2023 · Sporty

Tankball

Two teams of four tanks play football on a field that consists of a grid of hexes. Pieces' movement is determined by dice, and it is a combination of turns in place and forward moves to the hex in front. A Super Heavy Tank (a "Heavy Tank" for the purpose of this game) can move in each turn for the number of steps shown on the die or less, and a Recon Tank (a "Light Tank") is faster, so it can move maximally for two steps more than the number on the die (or again, less, if it suits the player). In each turn, a player chooses which two pieces to move; in some cases, it is possible to move 3 or all 4 pieces in one turn. Each piece can push the ball during its movement. Due to their higher speed, Light tanks have an advantage when pushing compared to Heavy tanks; however, Heavy tanks can hit the ball with their large cannon barrel when turning the turret. The length of the ball movement is determined with a red-dotted die, which is rolled at the same time as the movement dice. The ball bounces off the borders of the field according to a very intuitive rule, and if it reaches another tank on its trajectory, it stops on the last empty hex. When the ball is hit or pushed in such a way that it ends up on white hexes on the opposite side of the board, a goal is scored. Although the length of movement of the pieces and the ball is determined by the dice, luck does not play a huge role. To win, it requires a lot of thinking in order to plan and coordinate your team both in attack and defense, so you get into many favorable positions for execution, while allowing your opponent as few opportunities for counterplay as possible. Tankball is in some way a Tank Chess derivative, as it uses some of the Tank Chess pieces, and it was conceived right after Tank Chess became a reality thanks to a Kickstarter campaign. —description from the publisher