Head spinning fun!

It's was a long wait between when Tzaar was announced and when it recently became available, so was the wait worth it? Absolutely!

The game is played on a hexagonal board, the type Kris Burm has become famous for. Each side has 30 pieces, that are like the "Gipf" pieces. Of the 30 pieces, 15 are blank, 9 have a dot and 6 have a dot and a circle surrounding it.

There are several ways one can choose to set-up the board.

1) Place all pieces randomly on the board.
2) Use the set-up shown in the instructions.
3) Each player takes turns playing a piece on the board until it's filled.

No matter which set-up you choose, white always plays first and makes a capture move and then it becomes Black's turn.

Then after, each player must first make a capture move on the first part of their turn and then have a choice of 3 options for the 2nd part of their turn.

1) Capture again
2) Stack pieces
3) Pass

Each of the 3 options above are explained below:

CAPTURE

Pieces may only move in a straight line and may not cross the center section of the board. Pieces may move over one or more vacant spaces, until it reaches an opponent's piece. The opponents captured piece(s), are removed from the board and the capturing piece(s) now sit in the same spot the captured pieces had been on.

Stacking takes place as capturing does, except you're reaching a piece or stack of your own color and placing the moving stack on top of the 2nd piece(s).

Passing just means it becomes your opponent's turn

GOAL OF THE GAME

There are two ways of winning the game:

1) Your opponent can't make a capture on the first part of their turn.
2) Your opponent no longer has each type of piece showing on the board. Only the pieces on top of stacks count and not the pieces within the stacks.

GAME PLAY

At first, with a total of 60 pieces on the board, there's a lot to take in. With repeated plays, you'll feel more comfortable with the huge amount of initial choices you have. Quickly, with capturing and stacking being done, the board begins to empty out and seeing ahead becomes a bit easier.

STRATEGY

As with games such as "Dvonn" there doesn't seem to be any one strategy that works best. "Tzaar" seems to lend itself to many possible strategies, depending on the situation on the board. Exploring and finding these strategies is what makes this game so much fun.

COMPONENTS

The board is quite similar to the "Gipf" board. Unfortunately, I must admit I was somewhat disappointed with the pieces themselves. The dots and circles on the pieces are painted on and I had hoped they would have found a better way to distinguish the different pieces. In addition, each piece must be right side up, in order to tell which piece it is. Maybe in another edition we'll see a fix for this..

OVERVIEW

For fans of the "Gipf" series, this is a must have game that may well turn out to be the best in the series. Personally, I still haven't decided whether "Tzaar" or "Dvonn" is my favorite. Perhaps after a few more plays, I'll be able to decide.

If your a lover of Abstract Strategy Board Games, you can do no better than "Tzaar". If only we could get them to redesign the pieces, this game would be pure perfection.