Game: Ido

Thread: Re: "Full" Spaces?, General movement questions.

shall1028 — 2008-06-15T18:46:31+00:00

A big block in a 2x1 space occupies whateve half you want it to. "When a player moves a large block onto an empty rectangle, the player must position it exactly in a half of the the field".

As for two blocks occupying the same space, moving the frame is one way to have two blocks in the same space. But do note under block size and space size "one or two blocks of any size and beloning to any player may occupy a rectagle" and under start a block we have "...a large block on a rectangle, if there is room".

All that is to say that if space exists in a 2x1 space a tall block may be placed or moved into there. Since you can't place or move into L shapes or big square shapes the frame is how those get populated with multiple blocks.

Clear as mud?

Steven

Thread: "Full" Spaces?, General movement questions.

coolpapa — 2008-06-15T07:09:58+00:00

The rules seem to be a smidge unclear on a couple of points here.

First of all, when you move a big block into a 2x1 space, which half of the space is it in? Do you get to choose, or is it the half of the space that's closer to the space you're moving from? This could make a difference when it comes to whether a block gets moved by the frame.

Also, I read the rules to say that the only way two blocks can end up in
the same space is if the frame pushes them there. Correct? In particular, even a 2x1 space with one large block in it is considered "full", and another big block can't move in?

Thanks.

Thread: Re: Got IDO and I Am Glad I Did

MENAREUS2000 — 2008-06-09T16:46:54+00:00

I agree, 2 or 4 players is best.

Thread: Re: Got IDO and I Am Glad I Did

shall1028 — 2008-06-09T07:11:38+00:00

I am glad that I purchased IDO too. Everyone I have played it with has enjoyed it immensely.

The only drawback to the game is that it works best as a 2 or 4 player game. With 3 players it seems that two player opposite each other usually get into a stalemate where they both need to move the frame to win the game. The 3rd play can then just take full advantage of the situation and waltz away with the win.

Steven

Thread: Got IDO and I Am Glad I Did

MENAREUS2000 — 2008-05-19T14:04:14+00:00

Received my game of IDO yesterday and have had a chance to play a few games.

It's funny how reading about a game can be such a different experience from actually playing it. I found no problems understanding the rules and found the game quite challenging.

THE COMPONENTS:

Plastic blocks come in 2 sizes, small and rectangular. There are three of each in four different colors.
The photos of the blocks make them look translucent but in reality their not. They're nice solid blocks and fit nicely into the perimeter of the inside of the box, along with a plastic frame and the actual board on top of that. The instructions come on 1 large folded sheet with four sides of instructions, which clearing state the rules of the game. All the components are beautiful and leave you with the sense that you playing on a board that's a work of art, which is it.

THE GOAL:

To get four of your blocks from their starting location to their target location, before your opponent does.

THE RULES:

On your turn, you have one of three choices to make:

1) Enter a block onto the board
2) Move blocks
3) Shift the frame on the board

Each of these steps will be explained in more detail below:

1) Entering Blocks

To enter a black onto the board, there much to a open spot for it adjacent to your starting space. Small blocks may only be placed in small squares, that match their size. Rectangular blocks may only be placed, end side up in spaces that are rectangular. It should be noted that more than one rectangular block may sit in the same space, as long as the space itself is a rectangular space, the same size as the rectangular black, if it were laying on it's side.

2) Moving Blocks

You get to move blocks up to the amount of actual blocks on the board in your color. For example, with three of your blocks on the board, you could move one block three times, or two blocks once each and a third once, or one block twice and a second block once. It's not necessary to take the full movement if you choose not to. It's important to note that small bocks may only move through and onto matching sized spaces (little squares). The same applies to the rectangular pieces, except they may only move through or on other rectangular spaces, that match their size.

3) Shifting The Frame On The board.

Provided your opponent didn't move the frame on their last turn, you have the option of shifting the frame yourself. Generally, the frame can be shifted up, down, left or right, provided it doesn't extend into a start or target area of the board. With each shift of the frame, it's likely that blocks will be shift along as well. It should be noted that sometimes after a shift, bocks end up in spaces that normally they wouldn't be able to be played into, because they're not the correct shape. In these cases, the blacks still remain where they are, but must adhere to the proper moment rules when moving out of these odd spacers.
It's also possible to shift your own or your opponents pieces in their target area. In these cases, the block is considered to have readed it's goal and is removed from the board. In cases where a block is removed from the board, it's returned to it's owner to enter the board once again. Lastly, it should be pointed out that in a two player game, one player may not shift the frame during two consecutive turns.

Game Play:

Besides proper block movement, much of the skill in the game comes from picking the right time and direction to shift the frame itself. This takes some getting use to, but once mastered, creates a game of all out war.

