Pyramid Review
Knots
Published by Jolly Games
Designed by Tom Jolly
4-piece jigsaw-cut board, 36 color tiles; $11.00
Sometimes a new game is really an old game with a new twist. Certainly there are plenty of twists in Jolly Games' Knots -- that's where it gets its name. From the people who brought you Wiz War comes another low-cost darling.
The product bears similarities to games like the old Avalon Hill puzzler Twixt, where a player had to build a line of pegs and accompanying crossbeams from one side of the board to the other before the opponent's play did the same (or blocked you from doing so); and the Piatnik/Rio Grande entry Toscana that requires two players to build the largest contiguous area of their tile color.
In Knots, the board consists of 36 floor spaces, six on a side. There are 36 tiles depicting a set of ropes left lying about on the floor. These fit together geomorphically, with some ropes stretching straight across the tile, some twisting to the left or right, and some ending in frayed tips. They may cross over each other, split into two directions, or curve back on themselves. Laid out on the board, they'll begin forming patterns.
Both players are given a hand of three tiles, and the rest are turned upside down in a deck (actually you can just as well leave them in a big pile -- it's easier to start the next game, and it's not like anyone is going to memorize them all). Players take turns placing them on the board, trying . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: December 27, 2002
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