Noughts and Crosses | Territory Games

Players take turns in marking squares on a 3 x 3 grid. The first player to get three squares in a row wins.

Description

This game, also called Ticktacktoe in the USA, is probably the best known pencil and paper game.
The game is played on a 3 x 3 grid, typically created by drawing a # on a piece of paper. One player is 'O' and the other is 'X'. Players take turns in drawing their symbol in one of the positions on the grid. The first player to make a line of three of their symbol horizontally, vertically, or diagonally wins.
If both players play perfectly the outcome is always a draw, but with inexperienced players the game is just complex enough to make the game interesting.

Example

For example, the following game shows how the first player can force a win by starting in the centre square if the second player is foolish enough to reply on the edge:

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Dots and Boxes | Territory Games

Players take turns in drawing lines between dots on a grid. The player who completes the most boxes wins.

Description

The game is played starting with a rectangular array of dots.
The two players take turns to join two adjacent dots with a horizontal or vertical line. If a player completes the fourth side of a box they initial that box and must draw another line.
When all the boxes have been completed the winner is the player who has initialled the most boxes.
The game is more complex than it initially appears, and even on a 4x4 grid there is plenty of opportunity for skilful play.

Example

The following game on a 3x3 grid is won by Blue, who scores 3 against Red's one:

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3D Noughts and Crosses | Territory Games

Players take turns in marking squares on a 4 x 4 x 4 grid. The first player to get four squares in a row wins.

Description

To make the board draw four 4 x 4 grids stacked vertically, representing a 4 x 4 x 4 cube. It is easier to visualise the cube if you draw the grids in perspective.
The players take turns in drawing their symbol, O or X, in one of the cells. The first player to make a line of four cells in any direction wins. Winning lines can be horizontal, vertical, diagonal within one grid, vertical between grids, diagonal between grids, or diagonal in all three dimensions.

Example

In the following game O started, and won by making the line shown highlighted:

History

Commercial versions of the game have been sold consisting of four perspex boards stacked in a cube, with black and white counters or marbles for making moves.

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Battleships | Territory Games

Players take turns in trying to guess the locations of the other player's ships on a grid.

Description

Each player draws two 10 x 10 grids, labelled along the sides with letters and numbers. On the left-hand grid the player secretly draws rectangles representing their fleet of ships:

 

The fleet

Each player's fleet consists of the following ships:

• 1 x Aircraft carrier - 5 squares
• 1 x Battleship - 4 squares
• 1 x Cruiser - 3 squares
• 2 x Destroyers - 2 squares each
• 2 x Submarines - 1 square each

Each ship occupies a number of adjacent squares on the grid, horizontally or vertically.

Play

During play the players take turns is making a shot at the opponent, by calling out the coordinates of a square (eg D5). The opponent responds with "hit" if it hits a ship or "miss" if it misses. If the player has hit the last remaining square of a ship the opponent must announce the name of the ship; eg "You sank my battleship".
During play each player should record their opponent's shots on the left-hand grid, and their shots on the right-hand grid as "X" for a hit and "O" for a miss:



The first player to lose all their ships loses the game.

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Go Moku | Territory Games

Players take turns in marking squares on a grid. The first player to get five squares in a row wins.

Description

The game is played on a large piece of squared paper, at least 15 x 15. The players take turns in marking a square with their symbol (eg O and X). The first player to get five squares in a row, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, wins.

Variations

The game can also be played with black and white counters on a large board, such as a Go board.
In the basic game the first player has an advantage, so a number of rules have been introduced to reduce this:

• Overlines rule: Only a row of exactly five squares wins; rows of six of more, called overlines, do not count.
• Three and Three rule: A move must not simultaneously create two open rows of three squares (rows not blocked at either end by an opponent's square).
• Four and Four rule: A move must not simultaneously create two rows of four squares, whether blocked or not.
• These restrictions are sometimes only applied to the first player.

History

The game has been known under a number of different names, including Five in a Row, Go Bang, and Pegit.
Go-Moku is from the Japanese "go moku narabe", meaning "five piece line-up". It was introduced into Britain in the 19th century as Go Bang, probably a corruption of Go Ban, the name of the table used for playing Go.

Example

The following example shows a typical game won by the first player

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