Gipf project

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Kris Burm at the Tzaar game

The Gipf Project is a series of seven abstract strategy board games for two people by Kris Burm .

General

The Gipf project consists of seven games:

  • Gipf (1997)
  • Zèrtz (2000)
  • Dvonn (2002)
  • Yinsh (2003)
  • Point (2005)
  • Tzaar (2007)
  • Lyngk (2017)

In addition, the game Tamsk is related to the Gipf project and until 2007 was the sixth (chronologically the second) game in place of Tzaar .

Although each game can be played separately from the others, Gipf is the central element of the project. Each of the other games brings so-called potentials . These are game pieces that allow a special move in Gipf and can be played in the other games. So Gipf can be played in many different versions.

All games are abstract and completely free of random elements. All playing fields are based on a hexagonal geometry with play along the three main axes. The games themselves are not thematically integrated. In the context of the project, however, the games are "The Game" (Gipf) , "The Human Spirit" (Pünct) , and the four elements "Fire" (Dvonn) , "Water" (Zèrtz) , "Earth" ( Tzaar , formerly Tamsk ) and "air" (Yinsh) assigned. However, this is only expressed in the design of the game boxes.

The games from the Gipf project are very popular with lovers of abstract board games and have mostly received very good reviews from game critics right from the start, for example Yinsh after Puerto Rico and the seafaring expansion for The Settlers of Catan in the specialist magazine spielbox received the third best Overall grade of all time (9.67 out of 10). Clubs have been founded around the world and tournaments are held for each game (also over the Internet ). Despite the outstanding position of the game Gipf in the project, the games Yinsh and Dvonn have established themselves as the most successful individual games.

In 2007 Tzaar replaced the game Tamsk from 1999. The latter was perceived by players as "not suitable for the series" due to its independence previously in the project (use of hourglasses as game pieces with the resulting direct time pressure) and is now an independent game , no longer sold as an integral part of the GIPF project. In 2017, Lyngk was the seventh game in the Gipf series.

The name was given by searching for "interesting" sounding monosyllabic words with five letters ( Gipf as the "mother's game" has a conscious special role here). In addition to Gipf, the games played through the vowels “a”, “e”, “i”, “o”, “u”. However, the individual names have no particular further meaning, only Pünct is based on the German word "Punkt".

Gypsum

Game situation Gipf

The game board from Gipf is hexagonal and consists of a geometric pattern of intersecting lines. The intersections of the lines serve as playing fields. There are 18 white and 18 black pieces. As Gipf-stone is called two stacked stones.

One player plays with the white pieces, the other with the black pieces. You win if your opponent has either no more game pieces in stock or no gipf piece in play.

In the first move you position a gip stone on the edge of the playing field and push it along a line into the playing field - but only up to the first intersection. If a token is brought into play in the following course of the game, you can either move it into the field as you did on the first move, or place it on an already occupied field. In the latter case, the previous stone must be pushed away along a line - if you move it back onto an already occupied space, you also have to move this stone further and so on. Gipf stones can be brought into play until you have played the first individual stone.

It is important to note that a piece that is already in play cannot be moved independently. It can only be postponed as a result of placing a new stone. A stone must never slip out of the playing field when the stones are backed.

As soon as a player has created a line of four stones of his color, these stones and all that form a direct continuation of the line are removed from the board. Those of your own color are returned to the supply, those of your opponent are removed from the game. The peculiarity of Gipf ™ stones over single stones is that they do not have to be removed from the game, even if they are part of a line. If you remove them anyway, you can no longer bring them back into the game as a plaster stone, but have to separate them into the two individual parts.

The potentials serve as an extension of the game and a link to the other games in the Gipf Project. Potentials are stones that become charged stones on a base stone and have special abilities. Before you can use this ability in the game, the game that has the name of the potential is played first. He may only take the action if you have won. If you want to shorten it, you can flip a coin. The type of potentials used and the number are agreed in advance. As a rule, 3 to 6 potentials of each type are used per player, so that a total of 12 to 15 potentials are available per player. Potential comes into play after the gypsum stones. As soon as the first base stone is played, no more potentials may enter the game. There are the following potentials: Tamsk / Tzaar potential: as soon as you are in the center of the game board, an additional move can be made. Zertz potential: you can jump over other stones. Dvonn potential: can jump onto a stone Lines are placed on the free field. Point potential: neutralizes a peak stone and another point potential. Point potential: only if all 5 other potentials are also played, so-called ultimate peak game. Can create plaster stones

Awards and nominations

Gipf was nominated for the Belgian Toy Award , was on the shortlist for Game of the Year 1998 and won the 1998 Best Abstract Game award in the United States (awarded by Game magazine).

