Review of Polarity
by Jean-Luc Romano

Physical Components

I must admit that I was rather surprised when I first laid eyes on Polarity. Like most board games, I was expecting to see a carboard box covered in pretty designs. What I got instead was a long, thin canvas bag tied at one end with a thin leather strap.

Inside the canvas bag, there is a long carboard tube that contains fifty-three discs of equal size: one red disc and fifty-two black-and-white discs. The black-and-white discs are black on one side and white on the other, which remind a lot of gamers of the pieces from the well-known game Othello. The main difference between the playing pieces of Polarity and Othello is that in Polarity the pieces are magnetic (so that they attract and repel in close proximity to each other).

In addition to the cardboard tube, there is a canvas playing mat, which is a little greater than two-feet by two-feet in area. The playing mat has a large circle printed on it that defines the proper playing-area.

Brief Overview of the Rules

I won't explain every single rule of the game here -- instead, I'll just give an overview so that you can know more or less how the game is played.

The game begins with the players deciding who will play white and who will play black. Then, with each player starting out with 26 discs, the white player places five white discs (that is, white-side-up) flat on the play area. Then the black player places five black discs flat on the mat. The discs can be placed anywhere on the board, provided that they are not out-of-bounds. These discs are called foundation discs because they lie flat on the mat.

Now the real playing begins. Starting with the white player, each player attempts to place a piece from their playstack on the board by leaning it off the magnetic field of one of their foundation discs. Each player does this by playing a piece their-color-side-up next to a foundation piece of their color. For example, the white player would play a leaner by placing a disc white-color-side-up next to a foundation disc that has its white side up. When placing the disc, the magnetic forces of the leaner and the foundation discs must repel enough to keep the leaner from falling flat. The leaner will have one side of its edge touching the mat, but the other end will be suspended in mid-air, as the magnetic repulsion between the two discs keeps it from falling.

Inevitably, a fault (or disruption) will occur while a player attempts to place a leaner, causing a leaner to fall or discs to snap together. This is where the fun begins. If a player should cause a disruption (accidentally or otherwise), that player's turn is over and it is now the opponent's turn to clean up (by converting) any discs that touched as a result of the disruption. Normally, pieces that didn't touch (for example, a leaner that falls flat) are left right where they are. Pieces that do touch, however, are captured by the opponent. This is done by having the opponent pick up the discs, form them into a stack, and lay them anywhere on the mat (in-bounds, of course) with his/her color side up. If the opponent makes a successful conversion, his/her turn continues as he/she must now place a leaner with play resuming as normal, that is, with each player taking turns placing leaners.

If, when attempting a conversion, a player causes a fault, that player is not successful in the conversion and must return the pieces still in hand to his/her playstack. The first player (the one who caused the original fault) must then capture and convert any unresolved pieces still left on the board. If successful, play resumes as normal with the successful player placing a leaner; if not successful, play goes back to the other player to attempt to make necessary conversions, and so on.

Throughout the course of the game, you may find it beneficial to create a fault on purpose so that you can convert a leaner to a foundation disc (on which to place additional leaners). In that case, the same rules apply: when you break a leaner, the disc in your hand goes back into your playstack, your turn is over, and your opponent begins his/her next turn by placing a leaner. No conversion is made because no pieces touched during the disruption.

End of the Game

The end of the game usually comes about when one player manages to place his/her last disc, resulting in no more discs in that player's playstack.

The players then count up their points: one point for each disc in a tower of a player's color minus the discs left in the player's playstack. The player with the highest score wins.

Will you enjoy playing Polarity?

It's difficult to know if you will actually enjoy playing Polarity if you've never actually played it. However, these questions should give you a good idea of whether or not Polarity will be enjoyable for you:

1.) Are you (or have you ever been) fascinated by magnets?

2.) Do you occasionally enjoy playing two-player games?

3.) Do you occasionally enjoy playing dexterity games?

4.) Do you like unusual games?

If your answers to all these questions are positive, then you will probably enjoy playing Polarity.

Similarities to Go

Although the ancient game of Go really has little to do with Polarity, I have discovered that they share something in common: the strategy of limiting the free space surrounding your opponent's pieces.

In Go, cutting off your opponent's free spaces (or liberties) is necessary for capturing those pieces.

On the other hand, in Polarity players try to cut off their opponent's free space in order to limit their playing options (which increase the chances of faults, which result in more captures).

In both games, players try to surround their opponent's armies (or groups of pieces) in order to stop the armies from expanding. If successful, the armies either become stagnate or result in points for the victor.

By no means is knowledge of Go necessary to play Polarity. I just thought I would mention this parallel because I happened to notice how a relatively modern game could have such a similar strategy to such an ancient game.

Some Fascinating Thoughts

Occasionally, after the end of a game, I like to sit back and observe the pieces left on the mat and how they just hang there, seemingly suspended by nothing.

Without touching anything, I'll run my fingers around the board and between the discs. To my amazement, every single disc stays perfectly still, unaware that I'm placing my hands between them and their support.

What fascinates me even more is that, when I convert a leaner to a foundation piece by using another disc in my hand, none of the discs involved ever touch each other. This seems strange to me in that, even though the pieces affect each other, in no way do they touch -- either directly or indirectly. In other words, the only thing between the leaner and the disc in my hand is air -- and that's certainly not causing the disruption to happen.

It's almost as if the pieces are connected -- but in a different dimension. By manipulating the piece in my hand in this dimension, I would be pushing and tugging at the string in the other dimension, causing the leaner (that exists in both dimensions) to fall.

In reality, it's the interaction of the discs' magnetic fields that causes the leaner to fall. However, we only name them fields for lack of a better word. We cannot actually touch or see these fields -- we can only observe the way they make objects with magnetic properties interact.

Conclusion

Polarity is definitely a game of dexterity, but it also allows for a considerable amount of strategy. For instance, when placing leaners it is good to consider placing one that would make your opponent's next turn more difficult, without making the situation worse for yourself. It is up to you how aggressive you want to play: the more aggressive you play, the worse you can make it for your opponent -- but the worse it will be for you if you accidentally cause a disruption.

Overall, I think Polarity is a great game. I've introduced it to some of my friends, and while some share my opinion, others don't think it's that great of a game (that's to be expected with all games, I suppose). Personally, I think I like it so much because of its uniqueness and open-ended strategies: I can play Polarity for months and all of a sudden realize a subtle but effective strategy that I was never aware of before. That and its unusual method of play make me eager to show off Polarity.