Overview

Headache is a Pop-O-Matic board game by Milton Bradley where 2-4 players move cone-shaped pieces around a dual-track board, capturing opponents’ pieces by landing on them. Unlike similar games (Trouble), Headache uses two dice in the Pop-O-Matic bubble and features two parallel paths that intersect at 8 marked crossing points. The goal is to capture all opposing cones.

Components

• 1 plastic playing board with Pop-O-Matic dice roller (contains 2 dice)
• 16 cones (4 per player color)

Setup

1. Each player chooses a color and takes 4 cones.
2. Players place their cones on the matching START space on the board.

Turn Structure

1. Pop the dice by pressing the Pop-O-Matic bubble.
2. Move one cone along the path the number of spaces shown on the dice.
3. Capture if you land on an opponent’s cone or stack.
4. Play passes clockwise.

Actions

Basic Movement

• Pop the Pop-O-Matic once; move one of your cones or stacks along the path by the number shown.
• You control and move your own cones or stacks.
• You must use each of your first 4 turns to move one cone at a time onto the board from your START space.
• A bonus pop may not be used to move a cone off START.

Bonus Die

If you pop the red dot on the bonus die, you get an additional pop and move.

Capturing

• If you land on an opponent’s cone or stack, you capture it.
• You now own and control the captured piece(s) for the rest of the game.
• Captured pieces stack on top of yours.
• A stack grows higher each time it captures.
• The player who owns the top cone on a stack controls that stack.

Two Paths

• The board has an outer path and an inner path.
• They intersect at 8 spaces marked with an “X.”
• At X spaces, you may cross from one track to the other.
• Single cones may move clockwise or counterclockwise.
• Stacks of cones may move in either direction on either path but never in both directions on the same track simultaneously.

Crossing from Path to Path

• At an X crossing, you may switch from outer to inner path or vice versa.

Scoring / Victory Conditions

Players are eliminated when all their pieces have been captured. The last player remaining, who has captured all other cones, wins the game.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• You cannot capture an opponent’s cone before it has moved off its START space (see Figure 2A for examples).
• Stacks move as a single unit.
• A player who has no cones or stacks remaining is eliminated.
• Challenge Game variant: For extra challenge, follow the above rules plus: move stacks at X spaces on the playing table counterclockwise to space E or space B. Color of parts may also be captured.

Player Reference

Rule	Detail
Dice	2 dice in Pop-O-Matic
Start	4 cones per player at START
First 4 turns	Move 1 cone off START each turn
Capture	Land on opponent’s piece to capture
Paths	Outer and Inner, intersect at 8 X-spaces
Bonus	Red dot on bonus die = extra pop
Win	Capture all opposing cones