Tic Tac Doh!

From IcehouseOrg

Tic Tac Doh!
Brian Schultze
Slightly twisted variant of Tic-Tac-Toe
Min. Players:	warning.png“” is no number.
Max. Players:	warning.png“” cannot be used as a page name in this wiki.
Icehouse stashes:	1
Treehouse sets:	warning.png“” cannot be used as a page name in this wiki.
Other equipment:	imaginary board
Setup time:	nonewarning.png“none” is no number.
Min. Playing time:	warning.png“” cannot be used as a page name in this wiki.
Max. Playing time:	warning.png“” cannot be used as a page name in this wiki.
Rules complexity:	Low
Strategy depth:	Low
Random chance:	None
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:	Tic Tac Toe
BGG Link:	17748

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.

Rules

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

Players take turns placing the Icehouse pieces on the table in the following manner:

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.

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.

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. A square cannot have both a nest and a tree. Like chess, once you let go of a piece, it is considered played and cannot be moved.

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, the other player wins.

Designer's Comments:

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

The game is easier to see (and better-looking), if you use different colors for the different sizes of pieces; for example, red smalls, orange mediums, and yellow larges.

External Links

• The official rules are available online.
• Tic Tac Doh is listed on BoardGameGeek.

Featured in ICE-7
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Martian Chess · Icehouse · Tic Tac Doh!