Games with Dice
It seems safe to assume that the readers of this magazine think of themselves as abstract gamers, perhaps even abstract game enthusiasts. I don’t think I quite fit that mold. I am fascinated by abstract games, I love the simplicity and beauty they embody. I am often eager to learn how they are played. But after reading a synopsis, or looking over the rules, or watching a video review, or assembling a prototype, my interest almost always wanes.
That was until I found Hive, an abstract that not only grabbed my attention but held onto it. Since Hive has been featured in this magazine (AG10, AG17, and AG20), I am going to make the second assumption, that readers are familiar with how it plays.
Some five years ago, while I was still enjoying my exploration of Hive, I happened across a recommendation for a game called Cubeo. A brand new, self-published, pocket-sized game by Marek Kolcun that claimed Hive as its inspiration.
This tiny game, that only requires a handful of dice and a flat surface the size of a dinner plate, had much of what I loved about Hive, but was even simpler and more streamlined. In this article I will be making several comparisons between Hive and Cubeo. Just to be clear, I think that Hive is an excellent game, and I am very happy to see it getting all the attention that it has been receiving. I believe it deserves the title of modern classic. However, when I want to sit down with an abstract game, I don’t go to my game shelves, I reach for my shoulder bag and pull out the Cubeo set that is always kept there.
Since my discovery of Cubeo, I have found a couple of dozen zero-luck games that can be played with 12 dice and Two-6D6 has become the name of that "game system"—see the BoardGameGeek thread here. I like the idea of being able to play lots of games with a pocket-sized set, but, as it turns out, Cubeo is the only one I want to play whenever I pull it out.
In this article, I will explain the rules, make a few comments about Cubeo, and give a full annotated game. Firstly, here are the rules, lightly edited from the file available here on BoardGameGeek. If you would prefer to learn the rules from a video, there is an instructional video here on BoardGameGeek.
That was until I found Hive, an abstract that not only grabbed my attention but held onto it. Since Hive has been featured in this magazine (AG10, AG17, and AG20), I am going to make the second assumption, that readers are familiar with how it plays.
Some five years ago, while I was still enjoying my exploration of Hive, I happened across a recommendation for a game called Cubeo. A brand new, self-published, pocket-sized game by Marek Kolcun that claimed Hive as its inspiration.
This tiny game, that only requires a handful of dice and a flat surface the size of a dinner plate, had much of what I loved about Hive, but was even simpler and more streamlined. In this article I will be making several comparisons between Hive and Cubeo. Just to be clear, I think that Hive is an excellent game, and I am very happy to see it getting all the attention that it has been receiving. I believe it deserves the title of modern classic. However, when I want to sit down with an abstract game, I don’t go to my game shelves, I reach for my shoulder bag and pull out the Cubeo set that is always kept there.
Since my discovery of Cubeo, I have found a couple of dozen zero-luck games that can be played with 12 dice and Two-6D6 has become the name of that "game system"—see the BoardGameGeek thread here. I like the idea of being able to play lots of games with a pocket-sized set, but, as it turns out, Cubeo is the only one I want to play whenever I pull it out.
In this article, I will explain the rules, make a few comments about Cubeo, and give a full annotated game. Firstly, here are the rules, lightly edited from the file available here on BoardGameGeek. If you would prefer to learn the rules from a video, there is an instructional video here on BoardGameGeek.
Rules
The components are two distinguishable sets of six 6-sided dice and any flat surface.
To win, you must either block your opponent from being able to make a valid move, or be the first player to merge dice to a value greater than 6.
Cubeo never ends in a draw, and always has a decisive result.
To begin, both players place one die, single pip up with value 1, in the centre of the playing surface, with both dice touching along a side. The other five dice of each player are the player's pool.
The components are two distinguishable sets of six 6-sided dice and any flat surface.
To win, you must either block your opponent from being able to make a valid move, or be the first player to merge dice to a value greater than 6.
Cubeo never ends in a draw, and always has a decisive result.
To begin, both players place one die, single pip up with value 1, in the centre of the playing surface, with both dice touching along a side. The other five dice of each player are the player's pool.
Choose a starting player. The players alternate turns. There are three ubiquitous rules that must be obeyed at all times:
- The Single Formation Rule: All dice in the formation must form a single group and be touching another die on at least one side.
- The Pinning Rule: Imagine removing a given die; if the remaining dice would break the Single Formation Rule, then that die is pinned and cannot move.
- The Slide Rule: To add (or remove) a die, it must be possible to slide it into (or out of) the formation without lifting it from the surface or moving any of the other dice.
During your turn you must perform one of the following actions:
- Add a die from your pool to the formation (always single pip up). The newly added die must touch at least one of your other dice, but cannot touch sides with any of the opponent's dice (diagonal corners are allowed). According to the Slide Rule, it must be possible to slide the die into formation from off the board.
