Do you find Checkers too limiting? Does Chess have too many different pieces and rules to memorize? Were you too poor to afford Tak on Kickstarter? Have you heard of Go? How about Arimaa? Welcome to a new abstract strategy game that might be just for you! (All of those other games are fun too and you should go learn about them. Later. You're here now.)
Our first new game, Hobbits, was a game entirely of chance. Today we present a game entirely of skill: Towers. The idea was invented by farmane to pair with the world that goes with his Real 8 gaming system, and it is a lot of fun while being pretty simple. Towers is still somewhat in progress, so please give us feedback if you sit down and play!
Towers
Towers is played on an 8 by 8 grid of squares. There are games played on other things, we promise. Chessboards are just so easy to find.
Each player needs 8 chess rooks of opposite colors. What? You don't have that many chess rooks? We'll wait. Or just get a buttload of coins or Tak pieces. You just need to be able to flip them over or tilt them sideways.
Phase 1: Players alternate placing their towers on the board until all towers are placed. No, it doesn't matter which color goes first. You can't pass and you have to place all 8 towers. Think of this phase as sending out a bunch of surveyors to avoid building your towers in swampland. Below is a picture of what the board (made out of an old wine barrel by our grandpa!) might look like after all the towers are first placed.
Phase 2: Now players alternate moving towers, starting with the player who placed second. Towers move like rooks in chess: forward/backward or left/right in a straight line, no diagonals and no moving through other pieces. After you move a tower, flip it over (or tip it on its side, whatever). The tower is now built and you can't move it again, cause that's how buildings work. Again, passing is not allowed, and you have to move all your towers by the end (unless you're the kind of doofus who lets your opponent pin one of your towers, in which case you get laughed at by the rest of the Internet). Below is a picture of the board from above after each player has made two moves; the moves are highlighted with adorable arrows!
Phase 3: There is no phase 3, the game is over. You get points whenever there is an unobstructed line of sight between two towers of your color. Again, diagonals don't count--what are we, clergymen? You get one point for each empty square between every such pair of your towers. If there are any towers in the way you get nothing. What good are towers that can't signal to each other? You were dumb for building those towers there. Below is a picture of the final position of the board from above, with more adorable lines to show points.
Whoever has the most points is the winner. Huh, I really wrote that sentence. You really read that sentence.
You are now a master of Towers! Play again, switching who goes first, then add up your margins of victory to determine the true winner. Still not bored? Just keep playing, what else are you going to do, get a job? Or, like my brother, you could be supported by generous donations from viewers like you: Farmane's Patreon.
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