One player takes the side of Order and the other takes the side of Chaos. Order wants to bring order into the game by getting 5 red checkers or 5 black checkers in a row, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. If he achieves this he wins the game. If he fails then Chaos wins. Order and Chaos alternate turns with Order going first. At each move, a player chooses to play either a black or a red checker. Moves are made by dropping a checker to the lowest unoccupied space in a column.
This game is inspired by Order and Chaos, a game invented by S. Sniderman, played on an horizontal (traditional) 6x6 board (see variant to Tic-Tac-Toe among Zillions' standard games). Vertical Order and Chaos introduces the concept of gravity taken from Vertical Tic-Tac-Toe (also known as Gravitational TicTacToe, 4-in-a-row, and Connect-4). Somewhat surprisingly, Vertical Order and Chaos seems to be a balanced game (more or less) on many different board sizes. Several board sizes have been implemented. The standard game rack for Connect-4 (7x6) can be used for this game, but remember that one must achieve five in a row, and not four.
As in Go-Moku an open-four (4-of-a-kind with two open ends) is an unstoppable threat. Chaos must watch out for this. Order should look for ways to force Chaos to play in spaces where a either a black or red checker brings order. |