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About Sparklies:
Number of players: 2
Playing time: 45 minutes
Age Range: 8 - 88
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Pieces:
1 board, a 9x9 grid
243 coloured squares (81 red, 81 green, 81 blue)
162 player control markers (81 black, 81 white)
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Setup:
The players choose which of them will play black and which will play white. (Black will take the first turn.)
The grid is filled with squares randomly coloured either red, green or blue.
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Definitions:
If a square is controlled by either player, that is indicated by a
black or white background to it showing which player controls it.
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If a square is uncontrolled then it has a neutral background.
(Initially none of the squares are controlled.)
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If a square is active, this means the current player
may choose to change its colour this turn.
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Objective:
Players take alternate turns, starting with black.
The game finishes when all squares are controlled.
The aim of the game is to have control of more
squares than your opponent when the game ends.
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How to play:
Players alternate, taking turns, with black taking the first turn.
A turn consists of three phases.
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Phase 1: CONTROL
You choose an uncontrolled square, and mark it
as now being under your control.
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Phase 2: ACTIVATION
You pick a square you control (it can be the one
you just took control of in phase 1, but it does
not have to be) and activate it.
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Phase 3: PROPAGATION
Pick one of your active squares (initially there will only be one:
the one you just activated in Phase 2). Deactivate it
by choosing either to keep it the same colour or
change it to a different colour. Depending on your
choice, this may activate further squares, in which
case, repeat phase 3 until you have no active squares
left.
You will activate a neighbouring square (and take
control of it, if you don't already control it) if
you control the correct squares around it to mount
a valid attack, and if the square you have just
deactivated is part of that attack.
The idea is to makes choices in phase 1 and 2 that will
make up a valid attack on a third square which in turn,
when deactivated, will form part of a valid attack on
one or more further squares, creating a chain
reaction to let you grab control of as much as possible.
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Valid attacks:
To attack a green square, you must control at least two
red squares next to it.
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Similarly, a blue can be attacked by two or more greens
and a red can be attacked by two or more blues.
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Example:
For instance, in this position, you are playing white. Square b1 is controlled by you and active.
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You proceed to deactivate it, by turning it from green to blue.
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This will leave you with two blue squares (b1 and a2),
adjacent to your opponent's red square (b2). And one of
these two attackers (b1) has just been deactivated
(which is the other necessary condition for a valid attack).
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This is therefore a valid attack and b2 becomes both activated and controlled by you.
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Now another Propagation phase occurs since you have an active square. You must deactivate b2, and may change its colour.
You choose to leave it red.
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Now, in turn, you have two red squares (b2 and c1),
adjacent to an uncontrolled green square (c2). And one of
these two attackers (b2) has just been deactivated.
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This is another valid attack. c2 becomes both activated and controlled by you.
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You deactivate c2 by turning it blue. This now activates both b2 and c1, forming a formation known as a quadrille.
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Now you change first b2, then c1, to green, which activates b1 and c2 again. (This is known as cycling the quadrille.)
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At this point you could continue to cycle this quadrille by changing these two to blue, which would activate b2 and c1
again, and so on. You could use the Advanced mode to do each further
cycle with just one click. But you decide that wouldn't
achieve anything, so you end your turn by deactivating all the active
squares without changing their colour. |
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