Game: Plateau

Thread: Re: [Review] Plateau

Bacchus — 2008-05-28T21:05:43+00:00

I happen to like Plateau and have since I first picked up a copy in the early 1990s. I think of it as something difficult like chess, but with a play time that's closer to checkers. The hidden information aspect adds an element of bluffing that I appreciate greatly.

Thanks for the great overview, that was done quite nicely.

Thread: Re: [Review] Plateau

nello — 2008-05-03T04:49:31+00:00

I like plateau -> The goal of plateau is to either capture six opposing pieces, or construct a stack of six of your own pieces. It is a self production and the container (vhs cassette style) does the job quite well..

Thread: Re: [Review] Plateau

Archoboy — 2008-05-02T20:30:57+00:00

Great review! You summed up my own experience perfectly. I haven't played the game enough to 'get it' and it's doubtful I'll ever get past the threshold where it is rewarding to play, much less find someone willing to do the same. Sadly, the game seems well conceived. Happily, there are many other great games to play instead.

Thread: Re: [Review] Plateau

ddyer — 2008-04-30T17:28:57+00:00

I can't say that Tom's review is unfair, but your mileage may vary.

The essential attraction of Plateau is that information is as important as power. Using a powerful piece, and therefore identifying it, turns a valuable asset into a liability. Any predictable play, any predictable strategy, is likely to become ineffective if your opponent predicts it. The balance of the game is to be both unpredictable and effective.

-- oh yea, and you can play it on boardspace.net

Thread: Re: [Review] Plateau

denverarch — 2008-04-30T17:26:51+00:00

Ouch, but I think your review has enough information that someone might try the game despite your conclusion. Well done!

Thread: [Review] Plateau

TomVasel — 2008-04-30T13:59:22+00:00

The best abstract strategy games are those with simple rules but complex enough strategies to last for hundreds of games. Some of the greatest games are those which seem simple at first glance but reveal themselves to be games of great depth. At the same time, a designer seeking to reproduce this great depth can overcompensate by creating a clunky interface - a game that is almost too obtuse to be enjoyed. That was my initial impression when first reading the rules for Plateau (Magnolia Games, 1990 - Jim Albea). Plateau comes with a complicated looking rulebook, a simple small game board, and confusing game play.

And sadly, that confusion is going to chase away enough new players that most won't find the depth of the game. I won't argue or deny that Plateau has hundreds of different, interesting strategies; it's the process of getting there that drives me nuts. The components are merely okay, the game play feels boring, and I don't want to have to play dozens of games to "get it". There is likely an audience that will find Plateau interesting - fans of Go, perhaps - but most folks won't make it through an entire game.

Each player starts with seven different types of pieces, each with a different combination of sides and point value.
- Mute (4 pieces) - Blank on both sides; one point
- Blue (2 pieces) - Blue on both sides; four points
- Red (2 pieces) - Red on both sides; five points
- Blue Mask (1 piece) - Blue on one side, blank on the other; eight points
- Red Mask (1 piece) - Red on one side, blank on the other; ten points
- Ace (1 piece) - Red on one side, blue on the other; fifteen points
- Twister (1 piece) - Orange on one side, blank on the other; twenty-one points
Players take their pieces, which have a main color of black or white, and will use a four by four grid to play the game. Black places a two piece stack on one of the perimeter squares, and white places a two piece stack on a different perimeter square. Black then takes the first turn, and play alternates for the rest of the game.

On a player's turn, they have three actions. First, they may place a new piece onto the board anywhere they like (except inside an enemy stack or on top of a stack that has an enemy piece on the top). Or, they can instead move one of the stacks on the board. When moving a stack, the player may flip the top piece before moving. This is important, because a stack moves as the color shown on top.
- Red stacks move in a straight line in any direction - up to one space for each piece in the stack.
- Blue stacks are the same, except they move diagonally.
- Blank stacks can move diagonally or orthogonally.
- Orange stacks move two squares in one direction, then one space at ninety degrees. (Knight in chess)
- All pieces can "jump" when moving and may drop pieces from the bottom of the stack onto the top of stacks on the spaces moved over.
Dropping pieces on top of enemy stacks is an important part of the game, but blank pieces may not do this. Players can "capture" opponents' pieces if they land on them in the final destination of the stack and if the stack has as many pieces as the pieces being captured. The captured pieces are removed from the board and placed in a player's "captured" area.

