Game: Gobblet

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LankyEngineer — 2008-06-07T20:07:52+00:00

US patent number US6394455

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whoami — 2008-05-28T05:43:03+00:00

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swuyau — 2008-05-27T15:28:21+00:00

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swuyau — 2008-05-27T15:27:08+00:00

Cover

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swuyau — 2008-05-27T15:26:12+00:00

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Thread: Great Game to Teach, and Most Enjoy It!

Hendal — 2008-05-07T14:30:34+00:00

Hey All,

So I have been playing a lot of Gobblet lately. It is a fun filler game, very quick to play most of the time. And for me a great part of it is the rules? The Rules you say, well it is basically just Tic-Tac-Toe (TTT ) so everyone already knows the rules. Get 4 in a row you win. Which means most people will play a game no problem at all, and very quick. They will end up losing that first game, but get that look on their face that says ( I can handle this now, this is just TTT, how hard can it be ). Then they will probably lose the 2nd game and then really be ready to play a 3rd one. They now have a better understanding of the game, and will really be ready to play a 3rd game.

At least that is how it went for me when I was teaching my friend Chuck. He then won the 3rd game and was very pleased with himself. So we played a few more and he lost them both, but he enjoyed the game and loved that it was such a fast game and no real rules to have to deal with ( yes some rules, but since it is an advanced TTT game it is really light on rules, and heavy on fast paced fun ).

When I lost the 3rd game I was paying attention to what I wanted to do next and forgot about what he was doing, this cost me the game, but that is the fun of Gobblet, if your not paying a lot of attention to the game, you will lose with out even knowing it was coming. And keep in mind that just because you have a plan you are working on, there may not be time to finish that plan.

This is not a deep game, or even a tough game. And it is not one I would play for hours, but for 20-30 min. I think this is a amazingly fun game to play. With such an easy set up and put away time to the game, it is a perfect filler game to play while you wait for more players to show up. Plus it really keeps the mind working. You are trying to win, to have a strategy , and you need to remember what is under what, which in longer games can really be the toughest part of it.

My friend lost the 4th game because he was really enjoying covering up my pieces, but forgot what was covered after a while, he then went to move a big piece only to find on e of my guys hiding under there, and then he had to move it and the game was over - yea.
The game has a few aspects to it, which gives it a much deeper layer of thinking and strategy then TTT, so you have enough to think about and keep track off to make this a really fun light game,

For such a simple game, it packs a lot of fun. And this is one you could make your own set pretty easily if you so desired.

Enjoy!

Game On'

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hrc333 — 2008-05-05T01:34:27+00:00

Four in a row for black.

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hrc333 — 2008-05-05T01:33:17+00:00

The underside of the 'gobblets.' How they stack together.

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hrc333 — 2008-05-05T01:31:02+00:00

A blank board

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hrc333 — 2008-05-05T01:16:12+00:00

The pieces inside the box.

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hrc333 — 2008-05-05T01:14:22+00:00

Inside the Box

Thread: Re: Using markers to remember covered gobblets - is this cheating?

ddyer — 2008-04-29T21:45:18+00:00

The official game wouldn't allow using markers, unless they are
imaginary.

Thread: Re: Using markers to remember covered gobblets - is this cheating?

laxnbakpakr — 2008-04-29T21:09:52+00:00

I'd say if you are going to play with markers it'd be easier to just allow your selves to pick up a piece and place it back if you find it's covering an opponents piece and that changes your mind. It'd eliminate the need for markers and effectively do the same thing. The whole reason they say you have to move a piece once you touch it is so you have to try and remember where the hidden ones are. I do find i have a tendency to forget but i find that to be another challange to the game. Just my 2 cents i guess. I really enjoy this game so far. Nice twist on the tic tac toe concept.

Thread: Re: Using markers to remember covered gobblets - is this cheating?

Hendal — 2008-04-29T20:44:13+00:00

We have the Classic Edition, it is a big box, I just kept playing with dice, tiles, & tokens from other games.

To be honest I did it because his young son kept asking me questions and I kept getting distracted by him and forgetting where the covered stuff was :D, Hey I said I only did it once.

I just got in about 15 games or more with the wife and it was great, with out distractions you can concentrate enough to remember what you need to.

I find when it gets late in the game I will space off from my wife taking to long on a turn. I am always trying to think a few moves ahead and already know most of my options ( to some extent ) so I am a faster player then most people ( at least the ones I have played so far - 5 in total ). So when she takes a real long time I just start day dreaming and space off what I was remembering for the game :blush:.

But this is a fun one, I am really glad my friend brought it over.

Thread: Re: Using markers to remember covered gobblets - is this cheating?

Sagrilarus — 2008-04-29T17:52:41+00:00

    Using a computer database would be far more effective.

    And equally unsporting.

             Sag.

Thread: Re: Using markers to remember covered gobblets - is this cheating?

jammasterjake — 2008-04-29T17:44:30+00:00

Hendal wrote:
I was playing a game of Gobblet today and I has a bunch of dice by me, so the one game I used them to mark where the covered pieces where. I put a 1-4 showing on the dice off the board but in the row and new which ones where already covering something with out having to remember them - would you consider this cheating?

Just wondering how others felt. I didn't do it again thinking it was not fair if the other guy is not doing it also.

Ah... how did your opponent not notice?

Thread: Using markers to remember covered gobblets - is this cheating?

Hendal — 2008-04-29T17:35:58+00:00

I was playing a game of Gobblet today and I has a bunch of dice by me, so the one game I used them to mark where the covered pieces where. I put a 1-4 showing on the dice off the board but in the row and new which ones where already covering something with out having to remember them - would you consider this cheating?

Just wondering how others felt. I didn't do it again thinking it was not fair if the other guy is not doing it also.

Thread: Re: game balance

Hendal — 2008-04-29T17:32:56+00:00

if you put all your pieces out first then the other guy gobbles them and you are left with way less pieces on the board and are out of pieces off the board, and he has more pieces on the board and more waiting to be put on from off the board. I do not agree with your statement :D

Thread: Re: Gobblet - extended review

Hendal — 2008-04-29T17:08:39+00:00

Played a game this morning where the gobble from off the board came into affect, My friend would have lost the game if not for that rule - so I think it is really important!

Thread: Re: Worlds apart from Tic-Tac-Toe (TTT )

Hendal — 2008-04-29T17:06:49+00:00

Got 4 more games in this morning , and I still really like this one, a lot more depth then I thought. The last game I moved my king and missed a winning placement, only to place it where I friend then could win with 1 simple move. You start thinking of a strategy and forget the rest of the board, a really fun game all said and done.

