Quintazone
| Quintazone | ||
|---|---|---|
| Designed by Doug Orleans | ||
| ||
| An Icehouse/Aquarius hybrid | ||
| Players: | 2 - 5 | |
| Length: | Long | |
| Complexity: | Medium | |
| Trios per color: | 2+ (more needed for fewer players) | |
| Number of colors: | 1 per player | |
| - - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - - | ||
| Aquarius deck Property "Other Equipment" (as page type) with input value "Aquarius]] deck" contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process. | ||
| Setup time: | 2 minutes | |
| Playing time: | 30 minutes - 45 minutes | |
| Strategy depth: | Medium | |
| Random chance: | Medium | |
| Game mechanics: | Tile-laying, Placement | |
| Theme: | Aquarius | |
| BGG Link: | 34813 | |
| Status: Complete (v1.0), Year released: 2005 | ||
Quintazone is a game somewhat like Carcassonne played with an Aquarius deck and Icehouse pieces.
Rules[edit | edit source]
Setup[edit | edit source]
Original Version[edit | edit source]
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 all the Action cards from the deck; they will not be used. If you are playing with the newer 80-card Aquarius deck, also set aside the 10 diagonal Element cards, one full-panel card of each Element, and the Wild Card.
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.
Alternate Version[edit | edit source]
If you have the newer 80-card Aquarius deck, you can choose to play with all 55 of the Element cards (omitting the Wild Card). In that case, use pyramids as follows:
- 2 players: a whole stash (five trios) each (15 pyramids)
- 3 players: four trios each (12 pyramids)
- 4 players: three trios each (9 pyramids)
- 5 players: two trios each (6 pyramids)
Place a four-panel card on the table, and deal five Element cards and a Goal card to each player, as before.
Playing[edit | edit source]
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[edit | edit source]
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[edit | edit source]
A Zone is a connected set of one or more 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[edit | edit source]
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[edit | edit source]
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.
In February 2012 Carthoris added alternate setup instructions to accommodate the larger Aquarius 2.0 deck that had been published in 2009.
External Links[edit | edit source]
- 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 |