That is a pretty cool game. I am keen to try it out on Eeyore's fFamous "tri-hex" chessboard. I've got a nice board I had printed and mounted, and I'm always happy to see new games to play on it. The six-sided board has the advantage of being a 3-player game. Awesome! =) Thanks! On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 5:06 PM, Spencer Cappallo <tsi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Hi. > > I've been working on a 2player Icehouse connection game. It's not finished > yet, but I thought I'd post what I've got so far. I've played it a number of > times now, and I think it's really starting to take some shape. > > It's played by two players with a stash each on a chessboard. There are > imagined (or real if you want to make/draw them in) rows extending out on > all sides of the board, as if it were a 10x10 board with the corner squares > removed. > > The object of the game is to connect the (imaginary) row nearest you with > the (imaginary) row farthest from you, while stopping your opponent from > doing likewise. Basically, connect your two sides. > > I've uploaded a quick mockup of the board here: > http://headphoned.com/icehouse/emptyboard.png > > Players take alternating turns. On a player's turn he may do ONE of four > things: > > 1) Place a pyramid from his stash onto any empty square on the board (EXCEPT > his opponent's two special rows, colour coded in the above image). The piece > must be laying on its side pointing in one of the four orthogonal > directions. > > 2) Rotate one of his pieces already on the board. He may rotate the piece > 90, 180, or 270 degrees. > > 3) Move the piece. Pieces move orthogonally, never diagonally. They move up > to 4 - p spaces, where p is the pip-count. Or, in other words: big pieces > move 1 square, mediums up to 2 squares, and smalls up to 3 squares. Pieces > can not move through, move onto, capture, or push other pieces. > > 4) Pick up one of your pieces from the board and return it to your stash. > [This one shouldn't come up often] > > > Every piece on the board has an imaginary line extending out from it in the > direction it's facing. This area extends for a number of spaces equal to the > piece's pip count, or until it hits another piece. > > This is illustrated here for each of the three sizes: > http://headphoned.com/icehouse/influence.png > > If this line hits another piece, it stops at that square. If the other piece > is the same colour, the two are connected. If the other piece is the > opposite colour, it's blocking the first piece. > > This is easiest to see in a diagram: > http://headphoned.com/icehouse/blocking.png > In the above image, there is a 3-pip piece pointing North. Its line would, > unobstructed, extend 3 squares beyond it. However, since there is a blue > 2-pip piece in the way, the line is blocked and a piece 3 squares away from > the 3 pip red piece would not be connected to it. Also pictured is a 1-pip > red piece pointing directly at the 3-pip red piece. The 1-pip's line only > extends one square, and that square is occupied by the 3-pip piece, thereby > connecting the two. > > It is through linking pieces of your colour in this manner that you hope to > connect your two sides and win. > > An example of connecting two sides is here: > http://headphoned.com/icehouse/connection.png > It is important to note from the above example that one piece in the > connection, a 2-pip, is getting pointed at by two different pyramids. The > direction of the arrows need not necessarily flow provided there is still a > connection between your two sides. > > And finally, here's an example of a game in progress where whoever's turn it > is can win by moving: http://headphoned.com/icehouse/ekzamplo.png > > Anyway, that's my little game I'm working on. I hope some of you will give > it a look, maybe even a try, and give me some feedback. I haven't really > tried varying the board size much yet. I suspect it could be turned into a > placement-only connection game with the right board size (on my > to-investigate list). Also, I suspect it can become a three player game on a > hexagonal grid. (Maybe a 5x5x5?) > > Thanks for reading! > > --Spencer > _______________________________________________ > Icehouse mailing list > Icehouse@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > http://lists.looneylabs.com/mailman/listinfo/icehouse > -- A pizza with the radius 'z' and thickness 'a' has the volume pi*z*z*a.
