Overview of Strategy and Specific Examples:

Since playing your first game of Tricala can be a little overwhelming, what with the hundreds of potential opening positions, I’ve included a few tips on strategy and openers that you might find useful during your first couple of games.

General Strategy:

There are a couple strategic concepts to keep in mind when playing Tricala that can significantly improve your game.

1. Press your advantage during the set-up. If you’re going first, that is your greatest advantage over your opponent. You can build up pieces where they would normally be a liability, but since you get to go first, you will get to sow these stones before your opponent can capture them. As the second player, your main strategic advantage is the knowledge of where your opponent is going to go and what they’re planning to do. Think about putting early pressure on key positions and also think about ways that you can derail their initial strategy.
2. Don’t be afraid to put pieces in your opponent’s pits, especially during the set-up phase of the game. Mancala is a collection of counting games, where you win by being able to compute possible results and mathematical advantages more accurately. Tricala is a more advanced and open-ended counting game, but still a counting game. If you can throw off your opponent’s count by placing stones in their pit, or if you can modify the count to your advantage, you’ll often throw them off guard and force them to spend excess energies in accounting for your shenanigans. Think about it: one stone can ruin their entire starting set-up.
3. It’s almost always beneficial to capture your opponent’s stones, especially when sacrificing one of your own pieces to make the capture can take three or more of theirs out of play. When you’re able to do this, you not only are closer to capturing nine stones, you also have more pieces left on the board than your opponent and therefore more potential moves than your opponent.
4. Connect your singletons. The re-sowing mechanic can oftentimes allow you a long range of movement without requiring you to build up all your pieces in one pit (multiple stones in one pit is a natural vulnerability). Re-sowing is often hard to predict or protect against so use it to your advantage.
5. Keep an eye on the corners at all times, especially if you’re winning. If you’re losing, figure out how to capture a corner and maintain the position. If you can get complete control over one corner of the board where your opponent cannot get to, sometimes it’s beneficial to eliminate your own pieces from play—by doing things like capturing one of your opponent’s stones with one of your own—in order to get down to just one player piece. Remember that if you only have one piece left in play and already control one corner, you’ve won the game.

Specific First-Player Set-ups

Here are a couple of opening set-ups that can help the starting player win the game. Keep in mind, however, that these are merely suggested openers and you’ll often find that your best openers are ones that you create.

Also keep these openers in mind if you are the second player—I include tips on how to derail them.

1. Guaranteed Victory Opener—This is your Fool’s Mate of Tricala. Assuming the other player does not affect your count (hint, hint) you will win the game in the first move. By sowing the pictured pit, you will re-sow around the entire perimeter of the board and cover all the corners in your first move.



2. Sweet Spot Opener—With this opener, notice that by controlling the middle of the board, any of these three pits can sow to a corner. This opener gives you an enormous tactical advantage when going for a win by controlling corners. The natural defense for it is simply applying early pressure around the edges. The second player will be able to take one of these pits with a single stone and therefore gain four stones towards their count of nine.



3. All-in opener—This presses your advantage of going first. Similar to the Guaranteed Victory Opener, you will be able to sow around the board and cover two corners in one turn. The best counter to this opener I’ve found is taking liberties with the center of the board. Since your opponent has gone for the edges, you can take the middle and secure the tactical advantage of having access to all the corners.



4. Re-sowing Opener—This is the wild card of openers. It gives you access to all the corners through possession of the middle of the board (and doesn’t give your opponent to capture a bunch of your stones at once), but it also gives you coverage of literally every single spot on the board in case you just want to try to capture all your opponent’s stones. As the second player, you’re often best served by throwing off their count and denying them easy and secure access to the corners.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Here I will address some frequently asked question about the game of Tricala.

Set-up Questions:

Q: May I ever place a stone in a corner pit?

A: No, neither player may ever place a stone in one of the corner pits during set-up, but they can place their stones in any other place.

Q: May I place a stone in a pit with some of the other player’s stones?

A: Yes.  In fact, it’s often beneficial to do so.

Q: How many stones may I place in one pit?

A: As many as you want.

Sowing Questions:

Q: May I sow a pit that contains only my opponent’s stones?

A: No, you must have at least one of your own stones in a pit in order to use it to sow.  However, it does not matter who has more stones, provided that you have at least one of yours in that pit.

Q: When I encounter an edge of the board, where do I go from there?

