Tock
Tock (also called Tuck in certain parts of Canada , in French: Le jeu de toc , in Switzerland: Dog , in the Netherlands: Keezen , German variant: TAC ) is a descendant of Pachisi , which is mainly found in Québec , in the Netherlands and is widespread in Switzerland .
A feature of the game is that, like the wahoo or aggravation known in the English-speaking world, it is usually played with marbles instead of characters . The cube is also missing . Bridge cards are used instead . The game Tock is probably the forerunner of the board game Sorry! .
Game material
The game consists of a game board (mostly made of wood) with wells for the marbles, sixteen marbles in four colors of four pieces and a bridge card deck. There are also game board variants for up to six or eight players.
Rules of the game
With four players, each player is dealt thirteen cards first (distributed in packs of five - four - four cards each). If there are three players, 17 cards are dealt to each player (dealt in packs of five - four - four - four cards each) the remaining card is discarded. With two players each receives 26 cards (distributed in packs of five - five - four - four - four - four cards).
The value of the cards is ascending from the ace (1 step) to the king (13 steps).
The aim of the game is to move all of your own marbles from the starting field (with the number 18 of the marble color) to the four target fields of your own color. All marbles have to lay around the course once.
To pull out with a marble, the player must play an ace or a king. If he has neither an ace nor a king, then he must discard another card, but may not draw it, but must skip a round. If a marble hits an occupied space, it is captured and removed from the game. The opposing player must put them back into play with an ace or a king. If the player has several marbles in play, he can choose which one he wants to move with or whether he brings a new marble into play.
There are shortcuts: As soon as a marble stops on a space with the number 8, it can be placed in the middle of the board (called "heaven") with an ace, a 10 or a king. From there the marble can be moved to any space with number 8.
The game can be made more difficult with the following additional rules: If there is a four, the marble must be moved four spaces backwards. With a ten, the player can swap the place of his marble with an opponent's marble. With a jack, the player on the left must discard a card.
Team game
The two players seated opposite form a team. The team that has drawn all of its own marbles into the corresponding target fields wins. After the cards have been dealt, the team members each exchange one card without being allowed to speak. If all marbles of a team member are already in the target fields, both team members move the marbles of the other player with their cards. There are no verbal tactical comparisons here either. Each marble of your own on the board blocks the field. If you cannot move your own marbles because of such a blockade, the player must discard a card. Opposing marbles can be beaten. To do this, however, you have to be drawn exactly onto the corresponding field. Team members are free to choose whether they want to hit their partner's marbles or discard a card instead. All steps on a card must be used up. Therefore a player has to pass his target fields with his marbles if he cannot move into them. However, a voluntary passage past the target fields is also allowed. If a figure lands on a target space at the end of a turn, it can only be moved within the target spaces in future.
Maps and their meaning
- 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10: move as many fields as the card value.
- 4: retract four fields.
- 7: Seven steps can be distributed over several marbles, so that you can, for example, move a field at the target and move the remaining movement points with another marble. A marble can be moved in both directions in the target fields.
- Jack : move eleven spaces or swap two pieces on the playing field (one of these pieces must be your own).
- Queen : Move twelve squares.
- King : Move thirteen spaces or move a piece from your own camp to the starting space.
- Ace : One space or fourteen spaces ahead, or a piece from the camp on the starting space.
- If you play with jokers, they can be used to replace any card.
The played cards are placed face up. The card color is irrelevant.
Dog (Switzerland)
| DOG | |
|---|---|
| Game data | |
| author | Christine Trösch |
| publishing company | Various |
| Publishing year | 1982 |
| Art | Board game |
| Teammates | 1 to 4 |
| Duration | 45 - 60 minutes |
| Age | from 10 years on |
The game has established itself in Switzerland in a slightly different form. It is not called "Tock", but "Dog", which can be traced back to a linguistic misunderstanding. It is played with slightly different rules of the game.
- Story of Dog
Christine Trösch from St. Gallen discovered Tock in 1982 during a stay in Canada and took over the playing area on paper and brought it to Switzerland. She made the first game with her boyfriend at the time and now husband Urs Meyer. They called the game "Dog". Some friends copied the boards in the years that followed. The rules were first written down in 1987 by Anja Noser and until then only passed on orally. The boards have been manufactured in various workshops since 1987. The first tournaments have been held since 1993.
- variants
In 2008, the German game publisher published the game DOG on the basis of the Swiss version with a specially developed set of cards.
Building on DOG , Schmidt Spiele published further derivatives, especially the independent games DOG Royal and Black DOG , both of which were developed by Johannes Schmidauer-König . Based on the set of cards from the DOG game, Michael Kiesling and Wolfgang Kramer also developed the card game DOG cards , a card storage game without any mechanical reference to DOG .
TAC
| TAC | |
|---|---|
| Game data | |
| author | Kolja Sparrer Karl Wenning |
| graphic | GONDOR Kommunikationdesign GbR |
| publishing company | Flower of Life Publishing Company, now TAC Verlag GbR |
| Publishing year | 2004 |
| Art | Board game |
| Teammates | 1 to 4 (special version: 6) |
| Duration | 45 - 60 minutes |
| Age | from 10 years on |
TAC is a game by Karl Wenning and Kolja Sparrer. After three years of development, it was presented in Essen in 2004. It is sold via a web shop and so-called "TAC ambassadors". The wooden TAC board is made in Germany. There are playing fields for six and four players.
TAC differs from Tock and Dog through some details of the rules and through the use of its own 104-card deck, which includes number cards from 1 to 13 and special cards.
In addition to playing in teams against each other, there is the so-called harmony variant, in which all players try to occupy all houses with as few cards as possible. There are also variants within TAC: the master version with the master cards, solitaire game, game for two or three, and a cooperative game form “team of four”. The team-oriented approach has also led to the use of TAC in the educational field. The TAC community holds regular competitions. In 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013 there was a world championship, in 2010 a German championship.
- Web links
- TAC in the board game database BoardGameGeek (English)
- TAC in the Luding games database
Different game boards
With the Canadian and French Tock boards, there are 18 fields per player that must be overcome, with Keezen and TAC there are only 16 (not 17 as with Eile mit Weile). With Dog there are 15 or 16 fields, depending on the manufacturer. In the TAC for six players, the number of fields per person is reduced to eleven. The fields of the Canadian and French tock boards are numbered, while most dog and keezen boards have a change of direction, they are arranged in a circle at TAC. Only the Canadian and French versions have the ability to shorten through midfield with one move. In Holland there are also providers who offer a 2 and even a 3, a 5 and a 7 game schedule.
Web links
- Swiss website about Dog including history in Switzerland
- How to play Kings Dog D / F / E
- Playing field for 4 players to print out
- TAC website and forum