Variants

Once can choose the number of blocks to play to reach the goal for the win. In addition, one can decide in what order the block sizes much reach their goal.

COMMENTS:

I've read all sorts of reviews on this game. From people that love it or hate it. If your prepared to take the time to try and wrap your brain around it all, you'll be glad you got IDO, as IWAS.

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BigWoo — 2007-09-16T16:54:26+00:00

Ido (box cover)

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DavemanUK — 2007-03-18T22:08:22+00:00

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boardroomgames — 2007-03-17T17:46:32+00:00

Front cover

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TMJJS — 2006-05-29T06:24:31+00:00

4 player game at Kit-Con 06 Spring

Thread: Ido: Interesting, Not Fabulous

rinelk — 2006-01-11T18:49:58+00:00

I was given Ido as a gift. After playing with the giver, he made a comment which sums up the game nicely, "I think I'm glad I gave this to you rather than getting it myself."

Components
The components are uniformly excellent. The game includes a board of a material with which I have little prior experience--it feels light but strong, like a more durable foamcore. Bright colors and clear printing make it both easy to see and very pretty. The frame, which sits atop the board and is often moved by players, is a simple black metal affair, and both it and the board rest on non-marking feet. The pieces are plastic blocks which are hollow, therefore light, but still have a good feel. I consider it a testament to the quality of the components that the slight mold lines around the blocks bother me a little--everything else is so perfect that even this slight imperfection is unfortunate. It all comes with a form-fitting box insert which has a slot (with helpful finger cutouts) for each individual piece. As the designers were clearly very aware, the resemblance of a game during play to a Mondrian painting is striking, and enhances the experience a great deal. High marks for presentation.

Rules
Each turn, a player may do one of three things:
1) Launch a new piece (place it from the store onto the board)
2) Slide the frame one block's width
3) Move pieces
The goal of the game is to move four pieces to a target space near the farthest point on the board. If the frame pushes a piece off the board, it is returned to the store (the frame cannot be moved on consecutive turns). There are large and small rectangular prisms as pieces, and each may only ever move into a space of its own size (though the large ones are always standing up, so they do not occupy only half of the space they end up in). When moving pieces, one gets a number of moves up to the number of one's pieces in play, and may distribute these moves among one's pieces in any way. For example, if one has four pieces on the board, one may move one piece three spaces and another piece one space, or may move each piece one space, or elect to use less than four moves. Pieces may move through occupied spaces, but cannot stop anywhere there isn't space for them.

Gameplay
The gameplay has a number of interesting aspects. Moving the frame does not directly help one approach the goal, but it is crucial to opening a path of the right size spaces for one's pieces. It is generally easier to find spaces for small pieces to move into, but because they can only move into small spaces, they move more slowly. Again, however, use of the frame can be crucial, in that it can expand the space a small piece is in, allowing it to move into a more distant small space.

Unfortunately, this all tends to lose its appeal quickly. The opportunities for good play are either fairly obvious or else bafflingly difficult to detect because the frame is such an unintuitive mechanism. As a result, players are usually making moves which seem either obviously good or effectively random, because it is too difficult to foresee the long-term consequences. When played with three players, the game seems to have a serious kingmaker problem (the losing player's actions determine who among the winning players will actually win), but with the added difficulty that the losing player will often not know, at the time of making the action which will determine the winner, to which person s/he has just given the game! I feel a little as though I'm essentially complaining that the game is innovative, and I do find the frame a delightfully innovative mechanism. It's an inaccessible innovation, however--I'd say that it was ahead of its time, if I were confident that other games which would help train the minds of gamers in the use of similar mechanisms were coming. In a time when so many new people are coming to the hobby and there are so many quality games available, this is a problem.

I suspect that extended play would lead to sufficient expertise that this problem would be ameliorated, but such extended study is unlikely for three reasons: early plays aren't very rewarding, the game's focus on superficial attractions will tend to attract players unwilling to devote such time, and the rules are simple enough that people will be tempted to teach this game to those uncertain enough about playing boardgames that they don't want to sit through the lengthy explanation of a game like Puerto Rico.

Summary
A beautiful game with some interesting strategic elements, but which gives players few choices which are both meaningful and understandable.

Thread: Game as Art

seppo21 — 2005-10-15T14:47:09+00:00

Third Game: Ido

When I first saw pictures of Ido I was mesmerized. I really wanted the game simply because it looked so nice. The fact that I really liked abstract games didn't make it any easier for me. Unfortunately, for the longest time, it was well outside of my price range. Then Funagain had their end of the year sale last year, and it was suddenly affordable. I snatched it up, along with a few other games of interest. Unfortunately, I have been unable to actually play the game before tonight. My sister was an art major in college, so I got it out for her to see (but also to play). Too bad she wasn't here to actually see it

At any rate, I really wanted to play a game of Ido, and Matt was intrigued, so this would be the third game of the evening. The object of the game is to move four of your six pieces somewhat diagonally across the board and off. The catch is that pieces can only enter and move through pieces that match their shapes -- either squares or rectangles. In addition, there is a grid on the board that the players can shift on their turn that alters the layout of the board. This kind of makes it a challenge.

