Shiftago
| Shiftago | |
|---|---|
 Game situation in Shiftago Express |
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| Game data | |
| author | Robert Witter , Frank Warneke |
| graphic | Robert Witter, Frank Warneke |
| publishing company | WiWa games |
| Publishing year | 2016 |
| Art | Board game |
| Teammates | 2-4 |
| Duration | 5 to 45 minutes |
| Age | from 8 years
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| Awards | |
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Shiftago is an abstract and strategic board game for two to four people from 2016 by Frank Warneke and Robert Witter . The game was published by WiWa Spiele and was included on the recommendation list for Game of the Year in 2017 .
Theme and equipment
The game is an abstract strategy game in which the players have to place a fixed number of balls in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal row on a field of 7 by 7 fields. There are three game variants with different levels of difficulty that build on each other: Shiftago Express , Shiftago Expert and Shiftago Extreme .
In addition to the game instructions, the game material consists of:
- a playing field with a grid of 7 by 7 fields,
- 22 glass spheres each in four colors (orange, green, blue, white),
- four red markers and
- four leaflets with the brief rules of the game and the scoring track.
The game is similar to Abalone , in which balls also have to be moved on a field, but the goal of the game is comparable to that of Four in a Row and similar games.
Style of play
All three variants of the game share the same game mechanics and the same basic rules. The playing field is placed in the middle of the game and the players receive all balls of one color and one of the four leaflets with a marker.
Starting with a starting player, the other players play one turn one after the other in clockwise order. In doing so, they slide one of their balls into any edge of the four sides of a path. If there are already balls in this lane, the new ball pushes them one space along the lane. As soon as a lane is completely filled with seven balls, no more balls may be pushed into this lane, so balls are never pushed out of the playing field. Basically, the rule "touched, guided" applies - the player must insert a ball at this point as soon as it touches the playing surface or another ball.
Shiftago Express
Shiftago Express is the basic variant of the game. The game preparation and the game mechanism correspond to the general rules and the players try to get five (with two players) or four (with three and four players) balls in a continuous row by inserting their balls. The rows are horizontally, vertically and diagonally adjacent fields that must not kink.
The winner is the player who can show a complete row in his playing color after inserting his own ball. The game ends in a draw when all balls are used up or the playing field is completely filled with balls. In a tournament, the first player to win 10 rounds of the game wins. Games that have been won are marked on the leaflet with the marker.
Shiftago Expert
Shiftago Expert is based on the Shiftago Express variant . Here the players do not try to get a fixed number of balls in a row to win. Instead, you get points for rows of five (2 players) or four (3 and 4 players) balls. The winner is the player who reaches 10 points first. A complete row of seven balls counts for 10 points and ends the game.
In the game, players receive points for each uninterrupted row of balls of their player color that lies on the field after their own move. A player only ever scores one row of points, even if he was able to form several in the same turn. For scoring, the corresponding row of balls is selected and all balls in the row with the exception of the two outer (2 players) or one of the two outer (3 and 4 players) are removed from the playing field. The player receives the corresponding number of points for the evaluation and marks it on his leaflet. Then it is the turn of the corresponding player one more time.
The game ends after the turn in which a player has at least 10 points or the turn in which a player has no more balls to insert. In the second case, the player who has the most points wins, or it ends in a tie if there is a tie.
Shiftago Extreme
Shiftago Extreme corresponds to the Shiftago Expert variant , but differs in the rating of the rows of balls. In this variant, rows of balls from four (2 players) or three (3 and 4 players) balls are scored, but they score zero points. Again, the player has to remove balls according to the rules of Shiftago Expert and then has another turn. This means that zero scores can be used strategically for sequences of moves that mean higher scores.
Development and reception
The game Shiftago was developed by Frank Warneke and Robert Witter and appeared in 2016 for the 2016 International Game Days in Essen by their own publisher WiWa Spiele with multilingual game instructions in German, English, French, Italian and Spanish.
It was included on the recommendation list for Game of the Year in 2017 . In addition, it was nominated for the MinD game award 2017 in the category "short duration" and achieved second place here. Shiftago also won the 2016 German Learning Game Award .
supporting documents
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Game instructions Shiftago
- ↑ Versions of Shiftago in the board game database BoardGameGeek (English); accessed on January 28, 2018.
- ↑ Shiftago on the website of the Spiel des Jahres eV; accessed on January 28, 2018.
Web links
- Game instructions Shiftago
- Shiftago website with game instructions
- Shiftago in the Luding games database
- Shiftago in the game database BoardGameGeek (English)