A: Any direction except from the way in which you came.  When you encounter an edge, you will be able to sow in any one of three different directions.  However, if you encounter a corner, you may only continue in one direction, which is another edge.

Q: Do I have to drop stones in any particular order if it contains both of our stones?

A: No.  You may drop the stones in whatever order you want.

Q: Can I sow with just one stone, or is that piece stuck?

A: Yes, you can sow with just one stone in any direction you want.

Q: May I sow pieces from a corner position?

A: Yes, you may.

Capturing Questions:

Q: Does the stone I used to capture stay in the pit?

A: No, it gets removed with the other stones and counts towards your nine stone winning condition.

Q: Can I capture only my own stones if I want to?

A: No.  And when you sow in a way that places your last stone in a pit currently occupied by a one or more of only your stones that will result in you re-sowing.

Q: Can I use an opponent’s stone to capture?

A: In certain circumstances, yes.  If you pick up from a pit that contains both your opponent’s stones and your own, you can choose to drop them in any order you wish.  If the last stone you drop is of your opponent’s color and it drops into a pit currently occupied by other stones (either yours or your opponent’s) you capture these stones.

Q: Is capturing mandatory?

A: When you sow in such a way that results in a capture, you must capture.

Re-sowing Questions:

Q: May I re-sow and capture in the same turn?

A: Yes, but naturally you will first re-sow and then capture.  It is never the other way around.

Q: When I drop a piece in a pit that results in a re-sow, does that piece stay behind or does it get used to re-sow?

A: It will get used to re-sow.

Q: Is re-sowing mandatory?

A: When you sow in such a way that results in a re-sow, you must re-sow.

Game End Questions:

Q: Can a player win in just one move?
A: It is possible, but only in a very particular set-up or by a complete lack of planning on the part of the second player (such as placing all your stones in one pit with that pit being accessible to the starting player).   Remember, second player, that you can throw off the count of the first player’s set-up by placing a stone in a pit they currently occupy.

Q: Can a player deliberately capture in such a way so as to remove their pieces from play and leave only one or two stones left in play, thus possibly winning the game through control of corners?

A: Yes, this is legal.  Watch out for it.

Q: If we both achieve a winning condition at the same time, who is the winner?

A: The person with the most stones is the winner in this case.

Q: Will there ever be a true tie?

A: To the best of my knowledge, it’s impossible to have a tie.  Remember that if you both achieve a winning condition at the same time, the person with more stones is the winner.

Tricala

Tricala is a quick game for two or three players inspired by the Mancala family of games. Continuing the tradition of this rich and varied collection, Tricala takes the sowing to a whole new field, a triangular one, where you are no longer restricted to a single player area or even a single direction of play.

Materials:

One board with a total of 21 pits arranged in an equilateral triangle (six pits on each side of the triangle).  This board can be carved from wood, dug in the ground, or even drawn on a large sheet of paper using a circular object to draw 21 pits.

Nine small objects of one kind and a matching color, nine of another.  These can be coins (9 pennies and 9 nickles, for example) or other game pieces (such as pieces from Go, cubes from Risk, or stones from an existing Mancala set.)

Objective:

Tricala is won by achieving one of two winning conditions

-Controlling the corners

-Capturing nine player pieces

The winner is the first one to complete one of these two objectives.

Gameplay:

Phase 1—Set-up

Half of the strategy is in the set-up phase of the game. Many games are won or lost by where you choose to place your stones.

First, determine which player will go first in whatever way you feel best. That person now begins by placing three of their nine stones in any pits, except the corner pits.  No player may ever place a stone in a corner pit during the set-up phase of the game. Other than that exception, you may place stones anywhere you want, in whatever quantity you want. (So, you could put one stone in three different pits, two stones in one and one in another, or all three stones in one pit.) Then it is the next player’s turn to place three stones wherever they want. This can include a pit that is already occupied with stones of either player’s. This continues, each player placing three stones at a time, until both players have placed all nine of their starting stones.

Phase 2—Play

Sowing

Now that all the stones are placed, the player who started placing their stones gets to go first. When moving, that player picks up all the stones out of one pit and sows them in any direction. Sowing means dropping one stone at a time in each pit in a line.

If you encounter an edge of the board and still have stones left over, you switch directions and continue sowing in any direction except the one you just came from.

If you have multiple colors of stones in one pit, the sowing player may choose in what order to sow the stones.  Also, if both players have stones in a pit, no matter who has the majority, either player may pick up the contents of that pit and use them to sow.

Note: you may also pick up and sow a single stone of your color as your turn.

