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SOMA News
The IACTA / IACTAplus game. |
11 May 2001
E-Mail. |
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By 2021-07-21 the IACTA game is also named IACTAplus.
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The IACTA game will be searchable as
IACTAplus
There are so many references on the web, to the word IACTA.
So I have decided to introduce the alternative name IACTAplus
I know that it takes time for the web to gather the info from my humble game page,
but hopefully in time, there should only be one response when you or anyone else search for
IACTAplus.
Why this name? Well, a lot of other obvious names were taken, or pointed to some strange places.
So I used my naming of the SOMAplus, and made IACTAplus. But - The game is just the same.
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The history (In English)
This is the board game of IACTA,
a new dice game for 2 players, from 8 years.
It is developed by Thorleif Bundgaard 11.5.2001.
YOU may freely copy the game for personal use, including
use in classrooms or as gifts.
However IF you want to produce and sell copies of the
game, then please make contact to me, so that we can
arrange it.
Here is an alternative packaging, for those traditional
types that think games have to be in square boxes.
Even better might be a luxury wooden version - of course.
The possibilities are endless.
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IACTA
See the Original IACTA board here.
The new dice game. for 2 players from 8 years.
Many games build on historic games or complicated rules.
IACTA is not like these games.
IACTA is simple and yet advanced.
The game allow skilled players to play against lesser skilled.
Try for yourself to throw the dice and experience a facinating game,
where a combination of luck and strategy will lead you to victory.
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Dice has through millennea probably been one of the most known playing tools. In
almost all games the dice however is only used to find a random number to be used
in the game, or to determine important issues.
History tells that emporer Julius Caesar, when he was about to cross the river
Rubicon with his army on route towards Rome, said "The dices are thrown"
The decision is made.!
For an army leader it was forbitten to cross this river, so this moment was the
start of a civil war.
Julius of course said it in Latin, "ALEA IACTA EST"
(which translates directly into "Thrown the dice is")
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In IACTA however, the dices themselves are the essence of the game. The
dice are used both to find the next move, but also as pieces in the board
game itself.
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The IACTA board is of 10 x 10 fields, each player uses 6 dice, and
there are 2 dice for throwing.
If the players are not of equal strength, the best can play with more dice than
the other, thereby introducing a handicap.
POSITIONING
The dice are placed in two of the board corners, for example you play with
2 x 6 dice. 6 red and 6 yellow. The red are placed on the outmost red
places, and the yellow dice are placed on the outmost yellow fields.
The lighter fields are the security border, dice on these fields cannot be stroken by the opponent.
The STRIKE
Now throw the two blue dice at the same time, and choose one to indicate
how far we are to move, the other shows how many spots we shall show
when the moving dice is put down.
You move the indicated amount in any direction (Not diagonal), and you may
change direction once. If for example we throw a 4 and a 2 (and we choose to move 4)
then we could move to one of the fields marked here by X and place the dice
with 2 eyes up.
When moving a dice, all fields count, also if it is occupied by another dice,
but the landing position must be free. (Or striken)
You may abandon a throw, if you
do not wish to move.
You must ALWAYS move exactly the indicated number of spots
on the dice, also when moving to the goal area.
To STRIKE
You strike an opponents dice home, if you can land on it, AND the sum of
your eyes + the opponents eyes are 6, 7 or 8.
You cannot strike a dice that is in it's own start or goal area.
The player that strikes an opponents dice, may determine where in the start
area the dice is to be placed.
The GOAL
The goal is to be the first to get all your dice from one corner to the opposite
corner
If you are not equally good players, then the best
may play with more dice.
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IACTA:
The new dice game.
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NEW IACTA information by 2021.
Content.
• Questions by Daniel Danzer for use in a Youth Club. (a note from 2008)
• A new board design by Paul Habere. (a response from 2021)
• Clarification of rules.
• Suggestion to Rule extension.
Questions by Daniel Danzer for use in a Youth Club. (a note from 2008)
On 2008-04-04 Daniel Danzer [Germany]
wrote to me because he had found the IACTA game.
He was involved in playing games with young people at their youth club and always look for games with simple rules,
but some strategic or tactical possibilities - the teenagers can also create their own games or make their own sets
by using our printer, lasercutter and so on.
In a following mail Daniel asked:
"A question to the rules: In the corners there are 6 strongly colored fields and one diagonal
row, paler. What is the function of the pale fields? Can a struck dice are also placed there?
