IceCubed

Under development

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This game is currently under development, in the Playtesting stage. Feedback is strongly encouraged! Feel free to give comments on game design or structure on the talk page.

IceCubed
Wyatt Hensley
A game utilizing IceDice components and a Mega-Volcano board: Players are randomly given opportunities for movement, attack, and supply to the board while also presented the opportunity to seek revenge and wreak havoc on their opponents.
:Players	Players:	2 - 4
:Time	Length:	unknown
:Complexity	Complexity:	Low
Trios per color:		1 per player + 1
Number of colors:		5
Pyramid trios:
Monochr. stashes:		5
Five-color sets:		1 per player + 1
- - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - -
Mega-Volcano board, ELBS (up to 2 sets), Pyramid die, Color die
Setup time:		30 to 60 seconds
Playing time:
Strategy depth:		Medium
Random chance:		High
Game mechanics:
Theme:		None
BGG Link:
Status: Playtesting (v1.0), Year released: 2011

Idea

“IceCubed” is a way for two or more players to enjoy their Mega-Volcano board as well as utilize their IceDice-dice in yet another form than originally designed. This game came to me one day while playing Martian Chess with my 5 year old daughter, and she wanted to use the dice to make movements for her Martian Chess pieces. Put two and 98 together and we have a complete game. Please advise if there are any changes that you might find during play testing. I hope to have these suggestions tested through and updated by the end of the month.

-I am looking into creating a better, more Looney ;-), ending result in ties to spice up the game. -UPDATE: See changes in the Winning section to the new winning rules.

Setup

Setup all of the pyramids in stacks of ones, twos, and threes according to color and have them in an easy to reach location.

Take the ELBS and place as follows:

Two Player

Place ELBS along the left and right edge of the board, leaving only four spaces infront of the two players open.

Three Player

Completely block off one section of the board while also filling in the initial corner pieces of the board.

Four Players

Place one on each of the four corners leaving four empty spaces in front of each player along their respective edges of the Mega-Volcano board.

Goal

Try to be the first person to complete three trees of any color.

Rules

Whoever has the coldest drink is the starting player.

Players take turns rolling the IceDice and conducting the following: Roll the dice, keeping in mind that IceDice rolls apply to the game in the manner that they do in IceDice and Launchpad23 for movement and supply to the board (see example below).

Ice Tray: The cold hard facts on supplying pieces

Pieces are supplied to the board according to the die rolls (see example below). Yellow/one/two point present the opportunity to supply the board with either a one or two point yellow piece. If none are available, the option to steal from an opponents Ice Tray and supply to the board can be taken. You can only steal from the tops of the stacks, though. If there are no pieces available to steal from an opponent, all pieces that are to be supplied to the board are on the board, and then movement this turn is doubled! Once the Ice Tray is full, no more pieces can be supplied to that player, only movement/attacks can be carried out until pieces have been moved off of the Tray leaving an empty space behind or stacked in the Ice Tray. Pieces can be moved and stacked within the strip, but only after they have been sufficiently supplied (as stated above). Pieces cannot spawn into the Ice Tray on top of another piece. Pieces that are stacked within the Ice Tray cannot exceed the amount of the bottom most pyramid (see below example "soon to come"). If there is a Queen, and two Drones in the Ice Tray, the player can make more space in their Ice Tray by moving/stacking these up in their Ice Tray. The amount of pyramids that can be stacked upon the Queen are equal to her pip count. One pip is equal to one pyramid, two pips is equal to two pyramids, and three is equal to three pyramids capable of being stacked upon the bottom most pyramid. This will help to keep pyramids away from opponents later on (evil you).

ICETray Entry Example

Details to above example

1 The purple Drone cannot enter the board due to the Ice Tray being full.

2 On that players turn, they will need to move either the blue/yellow Pawns, the red Drone, or the blue Queen out of the way. This player decided to move it on top of another piece within their Ice Tray.

3 Now on their next turn, they will be able to supply their Ice Tray with more pieces (hopefully the lost purple Drone they lost earlier).

Stacking

The ICETray will allow players to stack pieces together, which is called melting. Pieces can only be stacked according to the pip count of the pyramid below them minus one.

A Queen will allow up to two pieces to be stacked on top of it, a Drone can only have one piece on top, and a Pawn cannot have anything stacked on top of it.

This is to allow playes the capacity to keep certain pieces from other players with a small hinderance.

Movement

To figure out how many spaces you can move, follow these rules:

1. Start with the number 2.
2. Add one if you rolled the atom.
3. Add one if you rolled two pyramids on the sizes die.
4. The result is how many spaces you can move, or your movement points.

Pieces can move in one direction only, up to the amount of spaces given by your movement points. A Pawn can move diagonally only. A Drone can move orthogonally. A Queen can move either diagonally and orthogonally. Pieces are free to move in and out of a player's Ice Tray, however, no capturing may be conducted on the Ice Tray nor from the Ice Tray.

Capturing

Capturing can only be conducted with pieces that are not presented from the die roll. EXAMPLE: Die roll shows a blue/one. Attacks can be carried out with a two or a three this turn, provided the movement is available. Since attacks are restricted to the die rolls whims, opportunities will arise where the player may want to stack pieces that are not capable of attacking on top of other pieces, which is called “Icing”. This kind of activity is to be desired if one seeks the winner’s chair. An “Iced” piece will need to be dug out through movement if it is to ever be captured. Capturing can only be carried out outside of the players Ice Tray (the four empty spaces in front of them).

Example

Details to above example

1 can attack the Pawn from the Ice Tray.

2 cannot attack the Pawn in the Ice Tray.

3 cannot attack another piece on the Ice Tray.

4 can attack the pawn outside of the Ice Tray.

Visual example of IceDice usage

Winning

Once a player has achieved the goal of securing three solid-color trees (one tree of green and two trees of blue would suffice), then the game is over.

It may come to the point that there will not be enough pieces on the board or in supplies to create enough trees to win. So... players will need to create trees from their current secured playing pieces to formulate who the winner actually is. Trees will be created with mix/matched colors with the remaining pieces set aside. This way of finding out the winner should only be utilized if all of the supply (set off to the side that players are pulling form) has been completely exhausted.

Suggestions

I would like to see a better name for this game. I was thinking about IceCubes due to the usage of the IceDice. Let me know, and have fun trying this out!

• Agree. IceCubes is a great name, and goes with the going-first idea as well. More ice cubes = colder drink, right? :P tudd 18:35, 10 July 2011 (UTC)

My thoughts exactly. My wife was play testing with me today and added a nice twist to a problem that I was having. I wanted to have a more creative name for the Supply Strip (to which I hated this name). She was jokingly calling the Supply Strip the Ice Tray, so it stuck, and we were making all sorts of IceCube related jokes throughout. I do have some more ADVANCED tweeks I would like to see mold into shape, but I will need further play testing of this rule set before I can fit them in. Again, thanks for your input! ~Dungeon

Changes

Changed "Supply Strip" to Ice Tray ;-).

--Dungeon 16:54, 5 July 2011 (UTC)

Tinkered the infobox to be a little clearer, and clarified/cleaned the instructions based on Dungeon's reply to my question. tudd 22:13, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

Changed Winning stipulations to reflect some problems that arose during playtesting with the missus. Dungeon 00:28, 14 July 2011 (UTC)