Game: Isolate

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fractaloon — 2008-06-27T11:32:20+00:00

Box front - Educational Insights edition.

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fractaloon — 2008-06-27T11:31:05+00:00

Box back - Educational Insights edition

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fractaloon — 2008-06-27T01:00:21+00:00

Inside the Educational Insights edition.

Thread: Re: Our interpretation of some poorly written rules.

scooterb23 — 2008-06-14T03:36:34+00:00

Completely missed the bit about one tile not being a row...that probably would have kept our game from dying in a stalemate.

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josephc4 — 2008-02-25T19:56:16+00:00

People category. Photo rights - lily_bloomers

Thread: Re: Our interpretation of some poorly written rules.

rackitycoon — 2007-11-17T23:54:41+00:00

Only played a few times, but our interpretation varied somewhat. First of all, there's the rule that states "Tiles that are moved cannot be removed (or 'isolated') during that turn" [pg. 5]. We took that to mean that the row that was moved and any tiles contiguous to that row remained, all other tiles are removed. This eliminates size distinctions or how many groups of tiles are isolated.

Also the rules state "A row of tiles consists of more than one tile." [pg. 4] Once it was pointed out that you can't move a single tile, it seemed that there were fewer cases of multiple groups.

With those understandings, the game works pretty smoothly. Still not a great game, but a nice "little" game to fill some time while waiting for enough players to start a "big" game.

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Drew1365 — 2007-05-25T02:40:24+00:00

Thread: Re: A game created by engineers.

Friendless — 2007-03-21T01:16:52+00:00

The rules for the designer's other game "Landlord" are similarly full of holes. We have emailed info@recenttoys.com for clarification.

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diemacher — 2006-10-28T00:38:58+00:00

Goldsieber German Edition

Thread: Re: Our interpretation of some poorly written rules.

PedroG — 2006-09-29T00:53:15+00:00

Definitely some problems with the rule book, mainly concerning certain conditions during the game (multiple isolated groups and what not.) Sounds like you ran into the same issues, and came up with a decent set of workarounds. As for me, I gave up on the game without even playing. Shame, given the components are of good quality.

Thread: Re: A game created by engineers.

Geosphere — 2006-07-25T18:15:16+00:00

I am so glad I didn't just pay $5 for this at Target.

Thread: Our interpretation of some poorly written rules.

Godeke — 2006-07-16T23:14:51+00:00

My wife and I played a bit of this when we got it. The manual is a joke: it makes it seem easy but fails to consider many critical points. Here are the rules we finally settled on as closest to the spirit of the game in the manual:

* The initial board setup is fine, just follow the manual.

* You can only move the outermost piece in a row inward from the edge one space. Simpler than the four picture example they give, and seems to have the same effect.

* The rule about not "undoing" your opponents move on your move is fine.

* After your move, the "isolated" group is the smallest group on the table, regardless of when or how it was created.

* When a group is captured, all the pieces in this group are given the owning players.

* In case of two or more equal size isolated groups, take the one you want (which will normally be the one with your pieces, but why do we need a rule to tell you that?)

* A group that is composed of *any* pieces that moved this turn is ineligible for capture. If it was your only choice, you capture nothing.

* The winning condition is having all four of your pieces off the board

* If only one player meets the winning condition, declare victory for that player.

* If multiple players have the winning condition, the moving player forfeits. If there are still multiple winners, well I guess that's just how things are.

Thread: A game created by engineers.

Godeke — 2006-07-16T23:12:24+00:00

I picked up Isolate in a bargain bin for $9.99. I payed $9.00 too much in my opinion, let's get that out of the way right now.

Isolate was clearly created by engineers. Why do I say that? Because only engineers could have created the elegant board and pieces, but more impressively the under-board storage for the pieces.

This is one of the few games where being amazed by the cleverness of the board is probably the best part of the experience, however. So spend some time and reveling in it, because things go downhill fast from here.

The problems start with the rules. Reading them, they are clear and easy to follow. Playing them: it is clear that the rules don't actually consider many cases that actually crop up during game play. The board setup is easy enough to follow, but the movement and "isolation" rules (which are the core of the game...) are insufficient.

The first insufficient rule: A move is performed by pushing an entire row of pieces one space vertically or horizontally and pushing from the middle of a row is not allowed. The example shown never make it clear if they mean "the board row" (which would imply that you can only push the outermost piece in any direction) or groups of pieces (which would simply prohibit "breaking up" existing groups. The design of the board (not any rule) prohibits pushing a piece off the board. We decided they meant board rows.

The second insufficient rule is a massive failure of foresight. You capture pieces that are "isolated" by a move made. They define: "An 'isolated' tile is separated from the other tiles on the game board". "An isolated tile no longer shares sides with any other tiles on the game board". When this happens, the piece is picked up.

