Tic Tac Doh!

Tic Tac Doh!
Brian Schultze
Slightly twisted variant of Tic-Tac-Toe
:Players	Players:
:Time	Length:	unknown
:Complexity	Complexity:	Low
Trios per color:		5
Number of colors:		1
Pyramid trios:
Monochr. stashes:		1
Five-color sets:
- - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - -
imaginary board
Setup time:		none
Playing time:
Strategy depth:		Low
Random chance:		None
Game mechanics:
Theme:		Tic Tac Toe
BGG Link:		17748
Status: Complete (v1.0), Year released: 2003

Tic Tac Doh is a two player Tic Tac Toe variant using Icehouse pieces on an imaginary board. The game requires only a single stash of pyramids.

Tic Tac Doh was published in Hypothermia #15.

Materials

One stash, 15 pyramids total. The game works fine with a single color, but if you own multiple colors, the recommended set to use is small blues, medium reds, and large yellows. This makes it easier to avoid illegal placements.

::S ::M ::L
::S ::M ::L
::S ::M ::L
::S ::M ::L
::S ::M ::L

Recommended materials if you have multiple colors available to you

Goal

Get three pieces of the same size in a row in an imaginary 3x3 grid.

Rules

Players take turns placing the Icehouse pieces on the table. Each piece must be placed in an imaginary square next to or on top of a piece already in play. (Diagonally counts as next to.) A piece cannot be played if it would lie outside the imaginary 3x3 grid. Note: Since you create the grid as you go, you don't know where out of bounds is until you have played a few pieces. For example, the first piece you play can either be the center, corner or edge. Nobody knows until a few more piece have been played.

Pieces may be played on top of other pieces, but only when they are within one size of each other. For instance, if a large pyramid were on the table, a medium pyramid could be placed on top of it, but a small pyramid could not.

::ML	::SL
Legal placement	Illegal placement

::MSE	::LSE
Legal placement	Illegal placement

You can play a piece on top of another piece in two ways. The first is playing a smaller piece on top of a piece one size larger, forming a tree of pieces. This grouping counts as any of the pieces it contains. For example, a medium piece could be played on top of a large piece. This tree would now count as either a large or medium when trying to get three in a row. A small piece could then be played on top of the tree, making it count as any of the three types.

::L	::ML	::SML
This counts for large	This counts for medium and large	This counts for all three sizes

The second way to play a piece on top of another is to nest them, by placing a larger piece on top of a piece one size smaller. For example, a medium could be played on top of a small one. Later on, a large could be played on top of the nest. A nest only counts as the outermost (biggest) piece. So a nest with a small and a medium only counts as a medium piece.

::S	::MS	::LMS
This counts for small	This counts for medium only	This counts for large only

A grid space cannot have both a nest and a tree. This means the following placements (shown expanded for clarity) are forbidden.

::SMSE	::SLME	::MLME
Illegal nest-tree combo	Illegal nest-tree combo	Illegal nest-tree combo

As in chess, once you let go of a piece, it is considered played and cannot be moved.

Game End

Players take turns putting a piece on the board until someone gets three pieces of the same size in a row, or until all of the pieces have been placed on the board (a tie). In the event that a person cannot make a legal move on his turn (but there are still pieces left), the other player wins.

Designer's Comments

This might work reasonably well as a 3- or 4-person game, but has not been tried.

External Links

• The official rules are available online.