Thread: Worlds apart from Tic-Tac-Toe (TTT )

Hendal — 2008-04-29T15:08:17+00:00

I had a friend come over yesterday and he brought a few games along with him. The great part is, he has always been a gamer, but has not been playing many games lately. Well all that changed once we met and we have been getting in a lot of gaming lately - which is just wonderful for me to hook up with someone down here who has games of their own. Now granted they are not my regular style of games ( I am a fantasy theme ameri-trash fan at heart ) but thanks to the BGG I am learning and expanding the type of game I am playing.

So Gobblet looks easy enough, kinda 3 dimensional TTT, so it should be simple enough. They have added a few layers to the game though. Now it is a memory game because you have to remember where there are pieces that are covering up other pieces. Forgetting that will cost you the game a lot of times. Since my friend Mike has only played this a few times we where evenly matched I felt. He won the first couple while I figured out the game, then I started to dominate that board. A couple of them went so fast it was under 2 minutes I would say for the whole game ( these where the early games I lost really fast at ). We played 8 games or so and I had a blast. I was really impressed with this one.

My wife and I then played another 4 or 5 games of this one, and she didn't take to it as quick. She actually won half the games because I was not focusing and just lost early on to the simplest of strategies from her ( basically I just missed her having 3 in a row and never tried to stop her, duh! ).

So basically this game is TTT but your pieces come in 4 sizes that are hollow and open on the bottom, this means the bigger ones fit over the smaller ones. In the game you can put your bigger pieces over any of the smaller pieces ( although it seems most of the time it would just be over the other guys pieces ). One aspect of the game is you have to remember what is covered. If you touch a piece on the board you have to use it, which means if you are not sure which one has something under it - it could cost you the game. So If I go to pick up the my biggest piece and I forgot that it is already covering up one of the other guys pieces then I still have to move my big piece. If by moving your piece you reveal one of the other guys smaller pieces and it ends up causing him to now have 4 in a row - you lose!

I think a big part of this is the concentration factor, so it is a tough one if a lot of things are going on around you or if you need to pay attention to something else at the same time. This is listed as a Abstract game and I enjoyed it a lot. In part it is a really fast paced game, although Mike is an over thinker on any game he plays. When you lose, you don't feel bad for getting beat - you usually feel stupid because you lost the game from not paying enough attention.
I really recommend this one to people who are playing by them selves and have no distractions going on around them. The only part I don't like it that is causes you to not want to talk during the game because you need to concentrate on the game and what pieces are covering up other pieces -which can be forgotten very quickly by talking to someone. On the other hand, it is a fast enough game you can talk in between games!

I will be buying this one for sure! I also think it is a great games to play with kids.

And a great part of this game for some geeks is ------- IT has a Great Smell, this game is a few years old and it still has that new game smell :D

My friend left it here, so I will be playing this one more the coming week!

Thread: Re: Gobblet: 3 best & 3 worst

jammasterjake — 2008-04-29T14:44:37+00:00

Hendal wrote:
Just tried it for the first time, and it rocked, I really liked it, a tough little game, some of them ended in less then 2 minutes by me not paying enough attention, when I was paying attention it is a lot easier.

A memory game, which means you don't want to be talking the whole time you are playing!

Don't want to be talking? You must not be playing with a woman....

Thread: Re: Gobblet: 3 best & 3 worst

Hendal — 2008-04-29T14:20:09+00:00

Just tried it for the first time, and it rocked, I really liked it, a tough little game, some of them ended in less then 2 minutes by me not paying enough attention, when I was paying attention it is a lot easier.

A memory game, which means you don't want to be talking the whole time you are playing!

Thread: Re: Gobblet: 3 best & 3 worst

jammasterjake — 2008-04-24T14:00:22+00:00

Sifu wrote:
I, too, think Gobblet is a pretty good game beset by an awful color scheme! In regards to your bad #2, "Could be too light", it seems to me that if the pieces were transparent, you'd see some SERIOUS AP problems in this game. But as it is, at some point, one player or the other is going to lose track of something, and consequently lose. The game only really works because of the hidden information. If you could see everything, it would be a pretty blah game. Having the hidden info keeps the game light and fast enough to be a decent game. But the result is that you aren't every going to have the incredible tension, excitement, or satisfaction that you get with go or Chess.

It's a fair trade, I think. This is a super "abstract" game for those who do not like abstracts. And kids do seem to like it!

That's a good point Sifu... I was thinking more along the lines of me trying to remember where every single piece is, which causes me to avoid conversation, etc.

Thanks for the comment.

Thread: Re: Gobblet: 3 best & 3 worst

Sifu — 2008-04-24T06:37:49+00:00

I, too, think Gobblet is a pretty good game beset by an awful color scheme! In regards to your bad #2, "Could be too light", it seems to me that if the pieces were transparent, you'd see some SERIOUS AP problems in this game. But as it is, at some point, one player or the other is going to lose track of something, and consequently lose. The game only really works because of the hidden information. If you could see everything, it would be a pretty blah game. Having the hidden info keeps the game light and fast enough to be a decent game. But the result is that you aren't every going to have the incredible tension, excitement, or satisfaction that you get with go or Chess.

It's a fair trade, I think. This is a super "abstract" game for those who do not like abstracts. And kids do seem to like it!

Thread: Gobblet: 3 best & 3 worst

jammasterjake — 2008-04-23T16:24:40+00:00

Recently, I've been making a move toward two player games that set up, play, and clean-up easily. So I bought [GAMEID=9609]. (Kidding).

I've really enjoyed [GAMEID=2655] and [GAMEID=2453], but what I'd really been holding out for was Gobblet. The concept was immediately attractive to me. And now, with roughly twenty games logged in well under a month, I feel a bit qualified to share my review.

Concept
In brief, this is a game along the lines of Tic-Tac-Toe. The object is to get four of your pieces in a row. Each player has three sets of four pieces that stack like those creepy Russian porcelain dolls. A bigger piece may swallow (gobble) a smaller piece.

(In an attempt to make my reviews a bit more readable, I'm going to try a new list format. I want to limit the pros and cons to just three items each, instead of making a laundry list).

Top 3 Good Things About Gobblet
1. Approachable
I cannot imagine that there is a person who doesn't "get" the concept of Tic-Tac-Toe. Gobblet is a very logical extension of that. The game also plays quite quickly, which adds to the approachability. It is also a bit visually appealing (more on this later). Most of all, it's fun!

2. Addictive
Because the game plays so quickly, it is tempting to play again. We often play a best of five series that usually extends to a best of seven.

3. Portability
Gobblet is a great game to take to a Starbucks. It packs up easily and, for those of you who care (me), it isn't an embarrassing game to play in public. Yeah, I'm lookin' at you, [GAMEID=28143].

Top 3 Bad Things About Gobblet
1. Potential for Analysis Paralysis
Once pieces start getting swallowed, and you aren't quite sure what is and isn't covered, there is a small potential for AP. This isn't along the lines of, say, Chess, but it's there.

