Game: IceTowers

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Annagul — 2008-03-04T10:43:46+00:00

Thread: Re: Climbing to new heights with Icehouse

Annagul — 2007-11-30T19:11:55+00:00

Gnomekin wrote:

Mining: If you have two pieces in a tower and you’re not the one on top, you can remove one of those two pieces and place it somewhere else, although you’re not allowed to put it on top of the tower it just came from.

I have tried to find a explanation of this rule on Lonney Labs web page, but I haven't found it. Anyway, BGG is a good place for that, I think :-). So, here we go:

With all the 'Mining' conditions, can I remove a own piece if it is next to another piece of the same color? I know this is the condition for 'Splitting', and I cannot split my own pieces to create two towers, but I want to remove my piece which is next to another of the same color. Of course, the 'No Mineback' rule and the other conditions about 'mining' must be fulfilled.

Thank you.

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garea37 — 2007-05-24T08:06:32+00:00

Middle play in Feria Jugar x Jugar 2007 - Granollers - Spain

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garea37 — 2007-05-24T08:02:20+00:00

Just to begin the game... - Feria Jugar x Jugar 2007 - Granollers - Spain

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BigWoo — 2007-03-10T21:28:07+00:00

IceTowers (box cover)

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Yugblad — 2006-11-18T01:12:48+00:00

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Yugblad — 2006-11-18T01:00:43+00:00

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Yugblad — 2006-11-18T00:49:48+00:00

Thread: 4-Player with teams

jhliu — 2006-09-03T18:16:37+00:00

I like to use IceTowers to introduce people to IceHouse games because it's light and quick to teach. While teaching some friends last night, one player wondered if we could try teams, and it made for an interesting game.

Gameplay still follows all the basic rules; the only difference is that you combine scores for the towers owned by a team. So, for example, Red and Green are a team, and Blue and Yellow are a team.

It doesn't affect what you're allowed to cap, mine, or split, but it does have an effect on which towers you want to cap, and sometimes splitting your teammate's pyramid can help both of you.

I've only played this way once so far, but it added a little variety.

Thread: Climbing to new heights with Icehouse

Gnomekin — 2006-08-19T22:00:28+00:00

Icehouse was originally a single game, not a gaming system. Since then, dozens of games have been developed using these little pyramids. Many of them, at least in my less than humble opinion, are better games than the original Icehouse game. Icehouse does have some interesting elements, though, including the fact that it doesn’t use a board, only a space, and it is a turnless game.

Ice Towers shares these characteristics. However, Ice Towers has a simpler, less fiddly rule system, making it a much more accessible game to teach and to play.

Ice Towers is an abstract strategy game without any kind of back story. Even chess has more theme than Ice Towers, not that that’s a big deal with an abstract. The goal is to earn the most points by claiming the most valuable towers on the playing field.

Ice Towers is played with Icehouse pieces, which are cute little stackable pyramids sold by Loony Labs. Each player will need a cache of Icehouse pieces in their own color. A cache is made up of fifteen pyramids: five large pyramids, five medium pyramids and five small pyramids. The pyramids are all hollow, which makes them stackable, a key feature in this game.

In theory, you could place Ice Towers with as many players as you had caches. However, it is best to play with two to four players. Otherwise, the playing area can get too big and too busy.

You start a game by scattering all of the players’ pieces out on the playing area, making sure that all of the pieces are upright. In many Icehouse games, the orientation of the pieces can be very important. In Ice Towers, all of the pyramids are upright and are going to remain that way.

As mentioned before, there are no turns in Ice Towers. Every player is playing at the same time. You can do one of three things. You can cap, mine and split. You can only use one hand at a time, except for mining, which requires two hands, really. This isn’t for any dexterity reason but to make sure each player is only doing one move at a time.

Capping: You cap by placing one of your own pieces on top of a piece of a different piece. You cannot cap one of your own pieces and you cannot cap a smaller piece. You can cap a piece of the same size, though.

Mining: If you have two pieces in a tower and you’re not the one on top, you can remove one of those two pieces and place it somewhere else, although you’re not allowed to put it on top of the tower it just came from.

Splitting: If two pieces, which are not your own, are right on top of each other on a tower, you can split that tower in two right at that location. Two pieces being next to each other like that can only come about through mining, by the way.

The games ends when all players agree that there are no more possible move. At that point, you tote up the scores. You score all of the pyramids in each tower where you have the top piece. Icehouse pieces are conveniently pipped. Large pyramids have three pips; medium pyramids have two pips, and small pyramids have one pip. Count up your pips and that’ll be your score.

Despite the fact that it is played without turns, Ice Towers isn’t a particularly fast paced game. It is more of a calm, methodical game, where you are waiting for your opponents to give you openings while you do your best to limit the openings you give them. The simple rules open up a lot of different play possibilities.

I personally find Ice Towers to be an enjoyable play. It is an abstract game with perfect information and no random elements. However, it is light enough to not be too mentally taxing while complex enough to make me think.

Ice Towers takes a number of unconventional ideas, such as a play area that the players define and a turnless game, and makes them very accessible. It makes good use of the unique nature of Icehouse pieces. It’s also a pretty good game.

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dturnerfish — 2006-01-21T22:26:06+00:00

Backside of box with instructions

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dturnerfish — 2006-01-21T22:23:07+00:00

Contents of IceTowers

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Wren — 2005-08-24T12:33:53+00:00

Setting up for a game of large size IceTowers in the Looney Lab Little Experiment area at GenCon 2005.