Synapse-Ice
| Synapse-Ice | ||
|---|---|---|
| Joseph Kisenwether | ||
| An adaptation of the paper-and-pencil game Synapse' | ||
| Players: | 2 | |
| Length: | unknown | |
| Complexity: | Low | |
| Trios per color: | 5 | |
| Number of colors: | 2 | |
| Setup time: | 30 Seconds | |
| Strategy depth: | Medium | |
| Random chance: | None | |
| Theme: | Abstract | |
| BGG Link: | Synapse-Ice | |
| Status: Complete (v1.0), Year released: 2005 | ||
Synapse-Ice[edit | edit source]
Requirements[edit | edit source]
- 2 players
- An icehouse stash for each player
- A 5x6 rectangular grid. (A section of chess-board works well.)
Synopsis[edit | edit source]
The board starts out empty. The first player chooses any pieces from his stash and places it lying down on any square on the board, pointing to an empty space. A 3-point piece points to the square three steps away, a 2-pointer to the space two steps away, and a 1-pointer to the adjacent space. On each subsequent move, the next player must then place a piece in the square pointed to. This piece must also point to an empty space. The first player who is unable to make a move loses.
Sample Play[edit | edit source]
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In this example, Red has just played a 1-point piece pointing up to the space with the . Green has to play in the 'ed space, and has only two options, a 1-point piece pointing left, or a 2-point piece pointing right. He could have played a 3-point piece to the right as well, but he's used all of his 3-pointer already. If he points left, red could play a 2-point piece facing down and win immediately. So he points right.
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Red now has 4 options, 3-left, 2-up, 1-right, and 1-down. She selects 1-right.
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Green can choose 2-up, 1-up, or 1-down. He goes for 1 up, a mistake. (The next few moves are forced, so we'll skip ahead on the diagrams.) Red has no choice, she must play 2-down. And that leaves Green with no choice, gotta play 1-left. Red then plays 3-up (her only move) leaving us with this situation:
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Green has no legal move, and so Red wins! If he had played it right in the third diagram, Green could have forced a win. Of course, if Red had played it right in the second diagram, she could have forced a win first. I'll leave figuring out the right moves in each of these situations as an exercise for the reader.
Synapse-Ice was designed by Joseph Kisenwether in 2005, based on the paper-and-pencil game Synapse.
External Links[edit | edit source]
- The to Synapse-Ice are available online.
- Rules available in French at www.jeux-icehouse.com.
| Featured in Pyramid Arcade 22 More Great Games |
|---|
| Little Else Required |
| Apophis · Egyptian Solitaire · Freeze Tag |
| Gleebs and Grues · Logger · Timelock · Penguin Soccer |
| More Pyramids Required |
| Icehouse · Quicksand · Torpedo · Undercut |
| More Pyramids + Other Stuff Required |
| Alien City · Blam! · Builders of R'lyeh · Gnostica |
| Pikemen · Pylon · RAMbots · Stack Control |
| Subdivision · Synapse-Ice · Zendo |
| Entered in the Icehouse Game Design Competition, Winter 2005 |
|---|
| Winner: Hextris 2nd: Blam! 3rd: A-A-Arctic Kettering |
| 4th (tie): Influence and Synapse-Ice 6th: Quintazone 7th: Martian Race |
| 8th: Icebomb Arena 9th: What Blind Ninjas? 10th: Ice Soo Sorry 11th: StarRunners |