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ZÈRTZ box art

ZÈRTZ

Game ID: GID0397831
Game Info
Year
1999
Collection
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Description

In ZÈRTZ, the third addition to the GIPF Project, players compete to acquire sets of multi-colored balls. This is mostly accomplished by jumping one ball over one or more others, Checkers-style, on a hex board. A player's turn consists of either jumping (which can be forced) or placing any color ball on the board and removing an empty space from the edge of the board. In this manner, the play space continually shrinks, giving the endgame an almost claustrophobic feel.

This game is part of project GIPF.

Description

In ZÈRTZ, the third addition to the GIPF Project, players compete to acquire sets of multi-colored balls. This is mostly accomplished by jumping one ball over one or more others, Checkers-style, on a hex board. A player's turn consists of either jumping (which can be forced) or placing any color ball on the board and removing an empty space from the edge of the board. In this manner, the play space continually shrinks, giving the endgame an almost claustrophobic feel.

This game is part of project GIPF.

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All mentions
Browse transcript mentions, sentiments, pros/cons, mechanics, topics, quotes, and references.
Total mentions: 1
This page: 1
Sentiment: pos 0 · mix 1 · neu 0 · neg 0
Mentions per page
Showing 1–1 of 1
Video 6-s3MYcvF8w Chairman of the Board Top List at 5:22 sentiment: mixed
video_pk 87267 · mention_pk 227652
Chairman of the Board - ZÈRTZ video thumbnail
Click to watch at 5:22 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
mixed
Pros
  • Incredible table presence, looks polished and sophisticated.
  • The forced jump mechanism can lead to cascading marble collection.
  • Fascinating and grabs attention, compelling the reviewer to play more.
  • One of the reviewer's favorite looking games of all time.
Cons
  • Strategy is obtuse and opaque.
  • Feels like going through the motions without understanding the core strategy.
  • Struggling to find the crux of the gameplay.
Thematic elements
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
  • abstract strategy — Players place marbles and remove discs, forcing jumps and collecting marbles.
  • Area Control (Implicit) — The board becomes tighter as discs are removed.
  • Movement Programming (Forced) — If a marble can jump over another, that move is forced, and the jumped marble is collected.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
  • This is where I take a look at the last five new to me board games that I've played and I rank them from my least favorite up to my most favorite.
  • I find them a little bit syy and a little bit tedious a bit monotonous.
  • Mechanisms wise I think this game is awesome but the cards themselves just a little bit too restrictive.
  • it kind of strikes that Perfect Harmony of being again enough going on but not basic
  • This one's up there with probably I imagine it's probably top three for me at this point.
References (from this video)
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