- I will definitely print a playing field and play with the teenagers next week!
My answer was:
You touch on an undocumented part that I had almost forgotten.
The idea of these lightcolored fields is, to allow the players a varying size of the "homeland"
1. If you are a beginner, it can give you an easier play.
2. If you play with smaller kids, then they can use the extra fields as part of their homeland.
This will give them a slight benefit in the game, allowing a more fair game to be played.
3. If you want a fast game, then both players use the large homeland, and the game will finish quicker.
4. Using this handicap system, one player can use small homelands, while the other use large.
This is agreed before you start the game.
Up to "New by 2021"
A new board design by Paul Habere. (a response from 2021)
On 2021-04-08 Paul Habere contacted me because he and his son had been playing IACTA.
- By the way, Yes it was Paul, who asked the "Christmas 2019 quest" on the SOMA frontpage.
And also he who first sendt solutions to the "Shrinking SOMA" = "7 SOMA pieces in a 64 cube box ?" question.
Paul had made a new innovative playingboard. And had some questions to the gameplay.
Let us first take a look at the new board design.
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• A new board design by Paul Habere.
• This board allow "color blind" people to play.
(Sometimes referred to as “color vision deficiency” or color vision confusion (CVC))
• The board comes in two versions.
1) A 4 color board, using a revised color sceme.
IACTAPH4 Board - Paul Habere.pdf
2) A 4 color board, with arrows, indicating direction of play.
IACTAPH3 Board - Paul Habere.pdf
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First, the difference. The arrows came by, because when playing with younger children, the uniform board layout
could sometimes be confusing, as to which way we are moving. Where do I come from, and where should I go.
So introducing the arrows, can help in these cases.
| Colors: |
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Paul explained the Tokyo color scheme to me like this.
"Colour Universal Design" is a reduced colour palette that attempts to provide colours which are distinguishable across
the most common forms of colour vision deficiency, including deuteranopia, protanopia and tritanopia. In a typical colour
scheme ignorant of human design, red, green and blue are often used together -- which are problematic in their pure forms.
By adding a varying amount of yellow to each colour, a more inclusive palette is reached while maintaining much of the
original colour scheme (to those with normative vision). It is, however, recommended to replace one of the colours by black
for greater contrast and inclusivity.
I am enclosing a relevant paper for your interest.
It tells the basic theory about how "exactly" these colors can be found. The paper by "Yasuyo G. Ichihara et al."
"Color Universal Design -The Selection of Four Easily Distinguishable Colors for all Color Vision Types-"
Can be read here IACTAPH Color sceme - Ichihara.pdf
So, how did Paul and his son play ... They only had 1 dice to roll, so they rolled first for the move, and then
they rolled again to find the "top value". And instead of moving Dice's they made towers of 2x2 LEGO's, stacking
them to the height of the value.
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Here we are seing Paul's game. Using 1 dice, and LEGO pieces.
Clearly a great way to modify the game using what is available.
Right click and open in a new tab, to see a larger image. (you may zoom)
For worst case you will need 36 LEGO's of 2x2. In each color. |
I would think that there are also other pretty special versions somewhere else on our planet. :-)
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Here is a small clip from the Initial Mails with Paul Habere
Date 2021-04-08
Hi Thorleif,
We (my oldest son and I) had fun playing IACTA [in central France.]
-- Covid-19 confinement means making the best of what is at hand.
We only had one die, so we improvised with LEGO. The heights of the tokens represent their current
value and are adjusted during play with each move.
Some questions have arisen:
1. How are the starting values of the token dice calculated? See Clarification-2
2. Is it permissible once having reached the goal area to rather return into the fray and attack or block the opponent? See Clarification-3
3. Can you land on your own piece and so reduce your attack footprint (according to the same tally rule)? See Clarification-4
Another small issue arose in the midst of a game: it is no longer clear in which direction you should be proceeding as both the
start and finish areas appear identical!
Perhaps it would help to delineate the start and finish areas and so encode that knowledge on the board. See Clarification-5
Please find enclosed the game board I put together in TikZ. The color scheme is taken from the Tokyo train timetable system
which includes some extra hues to make the Red/Green/Blue triptych work for the colourblind.
[ This is the boards shown in the links in the top of this article ]
~ Paul
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Date 2021-04-14
Hi Paul
Thank you for your mail
I am really pleased that you play my IACTA game, so let me try to answer your questions.
