Blam!

Blam!
Jon Eargle
Looking for someone to shove? Strategize in Blam! with two to four elbow-room seekers.
:Players	Players:	2 - 4
:Time	Length:	Long
:Complexity	Complexity:	Low
Trios per color:		5
Number of colors:		1 per player
Pyramid trios:
Monochr. stashes:		1 per player
Five-color sets:
- - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - -
Chessboard
Setup time:		5 minutes
Playing time:		60 Min
Strategy depth:		Medium
Random chance:		None
Game mechanics:		Behavior prediction
Theme:		Abstract, Strategy, explosions
BGG Link:		17765
Status: Complete (v1.0), Year released: 2005

Blam! was designed by Jon Eargle. Written rules and examples were created by Jonathan Leistiko. It was first "published" on January 15th, 2005 as an Invisible City Game of the Month. Blam was an entry into the third ICE Game Design Competition, which was run by Andrew Plotkin. It came in second place (Jonathan, who submitted it, felt very stupid for not voting.).

Blam! is a game for two to four players.

Blam! uses one Stash per player, and a chessboard.

General Strategy

One interesting thing about Blam! is that it makes the edge of the board exciting. With most games the edge is less active because of limited adjacency, but Blam! makes the edge a critical game element and gives it a different flavor apart from other abstracts (though Blam! is likely not unique in this regard).

Also, a major element to winning Blam! is to maintain a positive piece count ahead of your opponents. Keeping a few more pieces in your stash can lead to a massive points sweep in the endgame. Assertions have been made that piece count trumps point total.

External Links

• Complete Rules for Blam!
• Play Blam! online at Super Duper Games.
• Rules available in French in pdf format at www.jeux-icehouse.com