Designer: Gábor Incze

Artist: Nagy Norbert

Publisher:  Drawlab Entertainment (Project: ELITE, Sherlock: Last Call, When I Dream)

Genre/Mechanisms: 2 players, abstract strategy, grid movement, memory

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, TacTiki is already fully-funded. Pledges currently total more than 7x the initial funding goal with 5 days left to go on the campaign.

Player Count: 2

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: light

Risk: medium-high

What It’s About: “An innovative strategy game in which players need to think carefully and remember the enemy’s pieces to outmaneuver them and achieve victory.”

How It Works: “Make your way to the opposite side of the board and build a TAC or TIKI statue with 5 of your pieces on one of your opponent’s start fields. The first player to build a 5-high statue wins the game.”

“The number on the back of each piece represents its rank. The strength hierarchy ranges from 5 to 1 – with the unexpected twist that a rank of 1 is stronger than a rank of 5.”

“During the game, you will move and stack multiple pieces on top of each other, forming columns and initiating attacks against your opponent. Because TIKI has started the war, the player controlling TIKI takes the first turn. On your turn, you may either move pieces or reincarnate a defeated piece. You can move a piece 1 field forward, left, or right, but not backwards or diagonally. One piece can move twice, or two different pieces can move once each. When a piece moves into a field with 1 or more already existing pieces, it is always placed directly on top of the other piece(s). Also, once a piece has reached an opponent’s start field, it may not be moved anymore, neither by you nor by any action of your opponent.”

“When you move one of your pieces directly on top of an opposing player’s piece(s), an attack happens and is immediately resolved. To resolve the attack, rotate the top 2 pieces of the column 180 degrees to expose the hidden ranks. The piece with the weaker rank is defeated and removed from the board. The stronger piece is then rotated back to again hide the piece’s rank. If you attack a field with multiple pieces stacked on each other, the entire column has been attacked and each attack is resolved one at a time. For example, if your rank 4 piece attacks a column made up of a rank 3, a 1, and a 5, it will be stronger than the 3 and the 1, thus rotating and removing them one by one from the column and the board. However, since it is weaker than the 5, the attacking number 4 will also have to leave the battlefield. Column attacks are always resolved from the top to the bottom. When two pieces of the same rank meet, both pieces will remain on the board, but the defending piece is now blocked and may not be moved again until the top piece moves or is defeated in a subsequent attack.”

“Once defeated, a piece is not entirely out of the game. On your turn, you may choose to reincarnate a defeated piece by placing it on one of your empty start fields. However, reincarnation comes with a price – you may NOT move any pieces this turn if you reincarnate a defeated piece. If you have multiple defeated pieces, your choice of which one to reincarnate is secret and the rank of the piece is kept hidden as in the initial setup.”

Comparisons: Several well-rated abstract strategy games that also use grid movement include and Chess; The Duke; Dvonn; Gipf; Hey, That’s My Fish!; Hive; Mexica; Onitama; Ricochet Robots; Tash-Kalar: Arena of Legends; Torres; Tzaar; Yinsh; and Zèrtz.

What Should I Pledge?:
$35 TacTiki Standard Edition: a copy of the Standard Edition of TacTiki with all associated stretch goals.
$90 Limited Wooden Box Edition of TacTiki: a copy of the Limited Deluxe Kickstarter version of TacTiki with all associated stretch goals, in limited quantity. The only difference to this Limited Kickstarter version is the box itself, which can be folded back around on itself with the box used to support the board.

Add-Ons:
$16 Neoprene Player Mat

KS Exclusives
The Wooden Box is a Kickstarter Exclusive.

All-In Total: Assuming you’re not interested in the Limited Wooden Box Edition, then in the continental U.S. you’re looking at $35 for the TacTiki Standard Edition pledge, $16 for the Neoprene Player Mat, and $12 in shipping for a total of $62.

TacTiki completes its Kickstarter on Thursday, November 5th and tentatively ships in May 2021.