Nickel

Nickel
Designed by Kat Costa
Use strategy to form a line or L shape on a colorful, randomly-generated board
:Players	Players:	2 - 2
:Time	Length:	Fast
:Complexity	Complexity:	Low
Trios per color:		0
Number of colors:		5
Pyramid trios:
Monochr. stashes:		5
Five-color sets:		0
- - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - -
5x5 grid
Setup time:		1 minute
Playing time:		5 minutes - 15 minutes
Strategy depth:		High
Random chance:		None
Game mechanics:
Theme:		The wikipage input value is empty (e.g. <code>SomeProperty::, [[]]</code>) and therefore it cannot be used as a name or as part of a query condition.
BGG Link:
Status: Complete (v1.0), Year released: 2020

Nickel

Nickel is a two-player combinatorial game played on a 5x5 grid that is randmly populated with 25 pyramids. The goal is to form an L shape or straight line of 5 pieces in your color or to leave your opponent with no valid moves.

Materials

• 25 small pyramids in five colors
• A 5×5 grid
• 12 tokens in two colors (these can be pyramids of unused colors, if you have them, or they can be coins, stones, bottle caps, etc).

Nickel works best if you own five nests each of five colors so that five small pyramids of each color can be used. However, you can get by with only a Pyramid Arcade set (three nests each of five colors) by substituting mediums for two of the smalls and ignoring the somewhat visually-distracting size difference.

::S::S::S::S::S ::S::S::S::S::S ::S::S::S::S::S ::S::S::S::S::S ::S::S::S::S::S :Volcano Ideal materials

::S::S::S::M::M ::S::S::S::M::M ::S::S::S::M::M ::S::S::S::M::M ::S::S::S::M::M :Volcano Pyramid Arcade

Goal

There are three ways to win Nickel.

• Form a straight line of five pieces in your color (diagonal or orthogonal)
• Form an L shape of five pieces in your color
• Arrange it so that there are no valid moves at the start of your opponent's turn

Setup

The board will need to be randomly filled with 25 pyramids. Each pyramid will have a color and an orientation characteristic that makes it unique from all other pieces on the board. To begin setup, sort the pieces into rows and columns of color and orientation (North, East, South, West, and Standing-Up). Do this next to the board, not on the board.

::SPN ::SPE ::SPS ::SPW ::SPU ::SPN ::SPE ::SPS ::SPW ::SPU ::SPN ::SPE ::SPS ::SPW ::SPU ::SPN ::SPE ::SPS ::SPW ::SPU ::SPN ::SPE ::SPS ::SPW ::SPU

Now, alternating turns and moving quickly, each player takes any pyramid and, preserving its orientation, places it into any space on the board. Once the board is full, play can begin.