Alley Cat Games have a real gem of a board game in their catalogue here. A beautiful evolution of the classic noughts and crosses game. I love Tik Tak Trek.
Rules
This game is beautifully simple but far more challenging than noughts and crosses ever was. We still have a strict 2 player game but now so much more than a 3 x 3 grid.
We have 26 wooden tiles to form the board and each player has 6 campfire tokens (the noughts and crosses scoring pieces). Each of the wooden tiles has a Cross printed on one side and a Nought on the other. There are 4 terrain types, 6 tiles of each and then 2 more water tiles.
Play is started by 2 tiles drawn from the bag (different) and one is placed as a cross and the other a nought. Players then take a tile from the bag and adjoin it to a matching terrain type. If you cannot match it can be played anyway. Water can also be played anyway, and if water is present for a tile that doesn’t match, it has to be played against water. Hopefully that made sense.
Players are looking for that classic 3 in a row in either diagonal, horizontal or vertical. A successful streak means a player plays a campfire piece on the 3rd tile that forms the 3 in a row. Play keeps going until all 26 tiles are out. If players play all 6 campfires then they can move campfires if they achieve any more 3 in a row.
Scoring
This is the great part. The campfire tokens score points based on how many open sides there are to the campfire, including diagonals. If a campfire is boxed in it scores 0 but could score up to 7 more points if only adjoining on one edge. It’s a wonderful twist on the game and I really rate it as our scores have been hugely varied.
The Noughts and crosses evolution.
It’s so clever this game as the creators have brought an awesome strategy element to the game way beyond the basic original game. The board can go off in all directions and whilst it is a quick game it gets furiously competitive while players seek to maximise the scoring potential around the campfire.
You do not always want to go straight into as many 3 in a row as possible because unbelievably that does not always succeed. I’ve won games with half the amount of campfires in play just through having a stronger strategy, it is superb.
Chance
My major gripe with noughts and crosses is there is no chance element and so the better player wins. Even with a simple understanding of the game, you should never lose and the game often results in a stalemate.
That doesn't exist now with Tik Tak Trek. Players draw from the bag and with the 5 different tile types present we have a random chance element that can seriously influence play and the end result, which means the best player will not always win. There is a leveling here which I believe any game requires and the designers have done a wonderful job here.
Compact
It is one of the smallest games I’ve ever come across with the game taking up the area of a couple of beer mats. It’s very smart in that respect and comes in a neat board game tin. It makes for a wonderful travelling companion, certainly a perfect play on our recent cruise holiday to the Canary Islands.
Theme
The theme being set in the wilderness is beautiful. Arguably not relevant in the slightest to the gameplay but it looks great. What it does set is a calming tone which I did appreciate, that natural wilderness and serenity and it does add to the game.
Final Thoughts
I love a simple game where there is a greater depth of strategy. Check and Check. This is a delightful little game that is going to play a big part in our family gaming going forward.
Scores
Zatu Score - 81%
Artwork - 5 out of 5
Complexity - 1 out of 5
Replayability - 5 out of 5
Player interaction - 4 out of 5
Component quality - 4 out of 5