Zèrtz

Zèrtz game situation

The Zèrtz playing field consists of 37 black, slightly curved discs with a small hole in the middle and which are pushed together to form a hexagon at the beginning of the game. The side lengths are each four rings. The rest of the game material consists of nine black, seven gray and five white balls (or 10, 8 and 6 balls in the tournament rule).

The players take turns taking turns. In one move you either bring a new ball onto the field and then immediately remove one of the black discs on the edge, or you hit one of the balls and may take it out of the game. Balls are hit by jumping over them with another ball that is right next to it. It is important to note that there is a compulsion to hit . So if you have the opportunity to hit a ball, you have to do that. With the placement of new balls and the associated removal of discs, the playing field becomes smaller and smaller and there is the possibility of isolating groups of balls from the rest of the playing field. If a player succeeds in doing this, he may remove all isolated balls from the game.

The winner is the player who first removed three white, four gray, five black or two balls of each color from the game (or 4, 5, 6 or 3 of each color in the tournament rule).

Awards and nominations

Zèrtz was nominated for Best Two-Player Game at the Gamer's Choice Awards , was on the shortlist for Game of the Year 2000, won Best Abstract Game (awarded by Game magazine) and a Top 5 in the United States Award of the Mensa Select .

Dvonn

Game situation Dvonn

The game board by Dvonn shows an elongated hexagon, which is divided by geometric lines and fields at the intersections. The game is played with 23 white, 23 black and 3 red Dvonn game pieces, also called life pieces .

At the beginning of the game the three red Dvonn pieces are placed. Then the two players alternately place their white and black stones. In the next phase, the stones are stacked on the board by moving them. A single stone can be moved one space in any direction, two stacked stones two spaces, three stacked stones three spaces, etc. A stack must always be moved as a unit and must not leave the playing field. If a pile no longer has contact with one of the red Dvonn tokens via adjacent piles or stones, it is removed from the game. The owner is the player whose color the top piece shows. Whoever has the most stones in stacks he controls at the end wins.

Awards and nominations

Dvonn was shortlisted for Game of the Year 2002 and was nominated for Best Game of All Categories in the United States in 2003.

Yinsh

Game situation Yinsh

Yinsh appeared as the fifth game in the series, but counts as the sixth and final game in the series count as game writer Kris Burm found the resemblance between Yinsh and Gipf a great way to complete the circle.

The game material consists of five white and five black rings and 51 round pieces that are white on one side and black on the other. On the board there is a geometric pattern made up of intersecting lines. The intersections serve as playing fields. In the first phase of the game, the players take turns placing the rings of their color on any line intersection. Then the actual game begins. On each turn, a player places a token with his color face up in one of his rings and then moves the ring along one of the adjacent lines. If stones are jumped over, you turn them over (even those in your own color!) And place the ring on the first free field behind the jumped stones. Own and opposing rings may not be skipped.

As soon as a player has created a row of five stones of the same color, he may and must take the row of stones from the board, the player of the corresponding color then takes one of his rings from the board. If a player has been able to remove three rings from the game, he has won, if there are no more pieces in play and therefore no more moves are possible, the player who has been able to remove more rings from the game up to this point or who has been able to take the The game ends in a draw.

Awards and nominations

In 2004, Yinsh was shortlisted for Game of the Year, and in 2005 it was nominated for Best Abstract Strategy Game of the Year in the United States . The Game magazine chose it as Best Abstract Game of the Year .

Point

Game situation punctually

In October 2005, the sixth (but fifth in terms of content) game in the series was published.

The game board shows a large hexagon with regularly arranged holes. Each player has 18 white and 18 black pieces. Six of them have the same shape (straight line, triangle and angle). On the back of the stones there are three small elevations with which you can place the stones on three holes of the game board and close them. There are three indentations on the front of the stones so that they can be stacked on top of each other. Each one of these depressions is colored differently, the so-called point (two for each possible position, although the positions on the triangle and the two edge positions of the straight line cannot be distinguished). The main goal is to connect two opposite sides of the hexagon with stones of its color. Placed stones can also be moved and rotated. Stacking them on top of one another can disturb existing connecting lines of the opponent. An additional difficulty arises from the fact that the stones can only be placed on top of other stones when they are pushed (not when they are brought into play).

Tzaar

Game situation Tzaar

At the Essen game fair 2007, Tzaar appeared as a replacement for the Tamsk game . Many players found that because of the time component as not fitting the rest of the series.