Capturing

If your last stone ends in a pit that has one or more of the other player’s stones, you capture the contents of that pit. To capture, take all the stones including the one that ended in that pit and remove them from the game. Put them in a pile beside you and they now count towards one of the endgame conditions (being the first player to capture nine stones).

Re-sowing

Instead of capturing, you may also re-sow by redistributing your stones.  This is done by ending a sowing action by landing one piece in a pit you currently occupy but has none of your opponent’s pieces in it. If you do this, you pick up the contents of that pit and continue sowing in the same direction.

Winning Conditions

Meet one of these conditions to win the game:

The first winning condition is simply collecting nine player stones; these will include your own pieces and your opponent’s pieces.

The second winning condition is controlling the corners. You control a corner when you own the majority of the stones in it (this can be only one stone if it is the only stone in the pit.) If you have three or more pieces left in play, you must control three corners to win. If you have two pieces, you must control two corners to win. And if you have only one piece, you only need to control one corner.

Tie-Breaker

If the game plays out and both players achieve a winning condition at the same time, the player with the most stones wins the game.

Three-Player Variant

Tricala can also be played with three players.  The rules are exactly the same as a two-player game.  The only difference is that there will be one additional player with their own set of nine stones.

Additional Resources

Are you still confused or do you want to know more about how to play the game? Be sure to check out these resources:

Video overview of rules

FAQs document

Strategy overview

A Final Word

In time, I hope you’ll find Tricala to be an engaging game that’s easy to teach but tricky to play.  Rounds tend to last between five and ten minutes, and it’s particularly fun to play repeatedly alternating starting players.

Along the way, you’ll find your own unique strategies and methodologies and develop your own methods for sowing domination.  Don’t be afraid to experiment with crazy strategies and wacky tactics.  You’ll find in the game a lot of room for creativity.  You’ll also find that your strongest weapon is surprise.

Thanks for playing.

Thousand Year Game Design Challenge

Tricala has been entered into the Thousand Year Game Design Challenge hosted by Daniel Solis. Be sure to check out his blog where you can find a plethora of cool games.

Probably not going to do much with this, so hear it is for the Internet. I call it the Texas Turnstile.

Texas Turnstile: Rules for Two Players

Overview: Texas Turnstile is a game of ever changing bets where cards are won and lost with crafty plays and careful foresight. The game is won by capturing more cards than your opponent. Poker chips will not be necessary.

Materials: One deck of cards, no jokers.

Set-up: Deal 26 cards to each player. Then each player draws eight cards for the first round.

Play:

Phase One–Load the Turnstile:
Players select three cards from their eight to put into the turnstile.

Now both players select two cards to place in front of them as their meld. Keep these concealed from the other player.

Once this is completed, shuffle these six cards and flip over five. Set the sixth face down to the side.

Phase Two–Play for Keeps:

Players now must play one card or discard a card every turn to stay in the game. They should have three cards remaining to do this with.

You can play one of your cards in three ways:
-On top of one of the face-up cards provided that you will alternate colors by doing so (eg: black must be placed on a red card)
-Swap one card with one of your two face down melded cards and then discard the card for which you swapped
-Simply discard a card to not change anything

*Note: At any time, even before you select your two cards for your meld (although not before that), you may choose to fold and are allowed to keep the remainder of your unplayed cards. The other player collects all the rest of the cards.

Phase Three–Collect Your Winnings:

If no one has folded and all three cards of both players have been used, you now flip over your two melded cards. The player with the highest ranking Texas Hold ‘Em combo wins all the cards on the table.

Winning:
You win when your opponent is no longer able to restore his starting hand to eight cards.

Sometimes gamers want you to develop a whole new gaming system. In fact, a lot of energy is regularly put into inventing entirely new gaming experiences. Who had ever played anything like Dominion before it’s debut back in 2008? I experienced 7 Wonders for the first time a few nights ago and was enthralled by its unique passing mechanic.

But as soon as you invent something new, many people use the system you created to build their own game, borrowing mechanics that you created. And while you may still have the self-satisfaction of having been first (and sometimes the deserved following) a game still has to hold up on its own. What makes Dominion good and popular is not what it invented, but rather the well-tested gameplay and binding theme. That’s what makes it stick, even while Ascension, Resident Evil, Nightfall and countless others use similar deck building mechanics to make another game. Then again, some would counter that Dominion plays much like a Magic the Gathering Draft. Think what you will.