2. Could be Too Light
It's no secret this is a filler. Heck, they sell it at Target. But at least games like [GAMEID=2655] seem to have a bit more depth to them. Going into Gobblet, you have to know that this is as light as they come, without being a party game.

3. That Color Scheme
My pieces are a hideous UT orange and gross not-quite-chocolate brown. Together, they combine to make a bad Halloween memory.

Should You Buy It?
Gobblet is probably worth a purchase -- and I mean probably. I definitely enjoy it, but I could see myself heading back to Hive after a while. The best part about Gobblet is you can get anyone to play it. It could potentially be a great kids game as well, although I cannot comment on any experience. Let's keep it that way, girlfriend, if you are reading this.

Thread: Gobblet: Quality game with Quality components

Boomer — 2007-09-11T19:14:36+00:00

So often with American games these days, we must make a choice between quality components and quality games. Happily the folks at Blue Orange Games understand we don't want to make that choice and produce a line of games that combine quality of game play with quality of components.

The first thing I noticed was the very high quality components. A solid wooden box, with a slide out lid the doubles as the game board, the form factor is just 9 ½ inches square and 2 inches thick, making it very easy to find shelf space for. The game pieces are very solid wooden pieces large enough for little hands. The rules are a short 1 page.

The object of the game is simple, place four of your gobblets in a row. The wrinkle is the 4 different sized gobblets are sized such that they fit inside of each other allowing players to Gobble up another piece. Like so many good abstract strategy games, gobblet is short on rules and long on strategy.

The game is played on a 4x4 board and each player gets 12 gobblets, 3 of each of the 4 different sizes.
On your turn you can choose one of 4 possible actions:

1)Put a new gobblet on the board
2)Move a gobblet already in play to any empty space
3)”Gobble up” any smaller sized gobblet with a gobblet already in play.
4)If your opponent already has 3 in a row, you can “gobble up” one of those pieces with a large sized gobblet that is not in play yet.

When moving pieces on the board, you only move the top piece, so the gobblet inside it will remain, possibly creating a four in a row. It's important to remember what's been gobbled up. If you touch a gobblet you must move that piece, so no changing your mind.

If you think this is just a 4x4 tic-tac-toe, think again. Gobblet offers a rich degree of strategy, making it suitable for a wide range of ages.

The game box says ages 7 and up and I think that's a very reasonable age range. Blue Orange also makes a Gobblet Jr, which uses a 3x3 board with the same basic game play.

The instructions are clearly written and very well illustrated.

Blue Orange has bright yellow, easy to see “Choking Hazard” warning box which is more prominent then most of their competitors. However like so many game manufacturers they place it on the back panel of the packing, contrary to CPSC guidelines which call for it on the front of the package.

I'd rate this a terrific game for children 7-10 . It's easy to teach and helps with motor skills, memory and critical thinking. The large game pieces will be easy for children to manipulate and are durable enough to handle the sometimes rough play from children.

Highly Recommended.

Jeff “Boomer” Bakalchuck
Metro Boardgamer

Thread: Carded Gobblet

Fitzinnhacihts — 2007-08-17T23:14:56+00:00

When wooden gobblets are not available, consider using cards for the six "nests". The playing cards won't have the look or the comfortable feel of wooden pieces, but the game is the same. Categorize the A&2 cards as tiny, the 3&4 cards as small, the 5&6 cards as medium, and the 7&8 cards as large. The suits do not mater, only the size and color of cards are important. One player uses the Red odd cards (A,3,5,7) in each of her three piles. The other player uses the Black even cards (2,4,6,8) in his three nests.

It would be less confusing if cards from two decks are used. Then each player could have three nests of A,2,3,4 cards of their own color. While alternating colors, remove one card of each number from each deck. The number cards removed from second deck should be different colors of the same numbers. Once again, suits do not matter.

Unlike nesting cups, the lesser valued card or cards beneath a top card cannot be totally hidden from sight, so a few special steps are suggested. Before the game begins, randomly mark the playing spots of the four by four playing grid with none, or one, or two facedown decoy cards having values other than those used for nests. The decoy cards hopefully provide a deception of possible lower value cards in a pile. When a card of higher value tops a card of lower value, the lower value card is first turned over to better hide its value. During a turn when a top card is moved off a pile, the card that was beneath it is checked. If it is NOT a decoy card, it is turned over to become the top card. Rearrange the placement of some, or all, decoy cards before each new game.

All the other Gobblet rules apply as if the color and "sizes" of cards were upside down gobblets. Note: Gobblet may also be played with styroform cups. See this site under "general".

Thread: Re: Gobblet Programs

noxraven — 2007-06-12T16:13:28+00:00

Dave,
You're right--BestBot is not invincible, but since only one person (program?) is ranked higher, it must win more than it loses against anyone else.
Unfortunately I don't know of any other online AI's. My friend wrote a C++ program that is comparable to the Boardspace.net bot. I need to improve my Matlab skills, so I have undertaken writing a Gobblet AI in Matlab. I expect to finish it in about a month.
~Kevin

Thread: Re: Gobblet Strategy

ddyer — 2007-06-12T07:12:50+00:00

The gobblet robots at Boardspace.net agree with these strategies, but
they are not invincible. What other programs do you know of?

Thread: Gobblet Strategy

noxraven — 2007-06-12T01:05:09+00:00

Introduction
This article is meant to elevate beginner Gobblet players to the intermediate level. The first three sections contain very solid advice. The final section, titled Experimental Strategies, is a compilation of strategies that I use and that computer programs much better than myself seem to use—take this final section with a grain of salt and, if you are an advanced player, please comment/correct me!

The Key to the Game: Putting 2 and 2 Together
Lets face it, most opponents see three-in-a-row and use one of their big pieces to halt your plans for victory. The way to win in Gobblet is to think a level above this. The way to win is to slam down a single piece that creates two three-in-a-rows at once. Your opponent obviously cannot stop both of them! I call this connecting two and two. The following are examples of connecting 2 and 2 (marked by a green circle).
[IMG]http://web.mit.edu/brokish/www/gobblet/gobblet1.bmp[/IMG]
[IMG]http://web.mit.edu/brokish/www/gobblet/gobblet2.bmp[/IMG]
[IMG]http://web.mit.edu/brokish/www/gobblet/gobblet3.bmp[/IMG]
There are two caveats. First, you generally have to use one of your biggest (size 4) pieces to connect 2 and 2 for a win. If you use a smaller one, then your opponent can gobble you at your beautiful cross-point, demoralizing your 2 and 2. This is important! It means that you must have a large piece free to connect the 2 and 2!
Second, there must not be any big opponent pieces in the two rows you are connecting. Obviously 3-in-a-row isn’t much of a threat if your opponent has a big one sitting in that fourth space—there’s no way for you to gobble it! This leads me to the next section.

