Best. Blokus. Variants.
Ever.
These are variants to the
triangle-shaped Blokus Trigon game with 4 players. Overall, our group prefers Trigon to the original Blokus game
since the triangle shapes afford multiple paths into areas of the board.
Blokus
Trigon Variants
· Tunneling
Difficulty: 
While
not quite as complex as the Wraparound variant
for the standard Blokus game, tunneling in Trigon can be a little challenging. There are 2 sets of tunnels, based on the
words around the perimeter of the board:
“Blokus” and “Trigon”.
· Snakes On A Plane
Difficulty:
Named
after the movie, each player’s starting piece must be their large “S” piece and
it must touch one and only one of the 6 triangles in the center circle of the
board. You can orient your “snake” in
any direction, as long as you’re touching exactly one of the 6 triangles in the
center of the board. Other than that,
play resumes normally. This is very
analogous to the Inside Out variant in that
all of the starting pieces are touching each other and fanning out from the
middle.
Tips:
After
much research and experimenting, we found one (and only one) combination of starting
positions where the first 3 players can effectively shut out the 4th player in
2 moves, regardless of how the 4th player plays. See if you can find it!
It’s very difficult to do and requires collaboration from all 3 players.
· Boomerangs In The Outback
Difficulty:
The
direct opposite of Snakes On A Plane, this variant requires everyone to play
their “boomerangs” as their starting piece touching any one of the 6 outside
corners of the board. This is a very
easy variant and great for beginners who want a lot of room to expand their
territory.
Tips:
Aiming
for the middle of the board can sometimes be overrated. Explore the outer rim of the Outback, see
some koalas, and jump with kangaroos. “Mmm…Outback…”
· Bombs Away
Difficulty:
A
piece is designated as the “bomb” piece.
It can be a large piece like the hourglass or ray gun, or a small piece
like the one or two. Whenever anyone
plays their “bomb” piece, any different colored pieces touching any of its flat
sides or diagonal corners on that move get blown away and taken off the
board. The bombed pieces are put away
in the game box and count against the final score of each color at the end. The bomb itself remains on the board,
although now inactive. Other pieces can
touch it in later moves without adverse effects.
If
someone else’s bomb later is played so that it touches an inactive bomb piece,
the inactive bomb piece is then taken off the board in that move.
You
can play this with or without teams. If
you’re playing teams, it’s possible that the way you position your bomb piece
may take off some of your teammate’s pieces as well, which counts against you
both in the end.
Tips:
Save
your bomb piece for when you need to blast a hole through a barrier in order to
pass through it. Don’t wait too long,
though, because opponents can try to make it so that your bomb piece won’t fit
and then you could end up stuck with it at the end where it counts against you.
· Circle The Wagons
Difficulty:
Imagine
creating a lasso with your pieces and taking off all of the different colored pieces
contained within it. That’s how you
play “Circle The Wagons.”
If
you create a circle with your color (say, Green), then any non-Green piece
inside your circle gets taken off the board and placed back in the box. A circle is defined as anything that can
hold a “wagon wheel” (the round 6 piece) inside it. Your lasso doesn’t actually have to have a “wagon wheel” piece in
it. It just has to be large enough
where it could potentially hold that piece.
If
you are able to connect your circle, then anything inside it that’s not your
color gets taken off on that move.
Removed pieces count against the scores of their respective owners at
the end of the game.
You
are allowed to make smaller circles out of your bigger circles to get more bang
for your buck. This strategy led to vicious
races popularized by Scott and David to cast the biggest net before the shootout
begins.
Hypothetically
speaking, let’s say Blue cast a wide net over half the board and took out a
bunch of opposing pieces in one move when he completed his big circle. Then opponents play more of their pieces
into the blue circle since they don’t have anywhere else on the board to go. Blue could play a piece that bisects his
giant circle into 2 large circles (both of which are large enough to hold a “wagon
wheel”). Opposing pieces get taken off the
board again. Blue can continue to make the
area of his large circles smaller and smaller until they no longer are large enough
to hold a “wagon wheel.”
Tips:
Disrupt
opponents’ attempts at making large circles by making small circles of your own
which remove key pieces off the board.
If you can cast a wide net, hold off on connecting the loop until you
have a lot of fish in the net. You can
also eat up valuable real estate on the board, forcing players to enter your
trap because they have no other legal moves.
Mu hu ha ha ha!!!
History:
This
variant originated because Hal would always claim he was “making a circle” when
trying to route his way around the board.
In fact, the phrase became so overused that we made a new house rule—all
players would unite and go after anyone who claimed to be making a circle. Naturally, we have ADD and some people would
inevitably lose focus, much to the chagrin of those who stayed focused on the
target. Making a circle became so popular
that we decided to create a variant and reward those who made the biggest
circles.
· Replacement Therapy
Difficulty:
Replacement
Therapy
· Hydra Replacement Therapy
Difficulty:
Hydra
Replacement Therapy
· Emerald City (3 players)
Difficulty:
To
play with only 3 players, take the fourth color (Green) and place all of those
pieces somewhere on the board. Green should
start around the center and all of the green pieces must touch. After all of the green pieces are on the board,
the 3 players take turns normally using their own colors.