Quintazone

From IcehouseOrg

Quintazone
Doug Orleans
An Icehouse/Aquarius hybrid
Min. Players:	warning.png“” is no number.
Max. Players:	warning.png“” is no number.
Icehouse stashes:	one per playerwarning.png“one per player” is no number.
Treehouse sets:	warning.png“” is no number.
Other equipment:	an Aquarius deck
Setup time:	a minute or twowarning.png“a minute or two” is no number.
Min. Playing time:	warning.png“” is no number.
Max. Playing time:	warning.png“” is no number.
Rules complexity:	Medium
Strategy depth:	Medium
Random chance:	Medium
Primary Mechanic:	warning.png“” cannot be used as a page name in this wiki.
Additional Mechanic:	warning.png“” cannot be used as a page name in this wiki.
Theme:	Aquarius
BGG Link:	34813

Quintazone is a game somewhat like Carcassonne played with an Aquarius deck and Icehouse pieces.

Contents 1 Rules 1.1 Setup 1.2 Playing 1.2.1 Placing a card 1.2.2 Placing a pyramid 1.3 Game end and scoring 2 History 3 External Links

Rules

Setup

Give each player pyramids from a different stash:

• 2 players: a whole stash each
• 3 players: 9 pyramids each (3 of each size)
• 4-5 players: 6 pyramids each (2 of each size)

Set aside the 15 Action cards from the deck; they will not be used. Place a four-panel Element card face-up in the middle of the table (it doesn't matter which one). Shuffle the remaining 39 Element cards and deal a hand of 5 to each player. Shuffle the 5 Goal cards and deal 1 to each player. Players may look at their Goal cards but should keep them hidden from the others until game end.

Playing

The player whose age is closest to a multiple of 5 goes first. Play continues clockwise around the table. A turn consists of the following two actions, in either order:

• You must place a card.
• You may place a pyramid.

At the end of your turn, draw an Element card from the deck, if there are any remaining.

Placing a card

Cards are placed face up in the center of the table according to standard Aquarius placement rules:

All players build on the same playing field. Each Element card must be played so that one of the elements on it matches up with a card already in play. Diagonal connections don't count. Cards cannot be placed skewed or perpendicular to one another.

Placing a pyramid

A Zone is a connected set of panels of the same element. A pyramid may be placed in any Zone that does not already contain a pyramid. Zones containing pyramids may become merged into a single Zone through later card placement, but at the time of pyramid placement the Zone must be empty. Pyramids are never moved or removed after they are placed.

Game end and scoring

The game ends when all Element cards have been placed. All Goal cards are then revealed, and every pyramid scores points for its owner: its size (1, 2, or 3) multiplied by the size (number of cards) of its Zone, doubled if the element of the Zone matches the player's Goal card. The player with the most total points wins.

History

In November 2002, I came up with the basic idea of making a Carcassonne-like game with an Aquarius deck and Icehouse pyramids. The original idea was much more similar to Carcassonne: you had to place a pyramid on the card you played, and only the player with the most pips on each zone would score the zone. There were actually two variants: one called Aquarcassonne, which was more like Aquarius, with action cards and drawing at the beginning of your turn, and one called Carcquarius, without action cards and drawing at the end of your turn.

The game evolved into its current state by January 2005, when I submitted the newly-renamed Quintazone to the Third Ice Game Design Competition. It placed 6th out of 11, but it was the highest-ranking game that involved a luck element, so I take a small amount of pride in that.

External Links

• Rules available in French at jeux-icehouse.com.

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