The Trick to Seeing 2 and 2
It must seem daunting, trying to find two and two combinations on the board. The second point in the previous section actually restricts our view, though. The “open lanes” are defined by your opponent’s size 4 pieces. The following are some examples. The black circles represent the opponent’s size 4 pieces (we don’t care about the smaller ones because you can gobble them). The green lines represent the open lanes.
[IMG]http://web.mit.edu/brokish/www/gobblet/gobblet4.bmp[/IMG]
[IMG]http://web.mit.edu/brokish/www/gobblet/gobblet5.bmp[/IMG]
[IMG]http://web.mit.edu/brokish/www/gobblet/gobblet6.bmp[/IMG]
So place two pieces each in two of those open lanes, and then smack down one of your large pieces at the intersection for the win (as demonstrated in the previous section). Notice how there really aren’t too many lanes to look at—usually there are only two or three open lanes. In summary, look where your opponent’s size 4 pieces aren’t to determine the lanes you should build 2 and 2 on.
Remember your opponent will move before you do. Before being aggressive, be defensive: Look at your own size 4 pieces and determine the open lanes. If your opponent has 2 and 2, then you have to do something about it immediately—if you let them connect the two and two on their turn, they will win! Only after determining that the coast is clear should you look for the lanes determined by your opponent’s biggies where you can form 2 and 2 yourself.

Tried and True: The “Always Capture” Strategy
Always capture pieces that are one size smaller. Did your opponent just place a size 3 piece? Cover it with one of your size 4s! Does your opponent have a size 1 piece on the board? Cover it with the size 2 you played last turn! Even if you have to pull a piece away from an open lane, it’s worth it. By always capturing, you gobble your opponent’s pieces such that all they have left are smaller pieces than you have. Guess what that means! More gobbling in the future! At the end of the game you will have both more and larger pieces left, and it should be easy to win.

“Picture” Perfect Memory
The game certainly has a memory component to it. Here’s the trick. Imagine a 4-by-4 grid of lights. If one piece is covering another (either yours or your opponent’s), that light is lit up. See the pattern of lights in your head. What does it remind you of? An animal? A kite? A wagon missing a wheel? A summer day? A letter? Associate the pattern with that object. You can now even have a conversation with a bystander, and when your focus returns to the game, simply recall the object and you will remember the pattern of covered pieces. This technique works extraordinarily well—often I can recall the pattern of covered pieces hours after the game is finished. (And I have a poor memory in general!)
A good friend of mine uses a similar method, and he added something: squares with double and triple covered pieces are brighter in his mind’s eye than other squares with covered pieces.

Experimental Strategies
Good computers programs trap pieces that are covering others such that if the player lifts the covering piece, it creates a three-in-a-row, allowing the computer to win on its turn. This is a difficult strategy to master, but I believe it is an important one.
I have found that placing my size 4 pieces followed by my size 3 pieces allows my opponent to easily gobble my size 3 pieces. So I put on a size 4 then a size 3 then a size 2. My opponent is not as willing to cover the size 2 with one of his big guys because it is kind of a waste of a size 4 piece, isn’t it?
On that note, some computer programs use a “really-always capture” strategy. They will cover a size 1 piece with a size 4 piece if necessary. It is a risky move because you don’t want to let your size 4 get pinned there permanently—it would be much better if it were covering a size 3!

Conclusion
I hope that these tips send you on your way to Gobblet greatness. The most important thing to take away from this article is seeing 2 and 2 lanes as defined by size 4 pieces. Good luck!

Thread: Re: Gobblet - extended review

ddyer — 2007-05-28T19:57:20+00:00

I don't quite agree that the 3-cup-gobble rule is unnecessary.
I avoid 3's so my opponent doesn't have the opportunity to directly
gobble a newly placed cup. Either he has to effectively lose a turn
by moving an existing cup, or play elsewhere. The net effect is it
prevents the second player gaining a material advantage by simply
covering everything I play.

Without the rule, the first player could be severely disadvantaged
by the second player immediately gobbling whatever is played, using
the optimum "next larger" cup size.

Thread: Gobblet - extended review

Hypnoman — 2007-05-28T13:34:04+00:00

Game Review: Gobblet
Players: 2
Time: about 15-20 minutes

There have been many attempts to make noughts-and-crosses (or 'tick-tack-toe' if you're American) into a playable game. Most of them are played in three dimensions on a 4x4x4 board, but I can't visualise in 3-D well enough to be able to formulate tactics with any skill – maybe it's just the way my mind works. Anyway, for me 3-dimensional games like Connect-4, Sogo, and just plain 4x4x4 noughts-and-crosses don't work.

Go-Moku (five in a row on an infinite 2-D board) is better, but it has to be played with pencil and paper on a pre-drawn squared board, and for this reason it's not particularly addictive.
So I was really pleased to discover Gobblet, a version which works so well that I have been inspired to write this review and circulate it to friends who I think may be interested.

Gobblet is played in two dimensions on a 4x4 board, and the object is to get four of your pieces in a row, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. The twist is that once you have claimed a square as yours, it isn't necessarily yours for ever: your opponent can take it from you by capping ('gobbling') your piece with a larger one of his own.

Rules of the Game

The playing pieces are wooden cylindrical cups ('goblets') of four sizes. (My friends find it natural to use a delightfully hybrid nomenclature and refer to them as king, queen, jack, and pawn.) They are played mouth downwards, and any piece can completely cover a smaller piece.

Each player has twelve pieces, three of each size, and starts the game with three stacks of four (pawn inside jack inside queen inside king) off the board. Game play is totally straightforward: on your turn you move any piece, and you win if you get four in a row. (The formal rules expand to a page or so, but they only make explicit what is intuitive: you can't move a piece which is covered by another, you can't put a piece on top of a piece of equal or larger size, you can move a piece which is already on the board if you wish, four in a row means four visible pieces.)

There are only a couple of extra rules, one necessary and one apparently unnecessary:

If, in the course of your move, you expose four of your opponent's men in a row, you don't automatically forfeit the game. But if, at the end of your move, your opponent has four in a row, you lose even if the move gives you four in a row as well.

The unnecessary rule is this: you are not allowed to use a man from off the board to gobble one of your opponent's men unless your opponent has three in a row. Discussion with other players on the web suggests that this inelegant rule isn't needed, and nobody seems to play it.

Strategy and Tactics

With many new board games of this kind there is no inherent feel for strategy; in situations where there is no direct threat of an immediate win, it’s very hard to tell whether a move is ‘strong’ in any abstract sense.
Because of this, in a typical game there is a wide range of reasonable-looking moves from any given position, and very little to choose between them. Worse, it may take a while to see if a move is a blunder or not. Gobblet’s sister game, Quattro, suffers from this fault: checking that any of the dozen or so available moves is not an outright blunder takes up to half a minute per move, so any intelligent gameplay is tedious beyond belief.