The third thing a player may do is exchange captured pieces with their opponent. They offer pieces to the other player, who offers pieces in return. An exchange MUST happen if the point values are similar. Either way, the game continues until one player has captured six or more pieces or has a stack of six of their own pieces on the board. There are quite a few more variations to the rules, but I can't really explain them without diagrams.

Some comments on the game...

1.) Components: What is it with abstract games and video cassette boxes? This is the fifth one I've received, but it does stay together better than the other games in my growing video-case-game-collection. The board is a simple bland grid, and the pieces are thick, white and black discs with red, blue, and orange plastic washers that must be pressed down into them, where they will likely never come out. I do think that the pieces are a good size, with raised ridges for easy stacking. How to keep the pieces hidden from your opponent is another matter. One can stand the box/case upright, although this is annoying and unsteady - screens from another game that feature hidden information are probably the best choice. I did find myself constantly looking at the bottom of pieces to see what they were, whether they were on the board or in the pile of pieces I hadn't played yet. This was fairly annoying, since it's critical that a player know what each of their own pieces is at all times.

2.) Rules: The game comes with two rules booklets, a simple "get started now" guide, and then a complete sixteen page rulebook. Normally I would be pleased about having so much information on a game; but even with various sketches and examples, I still had to play through some rounds, because I was completely befuddled - even after going through an entire game. The rulebook defines pieces and talks about the different types of movement - it just didn't come together for me at all during the course of my first couple games. After that, I started to slowly understand it; but even though the rules may seem simple, they are remarkably difficult to comprehend.

3.) Simplicity: I prefer abstract games that have an inherent, simple goal - whether it be to get five pieces in a row, or to capture all the opponent's pieces, etc. When a game starts to include capturing, prisoner exchanges, stacking, and various types of movement on a small board, the confusion starts to build; and the game loses any kind of simple charm that it might otherwise have. The idea of a two-sided piece, each side moving differently, is a clever one on paper; but the reality of this game is that it just becomes a confusing mess.

4.) Strategy: I would be a cretin if I acted as if the game wasn't strategic; there is certainly plenty involved, with the rulebook itself giving several pages to explain what a player should do. But when playing, even after going over the strategic hints (get pieces in play, guard the power pieces, watch out for tall units, etc.), I still found myself struggling to get any sort of tactical plan into action. I did understand the bluffing element, and that's probably the one thing I enjoyed about the game - wondering if the blank piece just played on the board actually has a color on the other side. But I'm completely befuddled on what strategy to follow after these basic thoughts.

5.) Fun Factor: Perhaps I'm not patient or smart enough to enjoy this game. I've seen others laud its praises, explaining that "once you know the game, it's a blast!" But I've played the game several times with various opponents - also giving the computer version a shot - and while I think I grasp the rules, I just don't see the fun in the vague strategies. My guess is that there are some folks out there who will enjoy a somewhat obtuse, abstract strategy game, but that most folks will be disappointed on their initial playing.

So, my recommendation is to pick up Plateau if you are a collector of abstract games and want something tough and possibly rewarding after many multiple plays. For ordinary folks, though, I can't see giving this game much of a chance. It's merely a mediocre presentation, and the bluffing/hiding/odd movement choices that the game presents come together in an intricate way that I'm not sure will be appealing to many people. It certainly wasn't for me.

Tom Vasel
"Real men play board games"
www.thedicetower.com

Thread: Re: Quick Comments

nello — 2008-01-22T14:49:19+00:00

how to describe PLATEAU ...??

excellently executed !!! one of the best abstract the modern era produced so far..

Thread: Play by Email

ddyer — 2006-02-03T18:34:48+00:00

One of the bits of plateau that originally hooked me was playing
by email. The plateau program available from the official web
site supports an email mode.

-- but wait, you say, what about the hidden information? The clever
bit is that the game state is encrypted and text encoded, so it looks
a lot like an encoded attachment.

Image

ddyer — 2006-01-03T07:18:24+00:00

Plateay online at http://www.boardspace.net/

Thread: Re: Quick Comments

frenchpeterpan — 2005-12-11T11:42:23+00:00

i'm looking for this game too
...
I 'm trying i'm looking for this game too
...
I 'm trying i'm looking for this game too
...
I 'm trying

Image

Terraliptar — 2005-06-14T16:45:54+00:00

Close-up of components

Image

Terraliptar — 2005-06-14T16:45:54+00:00

The 'video box' and contents

Image

chaosbreaker — 2005-05-06T19:43:13+00:00

Play the AI or human using PBEM feature of the Plateau software.

