Re: Session report: ...... Farook

["mschoessow" <mikeschoessow@...>]

.
.
.
 >Playing on a 4x4 board feels cramped and static. We could not 
> see how to trap the opponent into losing, so the only way we were 
> going to win was by the opponent making a mistake. I am no good at 
> abstracts and neither is brother-in-law, so there may be tactics 
we 
> were missing, but we were not interested enough to persevere and 
> abandoned it.

Tim Schutz recently posted a new 4x4 game called Wizard's Tower that 
can be played with a piecepack. My son and I have tried this out and 
found it to be fun to play. It is an abstract though. The rules for 
the game are at http://www.tjgames.com/wizard.html. 

Although it would seem that the piecepack would be perfect for 
playing many 4x4 abstracts (and there are some good ones out there), 
the small board (assuming you construct it from four grid-side-up 
tiles)is a bit of a problem in my opinion because it does give 
almost any game a kind of physically *cramped* feel. Lately I've 
been thinking of working on the design of a 4x4 piecepack game 
specifically designed to utilize sixteen suit-side-up tiles to form 
the board. This would make for a board that is not only larger, but 
also more interesting to look at.

-Mike