- Move a die that is not pinned around the outside of the formation according to the Slide Rule, one space (die side) for each pip (die value). The die must move its full value, but may change directions while moving. This move must change the formation.
- Merge two dice, provided you have at least three dice in the formation. You may add the values of two of your adjacent dice and consolidate them into a single die, removing one of them. Removing the die must not break the formation, so it must not be pinned. The removed die returns to your pool.
Comments
A Cubeo set is inexpensive to put together and highly portable and accessible. Here is a set I put together (with my Two-6D6 logo). My most portable set weighs less than an ounce. The set in the image below weighs 3 oz. A Pocket Hive set weighs 8 oz and is much bulkier.
A Cubeo set is inexpensive to put together and highly portable and accessible. Here is a set I put together (with my Two-6D6 logo). My most portable set weighs less than an ounce. The set in the image below weighs 3 oz. A Pocket Hive set weighs 8 oz and is much bulkier.
Here is a game we played on a scrap of flotsam during a backpacking trip to a wilderness beach on Washington’s Olympic Coast.
One of the victory conditions in Cubeo is to merge two of your dice up to a number greater than six (a value that cannot be expressed on a six sided die). Marek and I accomplish this by stacking the two dice into a “victory tower.” The victory tower is not required by the rules, but it sure feels good. This is an image Marek posted on BoardGameGeek, showing the victory tower at the end of a game he played in a pub.
In Hive, the only victory condition is surrounding the Queen. If you cannot make a valid move, you just lose your turn. This is, strategically, a big difference between Hive and Cubeo. Beginning Cubeo players often focus too much of their early game on merging, discounting the power of the other victory condition: denying their opponent a valid move. Moving to pin and block can defeat an opponent who is overly focused on merging (especially in the early game). I often see this happen in games when I am teaching a new player.
I think of it as being analogous to a wrestling match with an additional win condition, such as solving a logic puzzle. If you start the match thinking too much about the puzzle, you’ll be too slow and your opponent will pin you easily. You need to start by being focused on wrestling. Then think about the puzzle as the opportunities arise, while you are grappling. You cannot focus so much on the puzzle that you let your guard down. But you have to focus on it enough so that your opponent cannot come up with the answer first.
This is where I think Cubeo’s depth is hiding. I do not have the where-with-all to determine whether Cubeo has the strategic depth of Hive. (I don’t even know how that would be measured, although the interview with Stephen Tavener in AG20 has some interesting ideas.) Most people seem quite certain that Hive is deeper. It is likely they are right, but I doubt they have looked very deeply into Cubeo. For a short, tight game like Cubeo (the sort I have heard described as a knife fight in a phone booth), I find the surprising amount of depth very satisfying.
The first few moves, as with the openings of many abstract strategy games, can become a little predictable (there are really only two openings). But soon after each player has three dice in the formation, the game quickly turns into that unpredictable mental wrestling match, complete with advancing threats, setting up traps, posting guards, and finding sneaky ways to free your dice and escape. It is often hard to tell who has the advantage, and (like a good wrestling match) one unanticipated move can flip things around. I have been playing Cubeo for five years now, and I am still learning.
As with Hive, there is no capturing or attrition. But with Cubeo, merging dice has the double benefit of bringing a die back into your pool to be redeployed on a later turn. One of the pitfalls that you will learn early on is how dangerous it can be to have all six of your dice in the formation. When that occurs, you only have two options on your turn instead of three, and that can be a big step toward having no valid move, and defeat. Of course it is also hazardous to have too few dice in the formation, another tricky balancing act, and another source of depth.
With only a handful of common dice and one page of rules, Marek has managed to create a game that I am finding more compelling than the “modern classic” that inspired it. You can see that Cubeo and Hive are siblings, but as with so many siblings, they are decidedly unique individuals.
There is further discussion of Cubeo here on BoardGameGeek.
I think of it as being analogous to a wrestling match with an additional win condition, such as solving a logic puzzle. If you start the match thinking too much about the puzzle, you’ll be too slow and your opponent will pin you easily. You need to start by being focused on wrestling. Then think about the puzzle as the opportunities arise, while you are grappling. You cannot focus so much on the puzzle that you let your guard down. But you have to focus on it enough so that your opponent cannot come up with the answer first.
This is where I think Cubeo’s depth is hiding. I do not have the where-with-all to determine whether Cubeo has the strategic depth of Hive. (I don’t even know how that would be measured, although the interview with Stephen Tavener in AG20 has some interesting ideas.) Most people seem quite certain that Hive is deeper. It is likely they are right, but I doubt they have looked very deeply into Cubeo. For a short, tight game like Cubeo (the sort I have heard described as a knife fight in a phone booth), I find the surprising amount of depth very satisfying.