But not so with Gobblet. A number of strategic goals are quickly discovered. Since you can’t get a line of four on a row where your opponent has a king, it’s very powerful to play on rows and columns where there are no kings. The strategic importance of kings on diagonals quickly becomes clear. So putting queens on non-diagonals to lure the opponent’s kings to the side-squares is important strategically, too. Should you play aggressively, with kings in a row, or defensively with kings spread across different rows and columns?

What Lies Beneath?

I suspect that played between two practised players the game could last quite some time, except that before long a new feature comes into play: memory. For the first ten minutes of a game, there’s nothing really to remember; at most one or two pieces will have been capped. But slowly, the pressure builds up.

By itself it’s not hard to remember what is under each goblet, but when you’re desperately concentrating on other aspects of tactics and strategy, working out whether you should block your opponent’s attack with a king or if a queen will do, and suddenly you’re not quite sure if there’s anything under that piece...

Aesthetics

Finally, there’s the look of the game. It’s nicely produced in wood, and very satisfying to play with. The board itself is a little cheap, but the differently sized men and the feel of the game are intriguing and beautiful. My girlfriend and I take it to play in cafés and we play for money: not on the game itself, but with a side-bet as to whether any passer-by will ask us about the game.

(The American set has the board incorporated into the lid of the wooden box the game comes in. I prefer the simplicity of the English version.)

Summary

Do I need a summary? You’ll have gathered that I’m very enthusiastic about the game, and recommend it wholeheartedly.

Thread: Picnic or beach use styrofoam cups

Fitzinnhacihts — 2007-05-08T05:36:19+00:00

If you visit a dollar store for supplies before going on a picnic or to the beach, you may want to buy 28 extra styrofoam cups. You will also need black and red Sharpie markers and a single edge razor blade. If available, buy the 6.4 oz. "Easy to Hold" cups made by Dart Container Corp. They have graduated size rings around the cups which make excellent guides for trimming cups level to desired sizes. Cut-down 8 cups to 3/4 size and 6 cups each to 1/2, and 1/4 sizes. Make six upside-down nestled stacks of the these cups (two extra 3/4 size cups are for Quarto game). Cover each stack with a full size overturned cup. If you are not using these cups for other games, mark an "X" on the bottom of each cup in three of the stacks for one player, or one team, and an "O" on cups in the other 3 stacks. If other games will also be played with these cups, see below for suitable manner to mark all cups.

You now have the means to play Gobblet. Other games (e.g. Tic-tac-toe, Nim, Dao, etc) may also be played with these cups. Print all rules of games you wish to play before leaving your home computer.

To play Quarto, mark in red, half the full size and half the 3/4 size cups with a large square, a small square, a large circle, and a small circle. Then mark the other half of the same sizes the same way, but in black. The eight Quarto characteristics for cups are tall or shorter cups, red or black color, squares or circles, large or small designs. Add a 1/4" band of their bottom color around each cup, just below their rims. For Tic-Tac-Chec game, three of the 1/2 size cups are marked in red with a X, B, or K and the other three cups are marked the same, but in black. Three of the 1/4 size cups have red letters X, R, and P^. The other three have black letters. Letters denote Bishops, Kings, Rooks, and Pawns. (Pawns move up and down the grid, the arrow is to show their current direction). Red and black X's are only to show color of cup. A Tic-tac-Doh win is by matching cup color, not by size of pyramids.

Thread: Re: Gobblet – a game for everybody

Nissania — 2007-03-29T19:26:36+00:00

yeah, it's a fun game. really a step up from tic-tac-toe, it hurts your head trying to figure out what your opponent will do next.

Thread: [Review] Gobblet

TomVasel — 2007-02-22T00:21:36+00:00

After my review of the Out of the Box game CoverUp, I was deluged by comments and emails that pointed me to Gobblet (Blue-Orange Games, 2001 – Thierry Denoual), a game that was remarkably similar. Some even went as far as to say that CoverUp was a clear copy of the original game – something I’m not certain of, or even really care about. I actually received a copy of both games within a short time frame of each other; and after a few plays, immediately enjoyed CoverUp more.

However, having played Gobblet more than a dozen times since, I find that it is growing on me to become one of my treasured short but tactical abstract games. With extremely high production standards and a quick playing time Gobblet takes the idea of Tic-Tac-Toe, adds a bit of memory to it and produces a fascinating game that I can play time and time again.

A board that consists of a four by four grid is placed on the table, and each player takes twelve gobblets in four sizes – placed in three stacks with the largest covering the next largest, etc. One player is chosen to go first, and then play alternates between the players. On a player’s turn, they may
- choose one of their gobblets from the TOP of one of their stacks, placing it on any empty space.
- move one of their gobblets on the board to any other empty space.
- move one of their gobblets on the board to gobble a smaller gobblet of either color on the board.
- choose one of their gobblets from the TOP of one of their stacks to “gobble” a smaller gobblet on the board – however this may only be done if the opponent has three gobblets in a row.

Gameplay continues until one player gets four of their gobblets in a row – at which point they win the game. When a player touches a piece on the board, they MUST move it, because ofttimes they will reveal a piece – perhaps a piece from the other player underneath. If a player uncovers an opponent’s piece that gives them four in a row, their opponent will win unless the player can place the touched piece in another spot to stop the row of four. Draws are also possible if players do three identical moves in a row.

Some comments on the game…

1.) Components: Gobblet is a real work of art, coming in a wooden box with a lid that is actually the game board. The gobblets themselves are “white” and “black” according to the rules, although in reality it’s different shades of wood color. The gobblets easily fit around each other – with the smallest simply being a cylinder of wood. The entire setup looks really good and would make a nice coffee table display. All the pieces are quite large and easy to handle.

2.) Rules: The rules come on a single large sheet in two-toned color, quickly and easily explaining the game. There are examples and illustrations, as well as notes on play to cover all situations. The game is extremely easy to teach – anyone who’s played any kind of “x-in-a-row” type games will have no problem at all. The only rule that is slightly unusual is the ability to “gobble” a gobblet when the opponent has three in a row. This happens rarely, however, as most wins are accomplished by a player placing one of the two middle spots.

3.) Memory: The game heavily relies on a player remembering which gobblets they have covered up with their pieces. This seems easy at first, but pieces are moved around quite a bit, and the penalty for forgetting is often the game. Some people might object to this element in the game; and I can understand that it might detract from the experience, although I found it great fun. Many times I’ve been in a position where the opponent has three in a row, and I need to block with a piece on the board; but I can’t remember what is under each of my pieces. This creates a neat tension that would be annoying in a long game, but thrilling in a short one.

