Supercalifragilisticano
| Supercalifragilisticano | ||
|---|---|---|
| Designed by Matthew Rogers (after but ignorant of Cerulean's suggestion) | ||
| ||
| Square Volcano beyond "Mega" | ||
| Players: | 1 - 5 | |
| Length: | Medium | |
| Complexity: | Low | |
| Trios per color: | 10 | |
| Number of colors: | 10 | |
| - - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - - | ||
| Volcano caps, 7x7 board (optional) | ||
| Setup time: | 3 minutes | |
| Playing time: | 15 minutes - 40 minutes | |
| Strategy depth: | Medium | |
| Random chance: | None | |
| Game mechanics: | eruption | |
| Theme: | Volcano | |
| Status: Not Specified (v1.0), Year released: 2987 | ||
Okay, so look at all these pyramids! It's excessive.
Equipment
Optimally: Nine stashes (five trios each) of translucent colors, plus four white trios, plus five Volcano caps. Black smalls work fine for Volcano caps. The 7x7 board is optional: You can play on a bare tabletop.
The tricky part is the ninth translucent stash: it will require pink or something still more exotic.
Setup
Arrange the nested trios symmetrically in a seven-by-seven square, with the four white pyramid nests at the outside corners. Put caps on the center trio and the four surrounding it (either diagonally or orthogonally).
Play
Play just like Volcano or Mega-Volcano.
As in Mega-Volcano, white pyramids are "wild" and can be combined with other colors to make winning trees.
Goal
The first player to capture pyramids to construct seven trees consisting of only one color other than white (i.e. monochrome or "virtually monochrome" trees) wins, and the game is over. The game-end/victory condition is thus more like Caldera.
Supercalifragilisticano-Duel
This two-player version of Supercalifragilisticano incorporates some of the concepts of Hexano-Duel.
Setup
Form the board just like Supercalifragilisticano, but with a white nest in each of the two outer corners along a single side, and black nests in the other outer corners. Then put an additional small white pyramid/cap on the nest that is next to the center on the diagonal to each white nest, and small black pyramids/caps on the corresponding nests on the other half of the board. Finally, place a small white pyramid/cap on the row between the black caps, one nest towards the nearest edge of the board, and a small black pyramid on the corresponding nest on the other side.
Play
One player is white, and the other is black. White plays first, with chess-like Nivinivinack to determine who plays white. Each player can only move caps of their own color.
Large and medium white pyramids are "wild" for the white player, and large and medium black pyramids are "wild" for the black player. If white captures a large or medium black pyramid, it serves only to keep it away from the black player, and vice versa.
When a small white or black pyramid is erupted or uncovered, it enters play as an additional cap for the player of that color.
Goal
The first player to capture the components for six monochrome or "virtually monochrome" trees wins.
Supercalifragilisticaldera
This is an expanded version of Caldera along Supercalifragilisticano lines.
Setup
Use six black caps, and four trios each of 11 colors, e.g. four trios each of green, yellow, red, blue, cyan, clear, orange, purple, pink, electric yellow, and white. Arrange the trios with no trio adjacent to another of the same color, in a seven-by-seven formation, leaving five empty spaces at the center in the form of a cross. Place caps on six of the trios.
Play
Just like Caldera. White pyramids are NOT wild.
Goal
The first player to capture the components for four monochrome trees wins.
Retroactive Credit
I have just now (12 April 2012) discovered the remarks by Cerulean from 1 June 2006 in the discussion page for Volcano, where he makes preliminary gestures towards Supercalifragilisticano under the rubric of 7x7 UberVolcano. I developed this variant without knowledge of his proposal, but I always suspected that someone must have already thought of the basic idea.