The first few moves, as with the openings of many abstract strategy games, can become a little predictable (there are really only two openings). But soon after each player has three dice in the formation, the game quickly turns into that unpredictable mental wrestling match, complete with advancing threats, setting up traps, posting guards, and finding sneaky ways to free your dice and escape. It is often hard to tell who has the advantage, and (like a good wrestling match) one unanticipated move can flip things around. I have been playing Cubeo for five years now, and I am still learning.
As with Hive, there is no capturing or attrition. But with Cubeo, merging dice has the double benefit of bringing a die back into your pool to be redeployed on a later turn. One of the pitfalls that you will learn early on is how dangerous it can be to have all six of your dice in the formation. When that occurs, you only have two options on your turn instead of three, and that can be a big step toward having no valid move, and defeat. Of course it is also hazardous to have too few dice in the formation, another tricky balancing act, and another source of depth.
With only a handful of common dice and one page of rules, Marek has managed to create a game that I am finding more compelling than the “modern classic” that inspired it. You can see that Cubeo and Hive are siblings, but as with so many siblings, they are decidedly unique individuals.
There is further discussion of Cubeo here on BoardGameGeek.
Annotated game
We show an annotated game move by move below. Nevertheless, some people have difficulty following Cubeo moves from one image to the next, especially later in the game when there are more dice in the formation. I strongly suggest grabbing some dice and physically making the moves for each turn. It is surprising to me how much more immersed in the game I become when I'm handling and seeing actual dice.
As I mentioned in my article, Cubeo really only has two openings. On a player's first move, the player may only add a die to the starting formation. At the start, players do not have enough dice in the formation to merge, and moving would only rotate the formation. So they have the choice of two effectively different spaces to which they can add their die. The most commonly chosen is what I call the “close opening," placing the new die to the right or to left of the die of the player's colour that is already in the formation. These two spaces are mirror images and therefore are strategically the same.
We show an annotated game move by move below. Nevertheless, some people have difficulty following Cubeo moves from one image to the next, especially later in the game when there are more dice in the formation. I strongly suggest grabbing some dice and physically making the moves for each turn. It is surprising to me how much more immersed in the game I become when I'm handling and seeing actual dice.
As I mentioned in my article, Cubeo really only has two openings. On a player's first move, the player may only add a die to the starting formation. At the start, players do not have enough dice in the formation to merge, and moving would only rotate the formation. So they have the choice of two effectively different spaces to which they can add their die. The most commonly chosen is what I call the “close opening," placing the new die to the right or to left of the die of the player's colour that is already in the formation. These two spaces are mirror images and therefore are strategically the same.
The second opening is what I refer to as the “far opening." This may appear to be a weaker or more timid opening, but in my experience, it is just a different strategic path, not a weaker one. It may be effective if you feel the need to shake up the way you play.
For this example game, I will use the close opening so I can explain the next concept, “mirroring.” (Another reason to use the far opening is that it will avoid mirroring.) Green moves first from the starting formation. Green's moves are shown in the left diagrams below; Blue's moves are shown on the right.
For this example game, I will use the close opening so I can explain the next concept, “mirroring.” (Another reason to use the far opening is that it will avoid mirroring.) Green moves first from the starting formation. Green's moves are shown in the left diagrams below; Blue's moves are shown on the right.
Once the first player has chosen the close opening, the second player has only two spaces available to place a die, close (opposite side from Green, as shown in Move 2, above) and far. The choice is similar to the two opening options, and again it does not matter much which one Blue chooses. Either way, the second player is likely to end up in the same mirroring situation. Blue continues to mirror Green with the next few moves.
The players are still mirroring each other. Mirroring can feel like a mindless tactic, but I think of it as analogous to opponents circling each other at the start of a wrestling match. Except that Green, being one move ahead (leading the placements), has the advantage—continuing the mirroring pattern too far will result in a superior position for Green. So it is up to Blue to decide when best to break the mirror. Once the mirror is broken, we enter the middle game, and things become much less predictable.
Blue has broken the mirror at Move 10.
Green responds with a “cross formation" on Move 11. The cross formation is often seen as being very difficult to beat. However, the more I study it, the less I believe this to be the case. It is true, of course, that a cross cannot be pinned and blocked with only six dice. Also, it leaves the player with at least one, but in this case two dice, to continue to add and merge. But the cross is not as stable as it seems, and it is often easy to break up. In this game, Blue simply ignores it and gains the lead on merging, stealing Green’s tempo advantage.
Green realizes the tables have been turned at Move 15. Green is now in the awkward position of having to deconstruct the cross to have the dice needed to pin down Blue’s merge threat that is accumulating at the bottom of the formation.
