Warning!
THIS BOOK CAN CAUSE PLAYERS TO DEVELOP SIGNIFICANT BRAIN ABILITIES, AS WELL AS AN UNSTOPPABLE GROWTH OF MATHEMATICAL, STRATEGIC AND LINGUISTIC SKILLS. IN SHORT, A CONSTANT TRAINING OF THE GRAY MATTER THROUGH GAMES AND LAUGHTER!
IF YOU ARE SURE YOU ARE READY, HERE IS WHAT AWAITS YOU…
ASTRO CHALLENGE
The frst game of the book is inspired by Dara, the ancestor of African origin of chess, as well as distant cousin of tic-tac-toe. However, this one provides a little extra excitement! To win, in fact, you have to be cunning and calm enough to predict the moves of your opponent and create the right strategy to counterattack.
THE SPACE WALK
This space walk could seem really simple at frst, but it does hide some pitfalls! It will challenge you to reach the shuttle frst, but at the same time it will teach you how to calmly assess your moves. Finally, without you noticing, between the roll of a die and a laugh, this game will train your mathematical skills and help you understand the concept of probability.
TIC-MATH-TOE
The rules you must follow inside this laboratory resemble those of tic-tac-toe, but I have added a little something that transforms this traditional game into a more stimulating activity. What’s it all about? You’ll fnd out by reading the rules. I can only anticipate that you will become masters of calculus!
Astro CHALLENGE
Number of players: 2
Contents: 12 counters per player
Aim of the game: to capture the opponents’ counters
How to play: To start the game, every player, in turn, must position a counter on a space of his choice of the playing board. This preparation continues until both players have positioned all their 12 counters. Warning! In this phase you must not create a horizontal or vertical line of 3 consecutive counters.
Because this is the actual aim of the game! During the match, in fact, each player, making one move at a time, chooses one of his counters to move to an empty space, trying to form a row of 3 counters in a horizontal, vertical but not diagonal line. Every time a player forms a row, he can choose to capture one of his opponents’ counters. Remember: the rows that count are those with 3 counters, not one more, not one less! The key is strategy, do not get caught out. The winner is the player that leaves his opponent with only 2 counters.
THE SPACE WALK
Number of players: 2 to 4
Contents: 1 die, 1 counter per player
Aim of the game: to reach the entrance f rst
How to play: Place the counters in a row on the starting space: the f rst to move is the player who, by rolling the die, throws the highest number. The game then starts with the f rst player who rolls the die again: if he gets 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 he can advance as many spaces as his score or he can decide to
100ENTRANCE!
roll the die again. Until he keeps rolling 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6, he can keep throwing the die and add these points to the previous score, advancing the corresponding spaces. But beware, danger is always just around the corner! If during his f rst turn he rolls a 1, the player will not get any points and he will have to miss a turn. If he rolls 1 in any of the following throws, all points accumulated in the previous throws will be lost and the player will have to return to the starting point and miss a turn. Calmly evaluate your odds so you don’t risk losing all your advantage and f nd yourself lost in in f nite space!
or diagonally. But this game is more di f cult: the 3 tokens used to create a row, when added up must always give a result of 15. Pay attention: here’s a brilliant trick! You don’t have to use just your own tokens to get 15, but you have to keep an eye on all the numbers placed on the board, including your opponent’s, so you can f nd every possible sum to complete. Each player, indeed, can also f nish a row started by the opponent, using his own token whose number, added to the others in the row, will give the sum of 15. Ingenious, isn’t it?
To decide which player will make the f rst move, the two opponents roll the die: the f rst to go will be the one who gets the highest score. During the game, the players take turns to move only one token at a time in any direction along the lines of the drawing, to move it from one intersection point to another adjacent point. His goal is to surround the opponent’s tokens: when an opponent’s token is surrounded on all sides so that it has no chance of moving it, it is captured. The f rst to leave his opponent with only two tokens, is the winner!
7 8 9 10 11 12 7 8 9 10 11 12
go from 7 to 12 of the opposing side, marked with a green bar, distributing them in the preferred quantity. The same must be done by the second player, who, however, must follow the opposite direction and then bring his tokens to the points of the opposing side ranging from 7 to 12. At each roll of the die, the player will move a token of his choice by how many moves indicated by the die, but beware: this token can only be positioned on a free point, or one occupied by his own tokens or by a single token of the opponent, so choose well which point to move in! In case of error or impossibility of movement, the player will have to move the token back to point 12 of his side of board. The winner is the f rst to bring all his tokens home.
triangle frst is the winner. The challenge between the two players can repeat itself 4 times, with these numbers: in the frst challenge, each side of the triangle will have to add up to 9, in the second challenge to 10, in the third challenge to 11 and in the fourth challenge to 12. So if you want to challenge yourselves 4 times you can organize a small tournament: the winner will be the one who wins most challenges!
FINISH
To determine who makes the f rst move, the players cast the tokens: the one who gets the highest number will start the game. The counters are then placed on the starting space and the f rst player casts his tokens again. The score is calculated considering only those tokens that show the side with the points. The sum of all the points will indicate how many spaces the counter should be moved. Train yourself to throw the tokens, because if they all fall showing the molecules symbols, the player must skip a turn. In addition, the f nish line can only be reached with an exact score.
have 10 seconds of time available to list the 5 names required by the space. Each player will check in turn that his opponent respects the time. In case the player is not able to say the 5 names required in the 10-second period, he will have to move his counter back by 5 spaces.
Look carefully at the other spaces, sometimes you will be lucky, and can roll the die a second time or advance directly 5 spaces, while in others you will have to miss a turn and go back 5 spaces. The winner will be the f rst to cross the
which
be reached with an exact score.
3 1 5 5 3 1 1 2 4 6 8 10 3 5 7 9