That seems easy enough, but then you turn the page and you are confronted with "Isolating multiple tiles". The examples show you can isolate "even four or more tiles!" One example they give is a two by two block, which clearly abandons the original definition of an isolated tile (no longer sharing sides with other tiles). But no matter, I can grok the idea of isolating groups. The rules do state that when you pick up pieces from other players, they get their pieces. This is important because the victory condition is picking up your four pieces from the board, and makes some captures less attractive.

However, the madness doesn't stop there. The rules say that if you "isolate two or more equal amounts of tiles, remove the group with the most tiles in your color". That's all the clarification of creating multiple groups you get. This would imply that you take the smallest group created normally, but that is not stated. It also leaves open the option to take either group if you create two of the same size and with the same number of your pieces, again unstated.

There is one last item, important it would seem due to the yellow highlight/inverse print used for it: Tiles that are moved cannot be removed (or "isolated") during that turn. Reasonable enough, it avoids moving a group away from the rest and then claiming that group. However, it isn't clear what happens if a group is only partially made up of moved pieces and others that were just hanging around. We ruled the group ineligible for capture.

However, in practice even this amount of thinking about the rules falls apart. Does this mean that the opponent is somehow obligated to reconnect an isolated group on his turn? Or does it mean he can make a completely unrelated move and then capture the previously isolated (but remaining on the board) group? Assuming of course, that it is the largest group on the board after the move? We ruled that the group might be the isolated one at a later point, if it met the "smallest" criteria.

Either way you assume the rules are set up, it falls apart even further because of the lack of a clear definition for what is an isolated group. According to the illustrations, rules and sidebar text, there is nothing to indicate that I can't move a single tile in such a way that just under half the pieces are "isolated". Since they are the smallest group, all of them are captured? We ruled yes.

It probably isn't the wisest tactical move to make such a dramatic capture. In that case, it is likely multiple players will reach the end game condition at the same time, a problem for which no resolution system is given. Playing two player, I would use the classic "if both players victory conditions are met simultaneously, the non moving player wins". With more players it becomes even messier though.

After several plays (the one good thing: a game lasts only a four or five turns two player) we came up with the following conclusions.

* Initial board setup is fine, just follow the manual.

* You can only move the outermost piece in a row inward from the edge one space. Simpler than the four picture example they give, and seems to have the same effect.

* The rule about not "undoing" your opponents move on your move is fine.

* After your move, the "isolated" group is the smallest group on the table, regardless of when or how it was created.

* When a group is captured, all the pieces in this group are given the owning players.

* In case of two or more equal size isolated groups, take the one you want (which will normally be the one with your pieces, but why do we need a rule to tell you that?)

* A group that is composed of *any* pieces that moved this turn is ineligible for capture. If it was your only choice, you capture nothing.

* The winning condition is having all four of your pieces off the board

* If only one player meets the winning condition, declare victory for that player.

* If multiple players have the winning condition, the moving player forfeits. If there are still multiple winners, well I guess that's just how things are.

With these rules in place, Isolate is playable. After all that, I didn't find the resulting game all that interesting though, so I guess I will just toss it to my son as a game they can play independently. What a waste of effort.

Update: spelling corrections.

Thread: Isolate: A Quick and Portable Abstract

LORDs_diakonos — 2006-03-28T03:54:31+00:00

Isolate is made by the same people who created Blokus but it is definitely not the same caliber game Blokus is. On the other hand it is a much faster to play then Blokus and is still fun. The goal of the game is to isolate your blocks from the other blocks on the board by pushing rows around the board. An isolated block is one that is not touching any other blocks on any side. You can even isolate entire groups by creating two groups. The group with the fewest blocks gets removed. The game is played in about five minutes and is very quick to set up and teach. I learned it in under two minutes and in another two minutes. I was able to teach my wife and eight year old son.

Game Play:
Basically at the beginning of the game player alternate placing one of their fours blocks down. Once all blocks are on the grid players take turn shifts entire rows one square on the grid. Once you isolate or separate a block or a group of blocks you remove them from the game. If you are the first to remove al of your blocks you win.

Pros:
*Very portable
*Easy to learn and teach
*Easy to set up
*Very quick to play

Cons:
*Only fun for so long
*Strategy is lacking
*Not as fun as other abstract games

Conclusion:
If you are just dying to play a quick abstract game that is portable and very easy to learn Isolate could be for you. If you are looking for a game that could bring hours of fun for you or your family Isolate is probably not the best choice. I would look at Blokus or Hey! Thats my Fish!

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simonh — 2005-08-09T12:54:43+00:00

The pieces store securely underneath the board - neat!

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simonh — 2005-08-09T12:54:42+00:00

A game in progress

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Gecko23 — 2005-05-24T19:20:23+00:00