After Move 18, Green may be considering moving the 1-pip die (on the left side of the formation) down to threaten to pin the blue 1-pip die on left side of Blue’s merge group at the bottom. However, the green 1-pip would likely just get pinned there (thus Blue’s 1-pip is acting as a “guard” for the left side of the group). So Green instead chooses to merge up for greater mobility, with the hope eventually of being able to pin Blue’s merge group in a longer distance move.
You will notice that every time Green merges up, Blue answers with another merge in order to keep the tempo.
Things have changed enough that Green will decide to go around the right-hand side of the formation with Move 25.
Now that Blue has merged to a 4-pip on Move 26, Green moves the 3-pip into a threat/sacrifice position on Move 27. The green 3-pip is now within striking distance to pin the four threat, but it is also within range to be pinned by the 4-pip as a sacrifice. Blue opts to take the sacrifice, with Move 28. This pulls the 4-pip away from Blue’s other dice, slowing the merge down. Green is hoping to be able to isolate and pin the 4-pip.
Green adds a die threatening to pin the 4-pip, with Move 29, but Blue just moves around it with Move 30, landing above the blue 2-pip and threatening to merge to a 6-pip.
With Move 31, Green adds a die at the bottom of the formation to guard the would-be 6-pip, blocking the space below the blue 2-pip for adding a die from the pool.
But, with Move 32, Blue switches from the merging-up strategy to the pin-and-block strategy.
Blue could have made the move to this position back on Move 30, but at that time Green still had a die in the pool. This would have allowed Green to add to the inside-corner (diagonal upper-left from the green 3-pip), thus freeing the green 3-pip. Once Green added the die at Move 31, and had all six dice in the formation, this was no longer a threat.
But, with Move 32, Blue switches from the merging-up strategy to the pin-and-block strategy.
Blue could have made the move to this position back on Move 30, but at that time Green still had a die in the pool. This would have allowed Green to add to the inside-corner (diagonal upper-left from the green 3-pip), thus freeing the green 3-pip. Once Green added the die at Move 31, and had all six dice in the formation, this was no longer a threat.
Green merges with Move 33 to get a die back into the pool. Blue keeps building, there are still two free green dice Blue needs to pin.
Green has accepted the inevitable by now, but dutifully tries to avoid being pinned for a few more moves.
With Blue's Move 44, Green is now completely pinned and has no move available. Blue wins.
Conclusion
I hope this game adequately demonstrates the need and benefit of switching between the two strategies (the two victory conditions), how important it is for the second player to pay close attention to the timing when breaking the mirror, and also how having all six dice in the formation changes the dynamics of the game.
If you followed my suggestion and pulled out some dice to play along with this annotated game, you already have a Cubeo set in hand. Otherwise, just grab a few dice, and you have an interesting strategy game you can take anywhere! As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, Cubeo is currently an obscure game. Users on BoardGameGeek generally consider a game obscure if it has fewer than 500 ratings. As of this writing Cubeo has 48 ratings (Hive has 30,000). You won’t find Cubeo packaged on the shelf of your local game store—but you can probably buy dice there. An online search will lead you to the BoardGameGeek Cubeo page, not Amazon. As of this writing, there is no Cubeo smartphone app and Cubeo is not on any of the online game sites. BoardGameGeek user, Love Brandefelt, has created what looks to me to be a very good digital AI version that can be downloaded here for Windows or Linux. I have played a few asynchronous games using the BoardGameGeek forums. Fortunately, BoardGameGeek’s emoticons include all the faces of six-sided dice in both black and white, and the blank Scrabble tile works as a spacer. ◾️
Conclusion
I hope this game adequately demonstrates the need and benefit of switching between the two strategies (the two victory conditions), how important it is for the second player to pay close attention to the timing when breaking the mirror, and also how having all six dice in the formation changes the dynamics of the game.
If you followed my suggestion and pulled out some dice to play along with this annotated game, you already have a Cubeo set in hand. Otherwise, just grab a few dice, and you have an interesting strategy game you can take anywhere! As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, Cubeo is currently an obscure game. Users on BoardGameGeek generally consider a game obscure if it has fewer than 500 ratings. As of this writing Cubeo has 48 ratings (Hive has 30,000). You won’t find Cubeo packaged on the shelf of your local game store—but you can probably buy dice there. An online search will lead you to the BoardGameGeek Cubeo page, not Amazon. As of this writing, there is no Cubeo smartphone app and Cubeo is not on any of the online game sites. BoardGameGeek user, Love Brandefelt, has created what looks to me to be a very good digital AI version that can be downloaded here for Windows or Linux. I have played a few asynchronous games using the BoardGameGeek forums. Fortunately, BoardGameGeek’s emoticons include all the faces of six-sided dice in both black and white, and the blank Scrabble tile works as a spacer. ◾️