When it comes to using Looney Pyramids in games, designers have often kept things simple in terms of the actual boards used.
Last week’s review Zendo didn’t even have a physical board.
When creating games which will not likely be formally published it makes sense to create something gamers can bodger together from materials on-hand.
And that brings us to Icefrogs from Jason Spears and Erik Oosterwal.
The game of course utilizes Looney Pyramids as game pieces, since that is the theme for these reviews in September.
However the game board here is rather cool.
The game utilizes 37 poker chips which are laid out in specific patterns, depending on whether you are playing with two, or three players.
Don’t want to spend time laying out a poker chip board, a printable two-player board is available at the greater gamer’s resource www.boardgamegeek.com
Each player also gets 15 pyramids in a single colour, or a single stash, (five small, five medium, and five large.)
On a turn a player may move a pyramid already on the board or place a new pyramid from their supply on their start space and then move this new pyramid. If they have no pyramids in their supply, they must move a pyramid on the board.
“A pyramid may be moved one space to an adjacent space,” details www.icehousegames.org. “A pyramid may also jump over one space containing one or more pyramids, so long as the top pyramid in the stack is of equal or smaller size. A pyramid may not jump over a pyramid larger than itself. A pyramid can jump in any of the six directions and can move to the start space, so long as it doesn’t end the turn there.
“A player may choose to place their pyramid on top of a pyramid of equal or greater size. It is not allowed to place a pyramid on top of a smaller pyramid. From one space, a pyramid may move over one other occupied space to land on the space after the occupied one. If this space was occupied, the player’s turn is over. If this space was empty, the pyramid may move again to jump over another pyramid or be placed on top of an adjacent pyramid.
“Only the top most pyramid in a stack may be moved. With this it is possible to trap an opponent’s pyramid on a space.”
The goal of Icefrogs is simple enough; the game is won by the first player to move a pyramid into their opponent’s start space.
The game has an obvious Chinese Checkers feel to it, but there are elements here which up the interest.
To start the more players a game has, which often happens with Chinese Checkers, the more chaotic and less strategic it becomes.
As a pure two-player game Icefrogs is better in that regard, although with three the chaos factor is in play.
Icefrogs also grows because of the resource management aspect. Does a player move a piece on the board, or add one? It forces in-game decisions.
The ability to land on a piece, restricting an opponent’s movement, is again a strategic aspect of Icefrogs you have to like.
While very simple to learn, there is enough here to make this a game with lots of replay ability. Try it out.
