Friday 6 May 2016

Thin Ice - Project Funded!

Thank you everyone that has backed out kickstarter, we have now reached our funding goal which is amazing, if you have not had a chance to look at the game here is a breakdown of what it is all about ...









You move on an ever-diminishing ice sheet represented by the tiles whilst trying not to get stranded on a separated ice floe and drifting away.  Make pacts, break pacts, laugh, despair and come face-to-face with the polar bear - survival has never been so much fun!
...and if that's not challenging enough, a deck of event cards brings an added level of dirty tricks, audacious actions and stress-relieving laughter.  
 The winner in Thin Ice termed the “survivor” is the last player to be able to keep moving on the ever shrinking ice.   
If you can’t keep moving then a dip into the sea becomes your last action and becoming separated on a single ice floe will be your final farewell to the group. 








Each game uses the 4 main types of double-sided tiles:









Set-up is simple - The Ice hole is placed in the center and a grid of tiles ice face up made around it.  The polar bear is "asleep" (not for long!) on its side in the middle and the meeples placed adjacent to it.  That's it - ready to play..... 
A 3-4 player game uses a 5 x 5 tile grid, a 5-6 player game a 6x6 tile grid. 









 Play occurs in a clockwise direction starting with the youngest:
A player's turn: a player can do 3 actions in any order of their choosing:    
a)  move your meeple to any adjacent tile (with no other playing piece on) and turn over the tile just moved off from to its cracked side
b)  slide an uncracked tile with no other playing piece on (up, down, left or right) one space 
c)  roll the dice & carry out the action    
~
Example of a turn: The Green Meeple player movesslides and rolls
a)  Moves:  the green meeple is moved to the left and the tile it moved from is turned over to show that it is now cracked
b)  Slides:  a tile (top right) is slide one space to the right 
c)   Roll:  the die is rolled and according to the roll the player decided which ice tile to crack and turns it over to its cracked side 
The die is passed to the next player clockwise and their turn begins....











1) When a cracked tile is moved off of it is discarded.
2) When a tile is no longer adjacent to another tile it is adrift and discarded.
 So before long space is limited and its every meeple for itself....






Sorry - I'm showing my age - but hey, Highlander, what a film.


 If a Polar Bear symbol is rolled on the die the Polar Bear can be moved onto any adjacent tile or sea space (of course Polar Bears can swim!). A player on the space the Polar Bear is moved onto is moved to any spare adjacent tile (but not the one the bear is moving from) ....unfortunately, if no adjacent tile is available then a jump into the sea is the meeple's last action as shown below for Mr Yellow!









Mr Yellow has strayed to close to the icy edge and another player during their turn slides the connecting ice tile away.  Mr Yellow is no longer adjacent to another tile so is adrift and lost at sea. 









 Mr Yellow has come a cropper again!  The yellow meeple has to move and unfortunately the sea is the only place available apart from the Killer Whale.....either way, Ms Scarlett is thesurvivor - although not in the most favourable of situations!!  






  • the Killer Whale, what is that used for?
  • the tactics and strategies to stay alive?
.....well that would be spoiling all the fun wouldn't it!



The Core game playthrough video below shows the game in motion:

Note:  The game only seems to take about 8 minutes because all the umming and arrhing and banter (the best bit!!!)  was edited out as not to bore the pants off of you.  
Also you will not that towards the end of the game the players don't bother to take the "adrift" tiles from the table as they know they will have no further affect on the game and we are just such a laid back bunch! 

The intermediate game uses the Core rules + Event cards.  
The Event cards allow players to perform actions both during their turn or during specific times during the game to hinder their opponents or help their own chances of survival.
Example of an Event card:   



The Green meeple uses the "Mighty Leap" card to get out of a potential spot of bother:



 Each player has a hand of 2 Event cards which can be used or discarded and refreshed throughout the game.
The Intermediate game playthrough video below shows the cards in use:









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