tom franklin
United States
Garner
North Carolina
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I'm a big tile-placement fan and the triangular-shaped tiles of Triles and the black and white looping lines seemed like they were worth a PnP try. Since the game prints out on a single 8 1/2" x 11" (or A4) sheet of paper it was an easy game to get started with.
The rules are pretty straightforward and simple: Each player starts with eight tiles (hidden from the other player). A single tile is placed in the center of the table as the starting tile.
One player chooses to be black or white and the other player gets the first move.
Each move a player makes must progress one of their own colored lines. On the one hand, this means that the majority of your moves will be strictly aggressive in nature, with defensive moves being relatively minimal. On the other hand, this keeps the game from devolving into a slash and hack at your opponent style game. Also, you cannot use a half dot to end one of your own segments.
Bonuses are awarded for completing various shapes. (circles/loops, dots of your opponent's color, fitting a triangle as a wedge that connects two sides of a larger shape)
The object is to be the first player to empty your hand of tiles.
The game consists of 52 tiles and I had hoped that the game might be enhanced by an additional set of tiles. This was unnecessary. In all three of my test games I was out of tiles well before running through two-thirds of the total tiles.
In two of the three games I found that one of the Alternate Rules should be made Standard. In the Regular Rules you cannot make a dot of your own color. One of the Alternate Rules states you can make a dot -- but you must draw a tile for each dot of your own color you create. Given that two of the games had tiles that could not be played otherwise, this rule seems essential. (the two black segments were otherwise unplayable half dots)
(If a player completes a wedge they can give their opponent a tile of their choice from their hand, but given that in the third game one side ended up with three such tiles, there was no chance of winning without this Alternate Rule in play. A challenge in a board game is a good thing; overwhelmingly bad odds due to tile draw seem unnecessarily frustrating.)
Triles is a light, quick game of tile placement. I recommend it for a filler in-between longer games and for adults to play with their kids.
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