The Game's Up! is a 2-player abstract strategy board game of movement, stacking and points accumulation.
COMPONENTS: a square game board of 36 squares in a 6-by-6 grid, twelve 2-sided pieces, bag, rules.
Each player begins the game with 4 of each checkers-like pieces which are numbered on either side (heads & tails) with: 1 & 6, 2 & 5, 3 & 4.
OBJECT: the goal is to manipulate the pieces to stack up the most points - by capturing as many of the opponent’s pieces possible.
A stack consists of two or more alternating-color pieces. Ownership of a stack is determined by the color of the top piece.
MOVEMENT: a piece is inverted then moved in any direction to an adjacent square. It may leap over its own-color piece or stack to a square immediately beyond.The stack top piece is inverted and the stack is then moved in any direction to an adjacent square. It may not leap over a piece or stack.
Players alternately move one piece or stack at a time, to either an unoccupied square or one occupied by an opponent’s piece or stack -
which is then captured.
After each piece or stack is moved, the board is rotated clockwise 90º.
Players may also move the opponent’s pieces - but not stacks.
A piece may not move or leap onto its own-color piece and a stack may not move onto it's own-color piece.
Do not return the last piece or stack moved to its previous position.
The Game's Up!
CAPTURE: players capture the opponent’s piece or stack only with their own-color piece or stack.
A piece captures when inverted and moved onto the opponent’s piece (or stack) if:
1. the (top) numbers match
2. the (top) numbers total 7
3. the opponent’s (top) piece is next in descending numerical sequence
A stack captures when the top piece is inverted and the stack moved onto a lower-numbered opponent’s piece or stack with a lower-numbered
top piece.
Players agree on a target score - e.g. 13 or 21 (or ... ?) points and, throughout the game, keep a tally of the top numbers on all the pieces in their respective stacks.
The first player to capture and stack sufficient pieces, to reach the agreed total, is the winner ... and the game’s up!
A move consists of 3 elements:
1. invert the piece
2. move the piece
3. rotate the board
SETUP: the pieces are divided into blue and red sets. Players choose a color which represents them throughout the game.
The pieces are placed in the bag and the first player to draw their own color will start the game.
The game board comprises 6 rows (ranks) and 6 columns. The pieces are positioned in numerical order on the back rank and in reverse numerical
order on the next-to-back rank on the opponent’s side of the board - which is situated on a ‘Lazy Susan’.
The game board is positioned on a Lazy Susan and, though rotating it makes no difference to the game mechanic, it adds to the fun as it changes players' point of view and causes them to alter their perspective by making them continually look at things from a different angle.
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The Game's Up! rules may be downloaded in PDF format.
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In the final example, the player with blue inverted a piece with 6 on the top to make it 1 and, as the numbers match, made a leap over
it's own-color piece (3), moved onto the opponent's red piece (1) and captured it to form a stack.
To complete the move, the player then rotated the board 90º.
At this point in the game, the score is: blue = 2 points -- red = 0 points.
© 2011 MHS
The Game's Up!
