Tic Tac Doh!
| Tic Tac Doh! | ||
|---|---|---|
| Brian Schultze | ||
| Slightly twisted variant of Tic-Tac-Toe | ||
| Players: | ||
| Length: | unknown | |
| Complexity: | Low | |
| Trios per color: | 5 | |
| Number of colors: | 1 | |
| - - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - - | ||
| imaginary board | ||
| Setup time: | none | |
| Strategy depth: | Low | |
| Random chance: | None | |
| Theme: | Tic Tac Toe | |
| BGG Link: | 17748 | |
| Status: Complete (v1.0), Year released: 2003 | ||
Tic Tac Doh is a two player Tic Tac Toe variant using Icehouse pieces on an imaginary board. The game requires only a single stash of pyramids.
Tic Tac Doh was published in Hypothermia #15.
Materials
One stash, 15 pyramids total. The game works fine with a single color, but if the you own multiple colors, the recommended set to use is small blues, medium reds, and large yellows. This makes it easier to avoid illegal placements.
Recommended materials if you have multiple colors available to you"
Rules
Goal: Get three pieces of the same size in a row in an imaginary 3x3 grid.
Players take turns placing the Icehouse pieces on the table in the following manner:
Each piece must be placed in an imaginary square next to or on top of a piece already in play. (Diagonally counts as next to.) A piece cannot be played if it would lie outside the imaginary 3x3 grid. Note: Since you create the grid as you go, you don't know where out of bounds is until you have played a few pieces. For example, the first piece you play can either be the center, corner or edge. Nobody knows until a few more piece have been played.
You can play a piece on top of another piece in two ways. The first is playing a smaller piece on top of a piece one size larger, forming a tree of pieces. This grouping counts as any of the pieces it contains. For example, a medium piece could be played on top of a large piece. This tree would now count as either a large or medium when trying to get three in a row. A small piece could then be played on top of the tree, making it count as any of the three types.
The second way to play a piece on top of another is to nest them, by placing a larger piece on top of a piece one size smaller. For example, a medium could be played on top of a small one. Later on, a large could be played on top of the nest. A nest only counts as the outermost (biggest) piece. So a nest with a small and a medium only counts as a medium piece. A square cannot have both a nest and a tree. Like chess, once you let go of a piece, it is considered played and cannot be moved.
Players take turns putting a piece on the board until someone gets three pieces of the same size in a row, or until all of the pieces have been placed on the board (a tie). In the event that a person cannot make a legal move on his turn (but there are still pieces left), the other player wins.
Designer's Comments:
This might work reasonably well as a 3- or 4-person game, but has not been tried.
The game is easier to see (and better-looking), if you use different colors for the different sizes of pieces; for example, red smalls, orange mediums, and yellow larges.
External Links
- The official rules are available online.
- Tic Tac Doh is listed on BoardGameGeek.
| Featured in ICE-7 |
|---|
| Zendo · IceTowers · Volcano · Homeworlds |
| Martian Chess · Icehouse · Tic Tac Doh! |