4.) Time: One of the best features of Gobblet is how quickly it plays. Players can knock off a game in about ten minutes – longer if they agonize over their choices, shorter if a player makes a foolish move. Still, a quick game nonetheless – it’s always nice to have an abstract game that can be explained and played within fifteen minutes.

5.) Fun Factor and Strategy: For me, the enjoyable aspect of the game is the variety of moves a player has even within the confines of the sixteen spaces of the game. Because gobblets can cover each other up, players have more strategic moves than they might suspect – even covering up your own piece is a neat idea, if uncovering it later on in a game can surprise your opponent. Quick, fast gameplay, memory elements and more combine to make this a very enjoyable experience.

6.) CoverUp: I have to compare the two games, since they are awfully similar. At first, I was prepared to say that CoverUp was the better game, since it had more restricted movement and a large board. But Gobblet has a better level of tension (not to mention nicer components). I’m not sure that it’s worth owning both of them, although I could live with either one. But in the final decision I’d have to go with Gobblet, even though the price point is certainly higher.

Gobblet is a nice looking game, with short, simple gameplay that masks a decent amount of strategy. Tic-Tac-Toe this is not, as players who come in flippantly will find themselves decimated by a careful, wiser opponent. Some people may not like the memory element – and indeed, if you don’t you should probably steer away – but for those who like a game that really meets the requirements of “a minute to learn, a lifetime to master”, then this one certainly meets the requirements.

Tom Vasel
“Real men play board games”
www.thedicetower.com

Thread: Re: Gobblet – a game for everybody

KingCroc — 2006-12-09T00:06:07+00:00

I've had Goblet for a few years, and only a couple of months ago did I actually sit down and play it. Very fun game. Short strategy game in the tradition of Connect Four and Mancala. Easy to teach, quick to play, worthwhile game. Good review.

Thread: Gobblet – a game for everybody

filwi — 2006-12-08T18:12:11+00:00

Neither Memory nor Tick-Tack-Toe, Gobblet is a little bit of both. Or rather, it's Tick-Tack-Toe with the ability to take over your opponents pieces, but that ability gives the game a deceptive depth. Gobblet looks easy – until you realize you actually lost four moves ago. But your opponent may have missed that opportunity and you might still wiggle out of it. It's worth a shot…

Gobblet, in the Gigamic version, comes with a solid wooden board and cut, round wooden goblets in four sizes. The wood feels good to hold but not as solid and organic as in other Gigamic games.

Each player starts with their twelve goblets in three stacks like Russian babushka dolls, the kind where you open one to find a smaller one inside. Starting with the largest, you place the goblets from the stacks on to the board. Once on the board you may "gobble" smaller goblets, both the opponent's and your own, with larger ones. After a while the board gets filled up with goblets within goblets within goblets.

Remembering which goblet lies hidden where is key to winning. You need to fill a row, column or diagonal with your goblets to win, but moving a goblet exposes any goblet it has previously gobbled. So you might find yourself removing a goblet for the win only to discover that you'll leave an entire row to the opponent (making him win) – and once touched the goblet may not be put back.

Anyone, from small children to their grandparents, can play Gobblet with equal enjoyment. The box recommends a starting age of 7 years old but with a little bit of teaching younger children can play, and excel at, Gobblets. So if you're strapped for a gift to a family with children, Gobblets is a safe bet – unless they already own it, of course.

Thread: Multiple games played back to back

FranklinT — 2006-09-17T04:12:55+00:00

Gobblet is such an easy game to pull out while everyone is still deciding what to do. The first two games were with me against my 13 year old cousin. The first game was insanely quick. I basically blocked my cousin a couple of times when she had three in a row, and she missed my diagnol 3-in-a-row, giving me the easy 4-in-a-row vitory.

In the second game, still me and my younger cousin, we went pretty much back and fourth blocking eachother's moves for some time. It finally got to the point that I decided to try to play the game on a slightly higher level (this is more than tic-tac-toe afterall). So I essentially left my line of 3 alone and started working in another direction. Much to my delight, I ended up putting my cousin in a situation where she had to keep covering my pieces. She got to the point where she couldn't remember what pieces were under what. I forced her into finding out what was under her pieces a few times, and I finally came up with a diaganol three in a row which I was pretty sure she wasn't even paying attention to (because her mind was on what was under all her pieces). Sure enough, I finally got the 4-in-a-row victory after many sneaky moves (most of which I can not recall, but I'm sure they were sneaky!:ninja:).

Final game was me against my older cousin (18). Unfortunately, I can not remember much about this final game because we were all finally figuring out what we wanted to do, and everyone was talking. I do know I lost the game and felt like an idiot.

I think it's pretty cool that there's a game you can play 3 times while you're just sitting around trying to decide what to do! This is a great game to keep sitting on the coffee table all the time, but it's not just a "coffee table game." I need to write a review for this game, but thumbs up in the mean time!

Thread: Re: game balance

ddyer — 2006-05-22T07:23:48+00:00

I also would refute this, based on a few games against my new robot
at boardspace.net

A strong opening strategy is to play biggest gobblets, and immediately
gobble any smaller gobblets that are played. This creates a mature
opening with all six big gobblets deployed, each concealing a smaller
gobblet of the opposite color. Neither player can achieve or maintain
a strong attack in the opening if either player follows this strategy.

Thread: Re: Smell

zman44 — 2006-03-20T21:30:02+00:00

Gecko23 wrote:
Nothing odd about it, the pieces and the board are painted after all. (Varnished to be more accurate, but still the same deal chemically.)

Its just solvent fumes, leave it cracked open and it'll fade pretty quickly.

If you want a powerful solvent reek, crack open a new copy of 'Railroad Tycoon'. :yuk:

Well the thing is that I got the game for Christmas in 2005. The smell is still there.:yuk:

Thread: Re: Smell

wmshub — 2006-03-06T06:25:51+00:00

Yes, any piece of wood that is varnished, stained, or painted then put into a shrinkwrapped (or even just well closed) box will come out smelling like the varnish, stain, or paint that was used.

I'd like to add that some combinations of wood and finish can actually smell good. I have a set of medium-to-high-end go bowls, and for the first couple of years, every time that I pulled them out of the box they smelled so good that I would just sit there and sniff them during the game. I think that the wood was mulberry, but I'm not sure if the odor was from mostly the wood (with a mostly-scentless varnish) or from the finish, or a mix of both. It was just great though!

Thread: Re: Smell

Gecko23 — 2006-03-06T04:23:59+00:00

Nothing odd about it, the pieces and the board are painted after all. (Varnished to be more accurate, but still the same deal chemically.)

Its just solvent fumes, leave it cracked open and it'll fade pretty quickly.