It is a great idea to adjust LEGO height for value. I would never have thought of such an idea.
It would also be a great thing for small kids, to have LEGO's in the game :-D
Now your questions: ...
The questions are among the subjects in the Clarification section below.
Friendliest Thorleif
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Up to "New by 2021"
Clarification of rules.
Undocumented parts, and things I never thought of.
(1) What are the lightcolored fields
They are to allow the players a varying size of the "homeland"
1. If you are a beginner, it can give you an easier play.
2. If you play with smaller kids, then they can use the extra fields as part of their homeland.
This will give them a slight benefit in the game, allowing a more fair game to be played.
3. If you want a fast game, then both players use the large homeland, and the game will finish quicker.
4. Using this handicap system, one player can use small homelands, while the other use large.
This is agreed before you start the game.
(2) How are the starting values of the token dice calculated?
• The starting values were thought to be a personal choice of strategy.
Do you want to start with 6 cubes of same value and see if that gives you a strategic force.
Should it have 1 - 6. Or should it be a first throw of all 6 dice, and whatever they showed are the values.
So - how the values are found is up to the players, but they should agree if it is a free selection
or a random selection befor starting the game.
(3) Is it permissible once having reached the goal area, to return into the game and attack or block the opponent?
• Yes you may play any piece at any time. So if it is to your advantage to take a finished
dice back into the game then you may. Actually I did not foresee that option.
I always try to get my pieces over to the landing area as fast as possible.
(4) Can you land on your own piece and so reduce your attack footprint?
• No you may not land on your own piece - should it be inevitable for some reason,
then you send your own piece back to start.
(5) Perhaps it would help to delineate the start and finish areas on the board.
• Yes it might, I did not think of that, but it may be worth while to have something that
indicated start and finish corners.
(6) A better endgame.
• I tried to reach a better end game, and maybe:
If you throw two identical dice, (ie. 2+2) then you may chose any number of steps 1 - 6 and make
the 'turn' at a position of your own choise.
At arrival, the number of eyes shown is the same as before the move [or maybe it should be the same as the throw (ie. 2) ? ]
I think that this may help to get the final pieces into one of the few free spots at the end.
(7) The light areas of your "Land".
1. The idea of the 4 light colored front fields is, to allow the players a varying size of the "homeland"
2. If you are a beginner, it can give you an easier play.
3. If you play with smaller kids, then they can use the extra fields as part of their homeland. This will give them a slight benefit in the game,
allowing a more fair game to be played.
4. If you want a fast game, then both players use the large homeland, the game will finish quicker.
5. Using this handicap system, one player can use small homelands, while the other use large.
This is agreed before you start the game.
(8) A minimum-cost IACTA.
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Minimal Game Cost: For a totally minimalistic game, use 2 matches and paper:
Take two matches, remove their heads.
For stick 1 = On each of the 4 long sides you mark spots No,1,No,1
For stick 2 = On each of the 4 long sides you mark spots 1, 3, 5, /\/
Throw both sticks and add their values to get the dice eyes. If you see "/\/" then rethrow both.
For the moveable pieces, make 18 squares of white paper.
6 squares with number 1 and 6 on either side. 6 squares with 2 / 5, and 6 squares with 3 / 4.
And finally 18 similar squares of paper in a different color, with the same number series.
Note: On a real dice, the opposing sides always sum to 7.
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Up to "New by 2021"
Suggestion to rule extension.
Improvement idea from a 2002 holiday - by Thorleif Bundgaard.
(1) If your dice throw show 2 then you are permitted to make a rocade instead of a normal move.
Meaning that you may swap any two dice on the board. Two of your own, two enemy dice,
or one of your own with one enemy dice.
The two swapping dice shall maintain the eyes they show.
And ONLY dice "in game" so NO swapping of Dice in the home areas.
Improvement idea.
(2) The IACTA endgame can be improved, so that it is easier get to your target.
If your dice throw show the same eyes (ie. 2+2, 5+5 etc) then you are permitted to
pick any length of 1 to 6 as your move, and then set your dice to the number on any of the dice.
Made by Thorleif Bundgaard <thorleif@fam-bundgaard.dk>
With ideas for use in a Youth Club. by Daniel Danzer <daniel.danzer@jugendhaus-mitte.de>
With a color optimized board and LEGO pieces. by from Paul Habere <habere@dispertire.org>
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