Photo above is property of Greater Than Games
Company: Greater Than Games (Designed by Patrick Rothfuss & James Ernest)
Game: Tak: A Beautiful Game (2nd Edition)
Country: USA 🇺🇸
Language: English
Type of Game: Tabletop Games 📬
Genre: Board Game
Date Played: January 31, 2022
Difficulty (based on 2 Players): 3/10
Size of Team: 2 Players
Time: Unlimited (Suggested 20-60 Mins.)
Price: $59.95
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(Written by Christopher Cureton)In the world of "The Kingkiller Chronicles", the abstract strategy game of "Tak: A Beautiful Game (2nd Edition)" was invented in the ancient past, withstanding the test of time to achieve a legendary status like chess, mancala, or go. In the Four Corners (The Kingkiller Chronicles world), Tak is played by the lowest farmers to the highest of lords. In fact, the different shapes of the pieces are inspired, most likely, by the trapezoid-shape of Cealdish coins and the more simple round shape of a tree branch with a notch cut into it. It became a fashionable custom among Tak aficionados, particularly among nobility, to carry an individualized pair of capstones with you.
In the real world, board game designer James Earnest approached Patrick Rothfuss, wanting to attempt to design Tak as a real, playable game. Though initially skeptical, Rothfuss gave the go-ahead, and Earnest came back with a game that was simple in its design and deep in its strategy, to quote the books, “a beautiful game.” In the last six years, Tak has gained a cult following–the US Tak Association holds regular online tournaments, as well as in-person tournaments at GenCon.
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The contents in Tak are well laid out and make setting up a breeze! When you first open the box, you are greeted with three boards of varying sizes and designs. One side is supposed to represent the higher nobility playing the game, filled with colors and textures of marble and tiles. On the other side of the board are designs that embody the common folk, looks like etching on a table, or pieces of paper that one would lay out to play this game in a tavern. No matter the design, the boards depict a 3x3, 4x4, 5x5, 6x6, or 7x7 grid in which the game is played.
Underneath the boards are the pieces needed to play placed in a velvet insert dividing colors and number of pieces. This is quite important due to the fact that each board size uses a different amount of pieces each player receives. With this setup, players simply just choose a color/shape and all of the pieces up to the size grid they want to play with.
There are 62 wooden pieces and 3 double sided game boards. The pieces are in a light tan half circle shape and a dark brown trapezoidal shape. Both are easily distinguishable and, for playing the game, work well for their tasks.
One thing that I wish the designer could have done better is choosing a better quality wood for the game pieces. Although they look like wood, they are made with much lighter materials. The quality felt not justifiable for the hefty price tag (retail $60).
Photos above are property of Greater Than Games
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In order to play the game of Tak, each player will be controlling their own pieces to create a path from one side of the grid to the other. The two types of pieces the player can control are the standard stones and the Capstone. In order to play, each player decides on how big of a board they want to play on. Each size board provides very different puzzles and battles for the completion of Tak. If we want to play on a 4x4 or lower board, note that the capstone is not used in these variations.
To set up the game, grab the corresponding amount of stones needed for the size grid you have chosen, give one of your colored pieces to the opposite player and the opposite player will give one to you. Take the opposing piece and place it anywhere on the board you wish for your opponent to start. They will do the same with your piece. Now you are ready to play Tak!
On each player's turn, they can do one of two things. Place a stone or move a stack. If you place a stone, you can put it on any empty tile on the grid. Placing it in the correct orientation matters as well, you can play it flat to help you score your line or place a wall to hopefully hinder your opponent from scoring their line. The other action one can take is moving a stack. A stack is defined as any piece or pieces on the board on the same tile which you have control over (your piece is the top piece) You can then choose a cardinal direction and drop any amount of pieces along that straight line path to hopefully gain control over other stacks and create the path to lead you to victory.
The wrench in the game though is each player’s capstone. The capstone has special properties in that it can knock down walls when moving (yours or your opponents) and prevents other pieces from being placed on top of it or continuing movement past the capstone. The capstone is a very powerful piece but if used incorrectly, it might just cost you the game.
Play continues back and forth until a player achieves a path from one outside wall of the grid to the direct opposite wall that they are connecting. It does not have to be a straight path and it can lead to the other walls but as long as there is that connection between opposing sides that player has won the game.
The game can be scored and the rulebook includes point denominations for different scenarios but most of the time we just declared the winner was whoever connected their path first. The only time points matter is in the ending in which one player runs out of pieces to place. If that is the case the opponent has one more turn and then the winner is declared based on how many of their pieces are in the stone (flat) position on the board. This method will most likely occur on smaller boards (3x3 4x4) without a capstone.
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
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Tak sets out to achieve a game that is similar to one of the most played games of all time and by doing so, creates a new puzzle that is both engaging and demonstrably clever. After just a couple of games, each player will have a full understanding of the rules and start to question whether each placement, each wall, each stack move was the best move to take. The puzzle changes drastically depending on the size board that you will play on. The larger boards will yield longer games, with larger stacks to move and more long term strategies. On the smaller boards, each game goes much faster and each player feels like they are trying to play catchup to what the other player does. The game's rules are simple enough to pick up so that players with different experience levels with the game can get on a similar footing relatively quickly. One thing that the designers could improve on is the materials. Currently it's quite basic (while functional) and doesn’t quite fit the aesthetic the game is trying to convey. I'm not sure why there was a need for three separate boards. Overall, Tak is a wonderful, abstract strategy game that Rothfuss and Ernest put a lot of care and work into its design. It pays off by offering a wide variety of strategies and puzzles based on two simple rules in the game.
(If you do decide to try this game, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)
Disclosure: We thank Greater Than Games for providing us with a sample of their game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.
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