If you want a powerful solvent reek, crack open a new copy of 'Railroad Tycoon'. :yuk:

Thread: Smell

zman44 — 2006-03-06T02:32:13+00:00

The pieces I have for gobblet smell like paint. It is really odd, but it is true. Does anybody else have paint scented pieces?:what:

Thread: X-treme Tic-tac-toe (i.e. Gobblet)

zman44 — 2006-03-05T10:57:55+00:00

Gobblet is like tic-tac-toe, but with many more strategic moves and a funny concept on how you "gobble" other players pieces. Game play goes like this. On a players turn, they can do one of these three choices.

Choice A, Adding: The player may take a piece off one of their three piles and place it on any space on the board that does not have a piece on it. You have 3 piles of pieces, each with the biggest piece on outside and the smallest piece in the middle. This means that every time you take off a piece from that pile, the next piece you take off from that pile will be smaller than the last one. People work around this rule by simply choosing from a different pile. It is always easier to use a bigger piece because it is harder to "gobble" it. I will explain gobbling later. The pieces in gobblet are hollow cylinders that have no bottom. The pieces vary in size, which means that the bigger cylinders can hold smallers cylinders within them. One player has blacks pieces, while the other player has white.

Choice B, Moving: This is the most simple choice you can make. All the player has to do is move one of their pieces that is already on the field to any free space next to the space they were on before (and yes, you can move diaganoly.)

Choice C, Gobbling: To gobble, all a player has to do is overlap an opponent's piece with a piece that is bigger than your opponent's piece. Note: If your opponents piece is bigger than or equal to your piece's size, it can not gobble that piece.

Players switch turns, doing one of the steps each time, until one person gets four of their pieces in a row (or diaganoly.) Then that person wins! Instead of a 3x3 board in tic-tac-toe, Gobblet has a 4x4 board, thus taking it an extra piece to win the game. Gobblet is a very strategic tic-tac-toe game with lots of added features. The one thing I love about this game is that there are hardly any ties! I would rate this game 10/10 or a 9.5/10 because I like very strategic games.

Thanks for reading! :D

Thread: Gobblet and Multiple Intelligences

sdonohue — 2006-02-08T22:15:33+00:00

Gobblet combines tic-tac-toe mechanics with an element of memory. It’s a fun game that practically demands a replay.
Components
My version is the wooden box and the components are great. The pieces are smooth and nicely finished with a comfortable heft to them. They are pretty resilient as mine have withstood the challenge of several scout camps with no apparent damage. Each player has 3 each of 4 different sized pieces. The smallest pieces are solid and the others are made with a hole large enough to “gobble” any smaller piece.

Game Play
The play is pretty simple. You place your pieces on the board one at a time attempting to get 4 in a row while preventing your opponent from doing the same. The tricky part is that you can move your existing pieces to cover smaller pieces. Once you touch a piece on the board you are committed and must move that piece. This aspect of the game is what makes people want to play again – frequently your opponent doesn’t win so much as you lose by revealing the piece that gives him the win.

Intelligences
For an explanation see: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/786097
Logical-Mathematical
Planning is definitely valuable in this game and players who can develop and follow a strategy have a clear advantage. Like many abstracts, this game mixes logical and spatial intelligences.
Spatial
This game relies heavily on being able to visualize the outcome and to remember the position of previous pieces. Those who can “see” what will happen have a clear advantage.

Age Appropriateness
This game is appropriate for children of all ages although younger children may not do very will with the memory aspect of it.

Overall
This is a fun and engaging game and it makes a perfect “fire and forget” game – you can teach the rules in about two minutes and players can then teach them to others without losing too much in translation. Definitely a worthwhile addition to any abstract collection.

Thread: Re: Gobblet review

freezing chicken — 2006-01-26T20:26:27+00:00

andyl wrote:
freezing chicken wrote:
similiar to X and O game (darn don't know the english name for it :soblue:. the gmae that you neeed to put three X or O in a row....).

In English that game is called noughts and crosses - however the Americans call it tic-tac-toe.

i'll note that for myself, thanks

Thread: Re: Gobblet review

andyl — 2006-01-26T19:56:50+00:00

freezing chicken wrote:
similiar to X and O game (darn don't know the english name for it :soblue:. the gmae that you neeed to put three X or O in a row....).

In English that game is called noughts and crosses - however the Americans call it tic-tac-toe.

Thread: Gobblet review

freezing chicken — 2006-01-26T13:54:19+00:00

gobblet is a nice light game. the box, board and pieces all made of wood aqnd are good qaulity. gobblet is a very short game that some times can take 5 mintues up to 10 minutes if the game is very slow. gobblet similiar to X and O game (darn don't know the english name for it :soblue:. the gmae that you neeed to put three X or O in a row....). the object is to put 4 of your units (Gobblets) in an horizontally or vertically in a row with nothing between them.

in your turn you may eithe move a gobblet, "eat" a gobblet or place a gobblet. at the start each player have 3 "decks" of gobblets and in each deck here are 4 diffrent sizes of gobblets. bigger gobblets may eat smaller gobblets. in each of your deck you have to put your bigger gobblet before the smaller gonlets becuase they are placed on to of each other so to reveal smaller gobblets you must first play the bigger gobblets. you can put from any deck a gobblet druing your turn. the last option you have is to move a gobblet horizontally or vertically but not diagonally.

the game is quite light and very short as i said in the start. it is nice to have light game at home and somtimes it's fun to spend half a hour playing this game scoring points when ever you win. there is basic strategy in the game that i find help me with idffrent game to think logicly.

Thread: Re: "Gobbling" with pieces out of the board

Demarryl — 2005-12-23T18:59:46+00:00

All those examples are three in a row and allow you to bring a piece off the board to cover.

Thread: Gobble :)

B_J_S — 2005-12-21T11:19:18+00:00

This game I bought on a sale a while ago for only $10. I thought it looked nice, and a game that could be sitting on the table with its good looking wood pieces.

My wife asked if we couldn't try the game, as she was intrigued by it.

We sat down and read the rules. Quite easy. Get four in a row basically.
But the twist is that you can cover up yours or your opponents’ pieces. Which make it into some sort of memory game too.

As the game continued I, or maybe so more my wife, found out that the biggest pieces are good to use as blockers, because they can cover all other type of pieces.
So there is both a strategic as a tactical way to play this. Loosely meant. Together with keeping track on which piece are covered where and on which level, as there is four different sizes on the pieces.

My wife wiped me good on the first three games. I won the last one. Maybe she was just nice to me. :kiss:

Hmm, this game is going to see more actions in the future. A short and yet funny game.

//Jonas

Thread: "Gobbling" with pieces out of the board

megamau — 2005-09-13T12:36:23+00:00

Hello.

