Tinker Tactics
Tinker Tactics is a free, abstract microgame for 2 or 4 players and takes around 5-10 minutes to play.
To see how it’s played, watch this video (if it doesn’t load, click here to go directly to YouTube)
If you’d like to make your own set of cards, Print and Play files can be found here: Tinker Tactic Cards
Rules:
- 1D8, 2D6, 2D4
- Each player rolls dice but hides them from opponent
- Each player announces score. All players adjust dice to match the highest score (except highest scorer)
- All players arrange dice as they wish on their board
- Players reveal and connect board to each other
- Players take it in turn to move each die. Die move the same number of spaces as pips on the die
- They can move across filled spaces but must land on empty space
- Dice cannot move diagonally, nor are diagonally situated dice affected by enemy dice
- Any enemy dice adjacent reduce number on die by 1
- Any dice reduced to 0 are removed from the board
- A player is eliminated from the game when they have only 1 die left
- The last player remaining is the winner
There is also a 4-player variant:
19 Comments
D. B. Gaston
Playing a variant of this with Looney Pyramids would probably work well.
http://www.looneylabs.com/looney-pyramids
Gino
Ooh that could be fun! We’ll try and give it a go! Cheers!
Vanity Whale
I started playing this game with my family and they love it! I am going to introduce it to friends soon to. Good job with it
Gino
I’m so glad you’ve been enjoying Tinker Tactics! Thanks for letting us know! Any winning strategies? I’m terrible at this game…
Mike
Thanks for the game! Easy to learn, but with good depth. I’m thinking of making a wooden game board with larger squares. Maybe two boards with magnets to join them after the initial setup.
Gino
Ooh I’d love to see that when it’s done! Please post pictures!
Daniel Anderson
Why do you have to hide enitial roll cant someone lie? I understand hiding dice placement
Bevan
They can indeed lie, but where would be the fun in that! The reason for the hide is to minimise information before the placement and dice reveal. If you know your opponent has lots of evens, you can gain a small advantage based on parity. It’s a tiny advantage, and in the grand scheme of things won’t matter to most players. Like we say, we just build the system, feel free to tinker away! ?
Daniel Anderson
Also when playing 4 cards does the center gap count as a space? Thanks awesome game 😀
Bevan
At present it counts as a gap (so no movement across or into it), however we are planning to more extensively playtest this variant. We’re always looking for playtesters if you fancy getting involved!
Daniel Anderson
Awesome thank you for the help and its a great game … I will keep you guys updated if I find anything else I just made boards ill be playing with friends to see how it goes. High Fives. …. oh P.S. do you know of any other easy to play games using polyhedral dice this is a fun way to mix in with down time during DnD sessions 🙂
Daniel Anderson
what are your thoughts on adding a heal option. You can sacrifice one die and roll a D10 which can be used to heal all pieces.
Gino
Hi Daniel, thank you for your suggestion. It seems like an interesting way to bring in a heal mechanic, but we intentionally avoided any element of healing to avoid lengthening what we’ve intended to be a quick, tactical game. However, the beauty of board gaming is that you can house-rule as much as you like 🙂 Feel free to try out that additional rule and let us know how it goes 😀
Liz Lam
Great game! Have you considered putting the rules on the print and play too?
Gino Brancazio
Hmm, good idea, we’ll look into it!
Jack
What format can I print it with so it is not smaller than the base of the dice
Bevan
The cards we used are standard business size, 3.5 x 2 inches. If you go slightly larger (say 5.25 x 3 inches) you should keep the small foot print without the dice overhanging the spaces.
Jess Robinson
Bonus points for implementing it on Tabletop Simulator next!
Jess Robinson
Huh, looks like itch.io has a “Physical game” category.. https://itch.io/physical-games maybe there?