The game actually starts off kind of slow. Your total movement for a turn depends on the number of pieces you have in play. Thus, you are rewarded for moving pieces into play. This, however, takes time. In addition, someone can always shift the grid, which can push your early, and highly vulnerable, pieces off the board. The happened to me twice in the early game. I did eventually get five of my pieces into play. However, I was behind very early on. Christine and Matt each got a piece off before I got my first one off the board. I think, though, that I had a more balanced approach. I did catch up to them, but then they each pulled ahead of me. Now was the point where my strategy started to pay off. It seems that it is much more difficult to enter and move the rectangular pieces. Therefore, I had spent several moves and shifts of the grid to get a couple of these into position to move off the board. Everything finally came into alignment, and I was able to move them off quickly, giving me a 3-2-2 lead. The nice side effect was that I had my fourth piece already set up to move off the board. So while Christine and Matt were both able to get piece number three off, I was able to move number four off. They continued to play for second with both of them able to move their fourth man off in the same turn.

Final Results:

Stephen
Matt
Christine

We all found this game to be quite interesting. It was nowhere near as convoluted or troubling as several comments on the Geek seem to imply. The only rule question we had is whether you had to actually do anything on your turn. You are, after all, not required to use all of your movement, so you should be able to use zero -- right? This is what we decided for the game, but I think in the future we will require that you at least do something as doing nothing seems to go against the spirit of the game. At any rate, it became very apparent how important the shifting grid is to the game. For starters, whenever possible, you want to start a piece inside the grid so that it cannot be pushed off the board. The corollary to this is that you don't want to get a piece outside of the grid either. In addition, the grid is the only way you can directly affect other players' pieces. You can shift their pieces as well as yours. You also can change the shape of the spaces around the board. This can alter their available movement drastically, as well as make it more difficult for them to start new pieces. The downside to this is that you must give up a turn in order to do this. I found myself asking quite often whether I would rather interfere with Matt or Christine or advance my own pieces. There was seldom a clear answer. Our game took about 45 minutes.

Thread: User Review

pmboos — 2004-12-13T17:40:49+00:00

IDO: The Art of Playing

I am going to organize this review in 3 sections. A bit about the bits (hmm... seems an odd way to say that ) A discussion on the mechanics of play, and finally my impressions.

The bits are very nice; it consists of plastic three 3-D cubes and three 3-D "rectangles" in 4 primary colors, a plastic board that looks like a piece of Mondrian art, and finally a "grid" that is placed dead center on the board. I like the feel of the pieces, and if any game is at home in a contemporary home as a coffee table game, this is it. (I actually have a contemporary home, so I may start leaving this out )

Your aim is tom move all your pieces diagonally across the borad from your home space to your target space.

Each turn, you may -

1 - Start a piece (providing it has a suitable space to move into...) OR
2 - Move piece equal to the # of peces you have on the board, OR
3 - Move the grid.

1) rectangles may start into a rectangular spaces on the board and cubes may move into square. No matter how the grid is moved, you can always start a piece.

2) When you move a piece, you may move any number of pieces up to the count of spaces you have on the board. Thus if you have 3 pieces on the board, you may move 1 piece 2 spaces, 1 piece 2 spaces and another 1 space, or move 3 pieces one space. Pieces may only move through spaces that are identical to their type - cubes through squares, and recatngles through rectangles. Pieces only move horizontal and vertical, not diagonal. A piece may not stop in a space fully occupied by another. All other shaped psaces ("L" and large square), block movement.

3) you may move the grid horizontal or vertical the equivalent of one small square length. When you move the grid, pieces move along with it. if you move a piece off the board, then it returns home to start over.

This is a great abstract. the grid movement combined with the more you have on the board giving you more movement options, combined with the rectange=rectangle/cube=square movement options make for an interesting game. I really like the ability to establish the approriate dragging to help or hurt your opponent as well as changing the configuration of the board to do the same. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a not-too-heavy abstract that is a work of art ot look at... (Yes, it lives up to its name).

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EYE of NiGHT — 2002-08-10T15:50:59+00:00

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EYE of NiGHT — 2002-08-10T15:50:59+00:00

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EYE of NiGHT — 2002-08-10T15:50:59+00:00

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2002-08-10T15:50:59+00:00