CONNECT THE LINES — a tile placement (hexagonal) card game for 2 – 4 players — is on Kickstarter and is currently funded at 50% of its goal with 24 days remaining.
The game consists of 36 hexagonal tiles with differently-lined faces patterns: the Hub (with a star-burst of 6 lines leading to all edges), the straight line, the wide turn, the sharp turn, the broken line, and the Bridge (used to overcome any dead ends).
Starting with the placement of the Hub tile, the object of the game is to take turns placing other tiles adjacent to the Hub, making sure the line of the newly-played tile touches the line of the tile played before it. If at any time a player cannot place a tile, they draw a tile and end their turn. When no play is possible by any player, or the last tile held by a player is played (becoming the winner), the game ends. If the game ends with tiles in all players’ hands, the point values assigned to each tile is tallied, and the player with the lowest points wins.
What makes this game unique is (1) the playing area can be anything — a table, the floor, a patio, etc. — so there are no bounds of play beyond the edge where the game is played; (2) there are an infinite combination of lined patterns that can result and are fun to watch.
Strategy: Do not passively play out the tiles in an open pattern or else the player who lays down the first tile is likely to win. Each player must create road blocks (which can only be “repaired” using a limited number of Bridge tiles) that may force other players to draw additional tiles. Also, if a player judges that their hand has the lowest point value, it is to their advantage to force the game to end early.
This game was first introduced on Kickstarter as a print-and-play (PnP) version, where backers got a file sent to them that they could print, cut out, then play on their own. With that successful backing, the new, improved manufactured version is open to all on Kickstarter. Check it out.
For more information, contact John Kohn at johnhkohn2016@gmail.com, or call 703-282-0085.
