To start off, I would like to say that English is not my native language. I hope you will excuse me for any clumsy grammatical errors I might have made in this review.


Zertz is an innovative game belonging to Kris Burm's Gipf series of abstract strategy games. It plays with two players in about 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the players' proneness to analyse and their familiarity with the game's mechanics and general strategy.

Components

The Gipf series is known for outstanding and wonderfully tactile pieces. In this regard, Zertz delivers. Inside the box you will find 24 beautiful marbles in three different colors -- black, gray and white -- and 37 black rings that will be used to form the playing board. The newest edition of the game includes 12 extra rings that can be used to further complexify the game experience. The rules of the game are presented in a clearly written rulebook in six different languages. The rulebook has informative illustrations and goes through every detail in an intuitive manner.

Rules

That being said, you probably don't need to have the instructions at hand after you've read through them once or twice, as the rules of Zertz are pretty much as simple as they come, and can be taught to anyone in just a few minutes. Here's the deal: There are 10 black marbles, 8 gray ones and (you guessed it!) 6 white ones. The goal is to capture either the majority of the marbles of one color, or three marbles of each color. How do you capture these gorgeous round things, then? Well, first of all, to create the board you form a regular hexagon from the aforementioned 37 rings. After that you're set to go.

Play consists of players taking turns placing marbles on the board. On your turn you place a marble of any color on a vacant ring (given that there are marbles of that color remaining) and remove a vacant ring from the outer rim of the board. The exception to this is that if, when your turn begins, there are two marbles next to each other and you are able to jump over one of them with the other, you must spend your turn to do that instead. By jumping over a marble you capture it for yourself. If you are able to continue capturing by jumping over more marbles with the one you started with, you must do so. You will also capture marbles if you manage to isolate the rings they are on from the other rings that form the playing board.

Okay, those rules might not sound "as simple as they come", but after a few turns the mechanism becomes intuitive and play starts to flow smoothly. Trust me!

Gameplay

Having to force your opponent to capture before you can do so yourself makes Zertz a clever game of trade-offs. It's all about giving your opponent the black and gray marbles while you try to snatch the sweet white ones. To my mind it's more tactical than strategic, because every new turn is like a new puzzle just waiting to be solved.

The first question you'll have to ask yourself on your turn is "Can I force a trade-off that leaves me better off than my opponent?". If the answer is "no", what you must do is place a marble (and remove a ring) in such a position that your opponent will also have a hard time getting the upper hand on his turn. However, as the number of marbles in play increases each turn, something dramatic is bound to happen eventually. This gives Zertz a wonderful rhythm and really makes it shine. It's not one of those games that take a long time to gain momentum and then suddenly end with a bang. It's rather a series of such events.

Although the marble exchanges in Zertz do generally follow certain patterns, the board is always slightly different. And in a game like this "slightly" is all that matters. That combined with the multitude of winning conditions gives the game a tremendous replay value.

Overall

All in all, Zertz is an awesome game. It looks and feels wonderful and is a definite eye-catcher wherever it's played. It offers a deep game experience in just 20 minutes and manages to be both accessible and challenging. The only negative aspect -- if you see it as one -- is that being a perfect information game, inexperienced players rarely stand a chance in it against those who have played it before. But even if you lose every time, it might well be that the game's underlying beauty and irresistible charm keep you coming back for more. Simply put: If you don't absolutely loathe abstract strategy games, get Zertz. It's worth it.