The travel version is still strong in my eyes, and definatley superior to it's "big brothers" for 2 player action, but I fear I may never play regular Blokus again.
So what's so different? The peices are built from triangles, and the board is shaped like a hexagon, whereas in Blokus both are rectangular; that's basically it. The game-making factor is a single, almost minor rule change. Being that all your peices are made from triangles, the same rule applies as in Blokus: you can only touch corner-to-corner, never side-to-side. In Blokus this meant all moves had to be diagonally connected; but if you imagine two triangles, they can sit right next to each other, touching tips but not sides.
In effect, this means you can play off of "straight" edges, not just the literal tips of the peice, as long as no sides are touching. In addition, placing a peice perpendicular to someone's end no longer blocks that corner, as they can sidle right up to yours with just a 1 triangle gap from their old peice!
It helps to look at this picture and notice that all these moves are legal:
This took awhile for us to come to grips with. We were playing old school Blokus moves, covering each others corners and ends, only to be suprised again and again because we forgot the sides of peices are no longer safe to ignore. In effect, it became much harder for our group to notice the best moves, but the satisfaction of definativley sectioning off an area was greatly increased!
Four player is of course suppported, two player remains the same (with each controlling two colors), but three players is where it shines. In "old" Blokus, 3 players would control a color each, and rotate control of the fourth "dummy" color to block their opponents. I can't tell you how many times Blokus has been passed over when we only have 3 to play, but no more! Trigon fills the gap nicely with even starting locations and a smaller board area for three.
The allure of the peices is more than just novelty for old Blokus players like us, and the two guys who own Blokus are already looking for Trigon to replace it. With six starting locations and a funky board, choosing where to start with what peice gains some strategic weight. And as a personal preference, I love the triangular kaleidoscopic patterns that emerge at the end of the game; old Blokus's pixelated effect is lost on me.
In short, Blokus is one of my favorite light abstract games, but Trigon's mixture of new strategy and flawless support of 3 players wins out. I'm can't imagine a situation where I'd rather play with squares instead of triangles!
Posted Fri May 25, 2007 10:47 pm