Game 51: Rumis

We played our new game Rumis this morning just before saying "good-bye" to Anthony, Brianna, and Declan.  They gave this to us last night as a combined birthday gift, and it's a good gift!  It's a game of maximizing territory -- not the usual 2-dimensional territory but rising up into 3 dimensions!  And the important part is where you end up at the top of the structure.  As you build up with your "stones" (or "rumi") your newly laid stones need to touch at least one face of one of your previously laid pieces.  Surprising things can happen as people try to block each other and ways are found to sneak through.

 It can get pretty frustrating!
 But it's a fun frustration!
 There are multiple layouts, and they are intended to represent elements of ancient Mayan civilization: pyramid, tower, wall, and stairs.  I like the flavor that this gives to the game.  Our version is the classic, which first came out in the early 2000s.  There have been a couple of new versions since, including one that is expanded for 6-person play.

 Once players have played all the pieces they possibly can, they score by counting the number of faces of their color showing from the top and then subtracting the number of cubes in the pieces they have left.
Territory games are really David's forte, and he wasn't here to play this morning.  I am already anticipating losing to him frequently but improving my strategy each time we play!  We'll see.  I may have to report back about this one.

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