Thread: User Review

mrraow — 2004-07-15T15:37:18+00:00

Plateau is a challenging mixture of strategy and bluff, played on a 4x4 grid. The objective of Plateau is either to capture 6 of your opponent's pieces, or to build a stack of your own pieces 6 high.

While the game is fairly simple in essence, there are quite a lot of rules, so I've tried to give you an overview, without getting too bogged down with the detail.

(Incidentally, the inventor has come to the conclusion that the best way to learn Plateau is if someone teaches you, so he has created a computer version of the game which will act as a simple step by step tutorial. The program is available free from his web page, http://www.plateaugame.com/, and is well worth a look. If you manage to beat the program, which isn't too difficult once you have learned the rules, then you are entitled to a $5 discount off the price of a game. If you do visit the plateau web page, have a look at the section on the history of Plateau, where there is a fascinating tale of Jim Albea's long struggle to make Plateau a success.)

Anyway, back to the game itself. Play starts with each player putting a stack of two pieces on one of the border squares of the 4x4 board. After this, players may do any one of the following each turn:

"onboarding" - players may introduce a piece onto the board. Pieces can be placed in an empty space, on top of a friendly stack of pieces, or even in the middle of a friendly stack.
Moving a stack - direction of movement is determined by the top piece in the stack, distance by the height of the stack. Players are allowed to flip the top piece in their stack over before moving it, which may change its movement and/or capturing ability. Pieces can be picked up or dropped off from the stack as it moves, and it may make a capture at the end of the move.
Exchange of prisoners - a player may offer one or more captured pieces for exchange with the opponent. The opponent must return prisoners to an equal value, if possible (values of pieces are set out in the rules).
The movement of a stack is determined by the colour on top of the stack when it moves. Note that the top piece can be flipped before a move, possibly giving your opponent a nasty shock! The pieces may have various combinations of colours on each side, from the humble mute (blank on each side), to the mighty Ace (red and blue). The colours are as follows:

blue pieces, which move diagonally
red pieces, which move orthogonally
orange pieces, which move something like chess knights
blank pieces, which move orthogonally or diagonally, but may neither capture nor cover an opponent's piece
Apart from the orange pieces (which always move the same distance), the distance moved is limited by the height of the stack, i.e. a stack two pieces high can move a maximum of two spaces.

Plateau is a game of limited information; at the start of the game, the game box is placed between the players as a screen, behind which they can hide their off-board pieces. When the pieces are in play, only the top side of the pieces are visible, and it is only when your piece is flipped or captured that your opponent gets to see whether you placed a piece as a harmless decoy, a sacrifice, or a vicious attack.

One of the best features of Plateau is the size of the board; with only 16 squares, there is no easy escape from your opponent's attacks, and pieces can easily be placed to serve more than one purpose. For instance, you could place a piece so as to threaten an opponent's piece, to simultaneously defend a stack of your own pieces, and with an additional threat that the piece could be picked up by a moving stack for an instant win on the next move!

I like this game a lot; the hidden information adds greatly to the excitement, and yet there's enough scope for strategy that the bluffing doesn't dominate the game. At the same time, the bluff elements interest people who wouldn't otherwise play abstract games. I also like the efficient packaging; by using the box itself as a screen, the inventor has managed to squeeze the whole game into a video box.

(This review originally appeared in G3 magazine)

Thread: Re:Quick Comments

Aardvark — 2004-04-09T23:27:11+00:00

This is a great, if somewhat obscure game. The learning curve is a little steep, but worth the effort. I consider myself lucky that I found a copy.

Thread: Quick Comments

Lertulo — 2004-04-09T22:39:48+00:00

A mixture between chess and stratego. Each playing piece has colored rings attached to its top and bottom faces; the color of the ring that's showing indicates how the piece moves. At the start of your move, you can flip the top piece in a stack over, changing how that piece moves. And your opponent isn't allowed to look underneath your pieces to see what might be there.

This game has been around for a while, and Jim Albea has played around with the rules until he's gotten a result that's pretty well balanced.

Image

Buzz — 2003-02-02T23:19:06+00:00