So is there anything to be said for variations and modifications on classics and how far do you have to go before you can call a game your own invention rather than just a remake. For the 1000 Year Game Challenge, I’ve been developing an off-shoot of Mancala, one that wields similar mechanics of sowing and capturing but stands as a very unique and interesting game. The board doesn’t look the same (it’s triangular), player’s have different objectives than the original game, and unlike Mancala you can place stones wherever you want and are not even limited to one or two directions of play. I think it’s the reinvention of Mancala that the game’s needed for hundreds of years but does that make it mine?

Another as of yet incomplete example (with a rules in the post to follow), yesterday I created a version of Texas Hold ‘Em that plays very uniquely but is clearly identifiable as a variation on the classic. I wouldn’t venture so far as to call it mine–it’s more like playing Chinese Chess rather than regular chess.

Let’s see what you think, read on to the next post and tell me if you think this tidbit even warrants its own title.

I haven’t designed a lot of games yet, but I have a lot of ideas and a couple good prototypes. I’ve started with card games because card games are cheap to manufacture and distribute and perhaps having something so easily disseminated will get my foot in the door with publishers.

One of the conundrums I’ve encountered is exactly what type of games to design: niche card games with lots of theme and personality or universal appeal card games with a low learning curve but not as much character. I’m kind of dispassionate about themes myself–they often seem to get in the way of the game mechanics–but they seem to be easier to sell than those dreaded “abstract games.” It’s like the difference of selling genre fiction versus literary fiction. I know exactly how to pitch a sci-fi that features a young boy destined to save the world from an evil, mysterious menace, but how does one sell a coming-of-age story about a young post college graduate that’s a little lost in life and looking for answers.

So, do you shoot for designing the mildly-amusing theme heavy game (*cough Munchkin cough*), which is in reality too complicated for its own good and too limited in its appeal to ever become widely known, or do you seek to design the next Uno.

Honestly, I consider both of them about the same. They’re both random and chaotic but are a way for big groups of friends or family to get together and hang out. Which is really the point, isn’t it? But one (Munchkin) is easy to sell in a game store. It’s cute fun designed for adolescent boys and D&D players looking for something lighter; the other is an abstract card game that involves colors. Who the hell’s going to buy that?

Yeah, so…good idea but a helluva lot of work. Besides, I’d rather not niche myself too closely as just a writer.

I do a lot of things. I design games, draw mazes, and write. Those are a few of the main ones, and for what it’s worth I intend to talk about them all.

The Problem with Writing and Reading

Back when I was in grade school, writing was easy. I wrote three separate books, totaling over 600 pages of work. I also wrote over 200 individual poems.

Nevermind that most of it sucked. At least I was writing often.

Well, I’ve been in a bit of a slump for a year now. Actually, my writing slump started back in college, but since my major was creative writing, I managed to push out manuscripts and even published a couple. But now I lack motivation and ambition and I think a large part of that can be attributed to my relationship with the form: I wouldn’t read what I write. Not only that, I don’t really read what other people write. At least not in the traditional book form. It just doesn’t seem applicable any more.

How can a book or short story compete with websites, chalked full of pictures and videos and links? The process of delving into a new website, exploring and investigating, of spending hours lost in content, is more exciting and more relevant than traditional print materials. Sure, books have their place and have their value, but I think everyone–myself is included–has to first exhaust their fascination with this new form, a form that’s dynamic, real, and still a little undeveloped.

So let’s explore it a little. Play along with me as I see if this new form is worth it.

My Idea

My idea is to not only merge fiction with nonfiction, but also to merge fiction with websites and social media. Is it crazy to imagine a world where the characters in our novels could interact with us in real time? Is it crazy to imagine a world where the character is a dynamic entity that may very well change the course of their life based on their relationship with the reader?

One of the major disadvantages to traditional novels is that their story is static. Although Catcher in the Rye is a great story, it can only be read one way. That’s not to say you can’t read into it and extract more out of it every time, but what if you could interact with Holden Caulfield? Would he be affected if you shouted, “Dude, you’re the POSER!” Would that be enough to change his course?

Some writers might feel threatened by this give and take, but I say bring it on.

Over the next couple months, I will be developing several characters online with which you can interact. Their main story will be carried through various social media. Youtube, Blogs, Twitter updates. We’ll see what happens.

My only request is that you earnestly play along. Treat them as though they were real people. Talk to them, not to me. And above all, have fun with it. Want to create fake characters and play along? By all means.