Game Announcement : Pentactic – Another Take on the Pentominoes Game

Publisher: nestorgames — July 2010

Pentominoes have been part of the common vernacular since Martin Gardner wrote about them in 1957 in his "Mathematical Games" column in Scientific American. U.S. publisher Kadon Enterprises was founded on Kate Jones' Quintillions in 1979, and that game has remained in print for more than thirty years.

The latest ludic take on pentominoes is Néstor Romeral Andrés' Pentactic, published through his own nestorgames. The game board in Pentactic features three playing areas: 8x8, 7x9 and 6x11. In the basic two-player game, one player controls the pentominoes and the other controls a set of eight stones. The stones player removes a pentomino from play, then players take turns placing pieces on one of the playing areas. The stones player must place each stone in a different row and column to try to block the plays of the pentomino player. When no more pentominoes can be placed, the pentomino player subtracts the number of unplaced stones from the number of unplaced pentominos for a final score. The players then switch sides and play again; the player with the lower score of the two matches wins the game.

Additional rules cover solo play and games that can be played with multiple Pentactic sets.