When you want a game that is simplicity itself, you might want to check out Triangul8.
Triangul8, a self-published game by designer James Hutt, is a two-player abstract strategy game, which is generally right up my alley in terms of genre.
The game is played with triangular tiles, hence its name. There is one red piece and 23 in both black and white. The pieces are very nice, chunky enough to handle and move around easily, and in a material much like that of a domino, so they should last.
There is no board, think Hive in that respect.
The game starts with the placement of the red tile, after which each player takes a turn placing a tile of their color next to an already placed tile.
The goal here is ultra-simple, use your tiles and potentially the red tile, which is neutral and counts for both sides, to form the corners of a triangle that encloses the red tile. The first player to achieve this wins the game.
Should both players run out of triangles, the game is a draw.
And that is the whole game. There are not a lot of games with a simpler, or more easily understood ruleset, and that is definitely a plus for Triangul8. You could take this one to your local coffee shop and teach it to a new player in about 37-seconds.
The game is suggested to play out in five-to-30 minutes, although a half hour contest would need to be played by two players both being very analytical of every move. This is a quick game, the kind you can play through several times over the aforementioned cup of coffee.
There is potential for really good players to find their way to draws I suspect, although this is what I think of as a quick filler abstract, so I’m not sure many will play it so much as to attain a high level of mastery. Of course there are naturals at some games, so beware.
Still this is an aesthetically nice, quick to learn, and to play, abstract worth a look.
You can check the game out, including a play video at www.triangul8.com
