Introduction
TOPOLO is a 2 player game that is played on the spaces of an 8x8 grid.
The Red player and the Black player have 32 cuboid pieces in 3 sizes(16 small pieces worth 1 point apiece, 8 mid size pieces worth 2 points apiece and 8 large pieces worth 3 points apiece).
Objective
Assemble your pieces into the largest orthogonally adjacent group to win.
Definitions
Group – Like color 1 or more orthogonally adjacent pieces.
Play
At the start of the game the board is empty.
The player holding the Red pieces plays first.
The row on the board closest to the Red player is considered row 1 followed by rows 2,3,4,5,6,7,8.
The Red player may place any one of his pieces onto any empty space on the board, then its Blacks turn. Thereafter play alternates.
Example:
If the Red player has placed his first piece onto an empty space on the board that is within an even numbered row then both players must then play onto all the empty spaces of the even numbered rows first before proceeding to fill the empty spaces of the odd numbered rows.
The game ends when the board is full.
Scoring
Your score is determined by counting the pieces within the largest Group. Each piece within these Groups are to be counted as 1 point apiece,irrelevant of their individual heights.
The player with the highest score is the winner.
Note: In the event the largest Groups of both players are the same size at end game, the next largest Groups of both players should be looked at. Each piece within these Groups are to be counted by their individual height point values (Small - 1, Medium - 2 and Large - 3)and added to the players first Groups total to determine a winner.
For subsequent draws look at the next largest Groups of each player and apply the same scoring rules.
I personally prefer the previous version of the game*. Why the new scoring system has been introduced? Was Bellerophon too drawish? It adds a new strategic dimension to the game? Was just to make the game different looking/more original/more publishable?
ReplyDelete* In fact I've a strong bias towards abstract games that use common components. Using special components may favour a commercial version of the game but, unless the special components are clearly inherent to the game (as in Taiji or your own 4x4) many abstract fans will see them as an artificial barrier to play the game rather than as a feature that powers up the gameplay.
You are officially the first person to comment on my blog! Thank you!
DeleteI agree with you Carlos, I too like to use common components in my games, but my decision in using the new scoring was my way of reducing the chances of draws going past the first one. Sure the game can be played perfectly fine without it, but I found that the better you and your opponent get the more likely that a draw would occur on this even spaced board.
It also just happend that visually the game turned out being different and perhaps commercially viable.
I understand your motivations but I think that there should be some alternative ways to avoid draws without adding new pieces to the board, for example to just take into account smaller groups until the tie is broken.
DeleteI also prefer the "old look" the previous version had...