, Egg
F – Fish, Frog
G – Giraffe, Grapes
H – Horse, Heart
I – Ice Cream, Igloo
J – Jack in the Box, Jellybeans
K – Kite, Kangaroo
L – Lamp, Ladder
M – Monkey, Mouse
N – Nose, Net
O – Orange, Owl
P – Pumpkin, Pig
Q – Queen, Question Mark
R – Raccoon, Robot
S – Sun, Saw
T – Truck, Table
U – Umbrella, Unicorn
V – Violin, Volcano
W – Watermelon, Worm
Y – Yarn, Yo Yo

X Cards

X cards are unique since there are no spaces on the board that start with an x.

When you play an X card, you will choose one of the chips played by one of your opponents. You will remove the chip from the board. You cannot place one of your own chips on this space during the current turn.

Playing an X card to remove a chip from the board — The blue player played a chip on the kite space which blocked the Sequence that the red player was trying to build. The red player decides to play an X card and remove the blue chip from the kite space.

Your turn then ends.

Z Cards

Like X cards, there are no spaces on the board that start with Z.

When you play a Z card, choose any space on the board that doesn’t already have a chip on it. You will place one of your chips on the chosen space.

Playing a Z card to place a chip on any space — The yellow player has played a Z card. They can pick any empty space to put a chip on. They decide to place it on the net space as it would lead to them getting four chips in a row and winning the game.

Your turn then ends.

Dead Cards

Due to Z cards it is possible that you will have a card in your hand that has both of its spaces covered by a chip. In this case you have a “Dead Card” in your hand.

At the beginning of your turn you can play the Dead Card to your discard pile telling the other players that it no longer has any open spaces. You will then draw a new card to replace the card. Only one Dead Card can be replaced each turn.

Dead Card in Sequence Letters — This player has a M card but both M spaces have been covered up (monkey, mouse). This card is now a Dead Card. The player can discard it at the start of their turn in order to draw another card to replace it.

You then will take your normal turn by playing a card and placing one of your chips.

Winning the Game

The objective of Sequence Letters is to create a Sequence. A Sequence is a set of four chips of the same color in a row. You can create a sequence horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.

The first player/team to create a Sequence, wins the game.

Winning Sequence Letters — The red player placed four of their chips in a row. They have created a Sequence and have won the game.

Sequence Letters FAQ

If you have any questions about how to play the game, leave a comment below on this post. I will try to answer any questions asked as best and as quickly as possible.

Components

Gameboard
52 Cards (2 cards of each letter)
90 Chips (30 of three colors)
Instructions

Year: 2009 | Publisher: Jax Ltd

Genres: Abstract, Children’s

Ages: 4-7 | Number of Players: 2-4 | Length of Game: 30-45 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: High

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For more board and card game rules/how to plays, check out our complete alphabetical list of card and board game rules posts.

Written By:

Eric Mortensen

Eric Mortensen is an owner and head writer on Geeky Hobbies since 2014. He is an avid board game player and collector with over 3,000 board and card games in his collection. Since 2014 he has written more than 1,100 board game how to play guides.