Tuesday, 2 October 2012

Game Review: Ponte del Diavolo

Now any game that has a literal translation of “Bridge of the Devil” is a good game in my books. And it just so happens, that this is not only a good game, but a fantastic game.

A abstract game for 2 people, by Rio Grande games (again, is there no end of good games by these?) which can be liked to chess with less pieces.

The game board is a 10x10 board, and there are three pieces in the game, light coloured tiles, dark coloured tiles and bridge pieces.

Players take turns placing 2 of their chosen colour pieces at a time. The idea of the game is to make blocks of 4 tiles, called “islands”, and link them together using the bridge pieces. You can lay pieces that have 1, 2 or 3 blocks, but these are non scoring in the final part. Islands cannot have any of your colour blocks around them, there must be a clear space between a island and other blocks of your colour, however opponents pieces may touch these.

No blocks may be place under a bridge after it has been places, so this makes these not only scoring pieces, but also great blocking pieces.

That is pretty much all there is to the rules of this game. At first look, it seems pretty simple, place tiles until you have no more then score up. After the first play however, it quickly emerges that there is a much deeper level of strategy to this game. A experienced player should always beat a less experienced player, just like in chess. There is the chance that this may not happen, but as this game is simpler than chess, it will not take long for someone to grasp a understanding of this game.

This game is a reworking of the game Twixt, by Alex Randolph (1922 – 2004). It is a very good adaptation, and worth of your shelf space. Games take around 15-20 minutes, so a great filler game, but can also easily take up a whole evening of great gaming.


Another recommended game that can be found quite cheap here in the UK.

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