The rules of the Gigamic version state that you can enter your piece on a not-empty square only if your opponent has three in a row.
The questions are....

The three in a row must be "free" or also something like this counts ?

.X. ... ... ...
... .X. ... ...
... ... .X. ...
... ... ... .O.

Can the O player gobble with one of the outboard pieces ?
And can he gobble any piece on the board or just the ones in the line, or just the X in the line ?

And what about something like this ?

.X. ... ... ...
... .X. ... ...
... ... ... ...
... ... ... .X.

Is this still a line of three ?
And this ?

.X. ... ... ...
... .X. ... ...
... ... .O. ...
... ... ... .X.

Thanks to everybody.
Ciao

Thread: Gobblet - Session Report

gschloesser — 2005-06-01T04:48:15+00:00

I was contacted by the folks at Blue Orange games, asking me if I'd be interested in reviewing some of their games. I visited their website, but the games all appeared to be targeted for young children. Since I don't normally have the opportunity to play games with younger children, I replied, thanking them for thinking of me, but declining the offer. However, they suggested that I review Gobblet!, a game they claimed was more strategy oriented and targeted for adults. So, with some degree of skepticism, I agreed.

Gobblet is a 2-player, abstract strategy game wherein players attempt to get four of their pieces in a row. The goal is nothing original, but the game itself is quite novel. Why? Well, the pieces nest together, sort of like those Russian nesting dolls. When placing these pieces to the board, players can cover smaller pieces that have previously been placed on the board. Further, they can move pieces already on the board, but this can uncover previously covered pieces. This adds an entirely new dimension to the game and makes it quite intriguing.

The first thing I should mention is the attractiveness of the components, board and case. Everything is made of wood and it is quite fetching. The wooden box doubles as the game board, and everything fits snuggly inside. It is an impressive set and is one of those games that you can leave on your coffee table as a household decoration.

The rules to the game are extremely simple. On his turn, a player may place one of pieces onto the board, or move one of pieces already on the board to a new location. A player is allowed to cover a previously placed piece provided the new piece is larger and fits over the other piece. That's it. When a player manages to get four of his pieces in a row, orthogonally or diagonally, he wins. A typical game can be played in 5 – 10 minutes.

As mentioned, the ability to cover ("gobble", in game parlance!) other pieces, as well as uncover them when moving a piece, is what gives the game its novel appeal. Players must properly manage their off-board pieces to make sure they have some larger pieces available to cover their opponent's pieces and thereby halt threatening situations. As mentioned, moving a previously placed piece is not without its dangers, as it will uncover a previously "gobbled" piece. As such, it is important to remember which pieces may be hidden.
Truth be told, Gobblet is a game that I wouldn't have given a second glance if I had spotted it on the shelf of a retail store. After having played many times, however, I'm very happy the manufacturer brought this little gem to my attention.

Keith and I played three matches, with Keith besting me 2 games to 1. Later, Matt and Alwyn also played a match, with Matt reaching the goal of 4 pieces in a row.

Thread: User Review

Major Dallas — 2005-04-29T18:55:39+00:00

Gobblet is a quick, fun, 2-player game suitable for virtually all ages.

It is similar to Go Moku (aka "quick five") and tic-tac-toe, in that black and white pieces are moved in a grid in an attempt to get so many in a row. In Gobblet, the grid is four-by-four and your goal is to get four in a row.

The 'twist' in Gobblet is that the pieces 'nest' or 'stack'. So, each player has three small, three medium, three large, and three x-large pieces at their disposal. Any larger piece can "gobble" any smaller piece on the board. You can gobble your own pieces. And you are even allowed to move your pieces that have already been placed on the board--either moving to another empty space, or "gobbling" another piece. These differences in game play make this a slightly longer game than Go Moku or tic-tac-toe, where the outcome is less obvious as each player "ungobbles" and "regobbles" to adjust to new and changing threats.

Components. Simple but nice wooden pieces, with a wooden case that doubles as both storage box and playing board by simply turning over the top of the box. Excellent quality.

Rules. A single, one-sided sheet clearly states the rules and provides illustrated examples.

Fun factor. This is a really fun game. It is more strategic in nature than Go Moku or tic-tac-toe (because of the ability to move pieces and to "gobble" and "ungobble"), but not dauntingly so. We find that it gets played often if we just leave it out on the coffee table, and even by players of widely varying age groups (for instance, Grandpa vs. grandson). Not to mention that it's just plain fun and silly to "gobble" a piece on the board!

(Note: This is my first-ever review here at the 'Geek--so I would welcome any and all suggestions on how to improve the quality and style of my reviews to make them more helpful. Thanks in advance.)

Thread: Re:Blue Orange rule change?

pmboos — 2005-04-17T11:43:27+00:00

jeffcarey (#86921),

OK - I just got the Blue-Orange version at a thrift store. Considering the conditions that have to be set-up, I think allowing the covering of a third piece should be allowed and can't see it altering game play much.

My question is - is this how the rules are in the Gigamic version? Why did you say the original rule is appropriate?

Thread: Re:Blue Orange rule change?

jeffcarey — 2005-02-17T23:19:26+00:00

Dingus (#47551),

I think the original rule is appropriate. Moving a piece onto the board improves a player's position, as does covering an opponent's piece with a piece already on the board. Allowing a player to do both in a single move is too much power for one action, in my opinion.

Jeff

Thread: Re:game balance

cjm46543 — 2004-10-29T18:34:50+00:00

faidutti (#7211),

I haven't played enough Gobblet to know if it's true that the game is unbalanced as written. Mathematically, however, your proposed solution makes no sense. The four middle squares are mathematically identical to the four corner squares. Making the first play on a middle square is, strategy-wise, the same as making the first play on a corner square. Your solution only works if you force the first player to play on a non-corner edge square.

Thread: Gobblet Junior

Dingus — 2004-08-01T04:59:42+00:00

There is also a junior version of Gobblet that has brightly colored pieces and the players only have to get three in a row, not four.

Thread: Blue Orange rule change?

Dingus — 2004-08-01T04:58:23+00:00

A guy from Blue Orange Games did a demo at our gameshop today. He said he always ignores the rule stating "A piece being played from off the board may not cover an opponent's piece unless it is in a row where your opponent has three of his color." I don't know if the designer approved this but the Blue Orange rep (Rueben, from France)says it doesn't affect gameplay. He beat us all, of course. He also showed their next game which is a wooden-piece memory game that was fun.

Thread: game balance

faidutti — 2003-03-27T13:24:52+00:00

With the actual rules, the game is broken. If the first player makes no memory or strategy error, he must win since he always has the initiative. The problem, however, is easy to fix with the following rule:

The first player cannot play his first pawn in one of the four central squares.

This makes for a balanced game - and a fun one.