Swaggs
06-15-2006, 11:27 AM
hxxp://www.blokus.com/index.htm
Anyone else ever played this game?
We bought it, in boardgame format, at the beach this past week and have been playing it a ton. I found it online yesterday and thought you guys would enjoy.
Here is the general gist of the game from Wikipedia (although it is easier to probably just play and pick it up):
Gameplay
The goal is to get rid of all of the 21 pieces you initially start off with. The pieces are all the free polyominoes with at most 5 squares (i.e, rotations and reflections don't count). On each player's turn, they can put one of their remaining pieces on the board. The rules for where you can put your pieces are very simple: Two pieces of your color are not allowed to share any side; i.e., they cannot touch each other along any side. However, they must be connected at at least one of their corners.
The novice typically tries to seal off an area for themself to reduce the area the opponents can access. But since pieces only are connected via their corners, another player can pass through that corner from the mirrored direction. It is therefore difficult to cut off other people from accessing 'your' area. Instead, the successful tactic is to try to expand into as many areas on the board as possible. In other words, game strategy is dominated by offense rather than defense.
The smaller tiles are very useful during the later stages of the game: the smaller a piece is, the better it is at occupying the holes in the tiles of other colors, and thus opening up new areas of the board for expansion. It can happen that no player can finish off all their tiles. Therefore there is usually a score bonus for spending all one's tiles, and a further bonus for playing the 1-omino last. These rules are relevant when multiple games are being played and score is being kept cumulatively.
In the three-player game, the players take turns playing for the fourth color (blue). Because the players must play out of corners of the board, one player will always be playing out of the corner opposite to blue. It is widely believed that this is an advantage. The reason for this is that blue is generally used as a tool to disrupt (or "blok") the other player’s moves. For most of the early game, the player opposite blue is too far away to be successfully bloked, but can still use the color themself to blok others. Various methods have been suggested to solve this problem, but it is recommended that players come to an agreement among themselves that best suits their preferences.
General Rules
The 21 Blokus tiles.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/51/BlokusTiles.png/300px-BlokusTiles.png
The following are the rules to standard blokus.
Before the Game
Each player chooses one color (blue, green, red, yellow), and the order of play is determined by any mutually agreeable method. In a three player game, the color that is not chosen is the fourth color.
Blokus is played on a board made up of 400 (20×20) squares.
Playing the Game
The game is played with two, three, or four players. In a two or a four-player game, each player takes turns playing their pieces on the board. In a three-player game the players take turns playing for the fourth color, starting with the player who took the first turn.
Example: Red plays first, then yellow plays, then green plays. Once all three players have taken their turns, red plays for blue (the fourth color) and then takes his regular turn. The next time it is blue’s turn, yellow plays for blue and then passes the turn to red.
The first piece played by any player must cover a corner square.
The placement of pieces is governed by two rules:
Each new piece must be placed so that it touches at least one other piece of the same color.
Pieces of the same color cannot be placed adjacent to each other (i.e. they may only be touching corner to corner).
As play proceeds, the board becomes more and more crowded, allowing for less and less possible moves. Whenever a player cannot play a piece, his turn is skipped. If a player can play a piece, he cannot opt not to.
Winning the game
Once no players can make any more moves, the player with the most tile segments on the board wins.
There are some variations in the rules, based on how many players you have.
Anyway, if anyone ever wants to get together for a game sometime, send me a PM or look me up. My name is also Swaggs on there.
Anyone else ever played this game?
We bought it, in boardgame format, at the beach this past week and have been playing it a ton. I found it online yesterday and thought you guys would enjoy.
Here is the general gist of the game from Wikipedia (although it is easier to probably just play and pick it up):
Gameplay
The goal is to get rid of all of the 21 pieces you initially start off with. The pieces are all the free polyominoes with at most 5 squares (i.e, rotations and reflections don't count). On each player's turn, they can put one of their remaining pieces on the board. The rules for where you can put your pieces are very simple: Two pieces of your color are not allowed to share any side; i.e., they cannot touch each other along any side. However, they must be connected at at least one of their corners.
The novice typically tries to seal off an area for themself to reduce the area the opponents can access. But since pieces only are connected via their corners, another player can pass through that corner from the mirrored direction. It is therefore difficult to cut off other people from accessing 'your' area. Instead, the successful tactic is to try to expand into as many areas on the board as possible. In other words, game strategy is dominated by offense rather than defense.
The smaller tiles are very useful during the later stages of the game: the smaller a piece is, the better it is at occupying the holes in the tiles of other colors, and thus opening up new areas of the board for expansion. It can happen that no player can finish off all their tiles. Therefore there is usually a score bonus for spending all one's tiles, and a further bonus for playing the 1-omino last. These rules are relevant when multiple games are being played and score is being kept cumulatively.
In the three-player game, the players take turns playing for the fourth color (blue). Because the players must play out of corners of the board, one player will always be playing out of the corner opposite to blue. It is widely believed that this is an advantage. The reason for this is that blue is generally used as a tool to disrupt (or "blok") the other player’s moves. For most of the early game, the player opposite blue is too far away to be successfully bloked, but can still use the color themself to blok others. Various methods have been suggested to solve this problem, but it is recommended that players come to an agreement among themselves that best suits their preferences.
General Rules
The 21 Blokus tiles.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/51/BlokusTiles.png/300px-BlokusTiles.png
The following are the rules to standard blokus.
Before the Game
Each player chooses one color (blue, green, red, yellow), and the order of play is determined by any mutually agreeable method. In a three player game, the color that is not chosen is the fourth color.
Blokus is played on a board made up of 400 (20×20) squares.
Playing the Game
The game is played with two, three, or four players. In a two or a four-player game, each player takes turns playing their pieces on the board. In a three-player game the players take turns playing for the fourth color, starting with the player who took the first turn.
Example: Red plays first, then yellow plays, then green plays. Once all three players have taken their turns, red plays for blue (the fourth color) and then takes his regular turn. The next time it is blue’s turn, yellow plays for blue and then passes the turn to red.
The first piece played by any player must cover a corner square.
The placement of pieces is governed by two rules:
Each new piece must be placed so that it touches at least one other piece of the same color.
Pieces of the same color cannot be placed adjacent to each other (i.e. they may only be touching corner to corner).
As play proceeds, the board becomes more and more crowded, allowing for less and less possible moves. Whenever a player cannot play a piece, his turn is skipped. If a player can play a piece, he cannot opt not to.
Winning the game
Once no players can make any more moves, the player with the most tile segments on the board wins.
There are some variations in the rules, based on how many players you have.
Anyway, if anyone ever wants to get together for a game sometime, send me a PM or look me up. My name is also Swaggs on there.