TZAAR is a game about making choices. Both players have 30 pieces, divided in three types: 6 Tzaars, 9 Tzarras and 15 Totts. The 3 types of pieces form a trinity: They cannot exist without each other. The aim is either to make the opponent run out of one of the three types of pieces or to put him in a position in which he cannot capture anymore. The tricky question the players will have to ask themselves on each of their turns is: “Shall I make myself stronger or my opponent weaker?” Meaning: Will you capture an opponent’s piece and make him weaker, or will you jump on top of one of your own pieces and make yourself stronger? If you choose to jump on top of your own pieces too often, you will probably leave your opponent with too many pieces on the board. On the other hand, if you capture too often, you may end up with pieces that are not strong enough at the end of the game. What to do? Up to you to decide!
TZAAR is the most recent game in project GIPF, replacing TAMSK which was felt to not quite fit in with the others due to its use of sand timers.
Boîte_à_jeux (turn-based, play by web, robot opponents also available)
Local Computer Play
HTZAAR (made from Haskell, OpenGL, and SDL; can be compiled for Windows or Linux) (NOTE: this is no longer maintained)
http://www.dcc.fc.up.pt/~pbv/stuff/hstzaar HsTZAAR: improved version of HTZAAR with better AI and better graphical interface. Source code in Haskell; can be compiled for Linux, Mac OS and Windows.
This is the PDF that I made my laser-cut lucite board from (see photos in the gallery.) The design was generated by a Python script running in NodeBox.
The cut-lines might not show up onscreen because they're hairline thickness (0.001"). This is required for the Epilog driver to recognize them as vector (cutting).
I cut it on an Epilog Helix-45. The settings I used, for 1/4" acrylic, were:
Vector: 600dpi, 7% speed, 100% power
Raster: 150dpi, 25% speed, 100% power
(Note that I had to print the vector and raster portions separately since they have different dpi. If you printed the raster part at 600dpi it would take hours!)