The game board again consists of a hexagonal field, but with a recessed central area. Each player is given the same supply of tiles that fill the entire field. These stones differ in three different types with different frequencies but identical moves.

A player on the move basically has two options to act. He can “capture”, that is, he moves his own piece or pile of stones in a straight line onto the next opposing stone or pile, which must not be higher, and takes it out of the game. Or he can “top up” by stacking two of his own stacks or stones on top of one another according to the analogous move rule. First of all, all stones are distributed on the board, either according to a standard division, randomly, or by placing them alternately. Then the starting player opens the game with one stroke. From now on, the players alternate between making a mandatory stroke and then the choice between a second stroke, an extension move or passing. The player who can no longer make the mandatory stroke loses the game. Alternatively, the game ends when a player can capture the last stone of any of the three types to his opponent, with stacks counting as the type of the top stone.

Awards and nominations

Tzaar was recommended for Game of the Year 2008 and was nominated for the International Gamers Award that same year . It was also nominated for the French As d'Or - Jeu de l'Année 2009 game award .

Tamsk

Tamsk after the first train

Tamsk was originally the second game of the Gipf project. It is played with three red and three black hourglasses each with a three-minute cycle time, a neutral hourglass with a 15-second cycle time, 64 rings and 2 ring holders, each with space for 32 rings. The game board is hexagonal and honeycomb-shaped, with a pattern of lines that intersect at 60-degree angles to form triangles. At the intersections there are circular, ring bases of different heights, in which the hourglasses can be placed.

The first thing to do is to put the hourglasses in their starting position. In each of the six ring holders, which are located directly at the corners of the game board, the hourglasses are placed so that red and black alternate. Each player receives a ring holder with 32 rings. Whoever has fewer rings at the end of the game is the winner of the game.

The players take turns, one playing with the black hourglasses, the other with the red ones. In each turn one of your own hourglasses must be moved and turned over. Then a ring may be put over the hourglass that has just been played and the base underneath. The ring stays with the base, so it won't be moved away with the hourglass later. As soon as the stack of rings in a field has reached the height of the base, the field may no longer be visited. If none of your own hourglasses can be moved, you have to sit out.

The game ends when no more moves can be made. The winner is the one who has fewer rings. This means that normally those who have to sit out more often lose. The basic winning strategy is therefore to maneuver the opponent as often as possible into situations in which he cannot make a move.

To make matters worse, time is another factor. In the first three turns, the players must have moved all three hourglasses once and turn around at the end of the turn. That is, if each player has had three turns, all the hourglasses on the field will run. The player must now keep his hourglasses running. If he does not succeed, the stopped hourglass is lost. It remains on the board, but cannot be moved. The neutral hourglass with a running time of 15 seconds is located outside of the playing field and can also be used to put the opponent under pressure. If it is rotated, the active player is forced to make his move within 15 seconds. This option is available to both players.

Lyngk

In 2017, Lyngk appeared as the last game in the Gipf series to date . It was awarded the special prize of the Austrian Game Prize for Games .

It is played on a star-shaped board with 43 points. The hexagonal grid is also retained here, every point that is not on the edge is adjacent to six surrounding points. There are 43 discs in the game, eight of five different colors and three gray. At the beginning the discs are randomly distributed on the points on the board.

The two players take turns moving, there is a compulsory move, and if you cannot make a legal move, you sit out. You move by pulling all discs from one point in one of the six possible directions to the next occupied point and placing them on it. Two discs of the same color must never be placed in a stack unless they are gray. A stack must not be more than five panes high. Individual gray discs must not be drawn.

You can claim a color twice in the game before you move that your opponent has not yet claimed, but not gray, and not both times in the same move. The stones of this color are from then on their own stones. You can only draw discs the top of which is not an opponent's. If the top of the drawn discs is not your own, you may not drag it onto a pile that contains more discs than you draw. If you form a stack of height five, the topmost disc of which is your own, then you have won this stack and take it off the board.

If the top drawn disc is your own, you can do the so-called Lyngk move: you can move to a point on which the same color is on top, and then move on from here in a new direction, even several times in a row.

The game ends when no one can move. The aim is to win more stacks than the opponent, and in the event of a tie, the player who has more stacks of four with his own disc on top of the board wins. If this number is the same, the stacks of three count, etc.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Explanation of the meanings on the website of the project when introducing Pünct (English)
  2. ↑ Tabular overview  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. the best-rated games in the "spielbox"@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.spielbox.de  
  3. ↑ Kris Burm on the naming of the games and their meaning on the project homepage (English)