Branches, Twigs and Thorns
Wednesday, November 29th, 2006A couple of weeks ago my friend James came over. He is not scared of thinking hard, so we played a quick game of Branches, Twigs and Thorns. This is a nice simple-to-learn abstract game using Icehouse pieces and a chessboard. The four-player game uses a full board; the two-player game uses a half board. You also need some small tokens. We used my childhood collection of ½p coins.
This is an occupation game, like Go, but shallower. Its alternative name is Barsoomite Go. A root square is selected on the board to start and players take it in turns laying their icehouse pieces on the board sideways, emanating from the root, until the board is full. At some point in the game, your roots run out of room to grow and you have to lay your roots out of your opponent’s roots. You are penalised, more if your new shoot piece is larger and more if the root laid out from is large. You have to lay down your pieces enclosing areas and trying to crowd your opponent. I found it fascinating.
You can play Branches, Twigs and Thorns at Super Duper Games. There is even an AI opponent.
I suspect Branches, Twigs and Thorns plays better with two. I saw a reference to Sprawl at the Geek, which might be a better multiplayer option. You can also play this at Super Duper Games.
James won the first game easily and looked to be winning the second, but somehow I smothered him at the end, more by luck than judgement, and managed to tie the evening.
8/10