Recently Played: DaVinci's Challenge

[ellyssian]

DaVinci's Challenge - 2 or 4 players ages 8 and up

The first of three related games (the other two being a modified mancala and a card game), this is an abstract game that requires quick pattern recognition skills as well as strategic thinking.

The board has some of DaVinci's images on them, but they are all in the background. The playing field of the board itself - on top of Vitruvian Man ~ has a series of geometric patterns made up of two shapes. Those two shapes match that of your playing pieces, in both your color and that of your opponent. The four player game ~ which I've never played ~ subdivides the colors into teams, with one player per shape.

The pieces ~ ovals and triangles, they're often called, although it's a slight simplification ~ are made from plastic, and from all reports there is a lot of variation in the quality of molding. I know our set has one mongrel piece that looks like enough material didn't make it into the mold, however, I'm not complaining ~ it seems to bring me a spot of luck!

The game is played by taking turns, placing a piece of your choosing in a location of your choosing that matches the selected piece. After each piece is played, you must see if that added piece became part of one or more patterns, as indicated on the scoring sheet. You make a tally mark next to all of the patterns you completed ~ wholly in your color ~ and it moves on to the next player.

When placing a piece, you have two core strategies: complete a pattern or block your opponent from completing a pattern.

When we've played, we make efforts to stay on one half or the other and complete and recognize as many patterns as possible, so the game doesn't really move into the blocking mechanics until we start running out of space. I'm sure that, under more competitive circumstances, you can just chase each other around, but I'd think that type of game would be rather low scoring, certainly more frustrating, and possibly less fun.

As a fan of pattern recognition, I prefer that aspect of the game, and that is where ~ even with pre-defined sides, and thus an equal chance of coming up with identical scores ~ one's ability to see those patterns quickly makes all the difference.