Board Game Reviews Ep #215: TAK

This board game was sent to me by Greater Than Games:

Tak on BoardGameGeek:

[Evbot]

the 5x5 also works as a 6 x 6 board if you play using the blue diamonds as spaces!

[iamevn]

the way I've always thought about the board sizes was that 3x3 is too small, 4x4 is for learning, and 5x5/6x6 are where the actual game is

[Kniightisa]

Big fan of the Kingkiller Chronicles! Can't believe they made the game real, super cool.

[SimmonTak]

Heck yeah! Gotta love Tak! There are tons of tournaments and there's great competition there. There's even a beginner tournament (specifically for beginners) starting in a few weeks, so registration will be opening in the next couple days and there's prizes and the whole shebang.

All the Tak resources are located on my channel, including the Discord server, how to play online, etc.

One point to make: The scoring is actually just "if you win, you win." The scoring system you described is a variant rule and... isn't really used in any of the tournaments.

[nizzbizz]

It's really nice that prozd doesn't care about the algorithm, he just makes videos he likes. I think, that is.

[jmcalcy]

Fun fact: the 5x5 board shown off early in this video can also be used as a 6x6 board; if you use the dots at the corners as the spaces, as opposed to the squares.

[ThisLateHistoricalHour]

I was gifted a charity copy of this game because my sibling knew I was a fan of the books. I enjoy it but the hardest part is finding people to play who wouldn’t prefer something similar. I do, however, believe there are online versions with decently active communities

[brickbot.]

I was just talking to my brother about this game the other day (He's the one who shared this video with me).
A couple years ago we both played this game at a game convention. I completely forgot about it since then, until a few weeks ago when I got the second book in the series (In which they initially play Tak). I had to tell him that I owned the book in which the obscure game we played years ago was from. Needless to say it took him a minute to figure our what I talking about.
I absolutely love the Kingkiller Chronicles, it's definitely my favorite series ever.

[tsawy]

I really loved Tak! I used to play it with a friend, and the strategies we built up got very interesting! Like, obviously two people sitting together aren't going to delve the theory deeply enough to compare a game to something like Chess. But. It did still start to feel a little similar. The moves that you have generate a radical, chaotic number of possibilities, just like chess, and that it's generated from 3 pieces and two types of move is really sick to me.

Our favourites were the 4x4 and the 5x5. Anything bigger than the 5x5 starts to place a really huge cognitive load keeping track of everything. We never bought the second set you need for the 8x8 on a chessboard! The 4x4 has a charming minimalism to it, which works pretty well. The capstone not being there makes a ton of sense to me, it's way too centralising in a smaller board, and walls (which have a great deal of subtlety and generate a lot of strategy themselves. They don't advance your position, but help you control your other pieces, especially cuz they go on top of other stacks) would become pretty useless.

It's actually the only non-standard boardgame I've ever played in any serious capacity, diving into the strategy. Perhaps obviously, we chose this one because we were fans of the books.

[ObsessiveReaderLuv]

This is just Advanced Tic-Tac-Toe and I kinda love it

[TomVCunningham]

I've had a copy of Tak since the Kickstarter. It's great and if you play it in public people get confused and it's amazing.

[shanedeiley]

For real, 2 of the best books ever written. But with the series unfinished, it's hard to recommend to others knowing the pain of the unfinished story.

[SabertoothTigress]

My husband and I are playing Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes right now and finally made the connection last night you voice Holst! Haha now we just think of you and your skits every time he speaks 😂

[EverythingIsAJunkDrawer]

Not even a minute into this video and this man of so many talents and interests quietly exposes literal hand model tier hands. Is there nothing you cannot do fren?

[olanmills]

I love this game among abstracts. I like it so much that I have a portable version in small pouch and a super nice wooden version

[bobbycorwen]

I love this game so much. What a gem it turned out to be!

Some friends and I even bring our own special unique totems to represent our capstones. Makes it cool 😎

[naturesfinest]

I play this game quite a bit. I love it. Im happy to see you reviewing it! Spread awareness to a great game.

[estelle]

The thumbnail drew me in here. This game looks so odd. I love it.

[ScorchyScorch]

From the thumbnail I thought this was some sort of cheese and crackers board game

[mmarchani]

One of my absolute favorite games! I Kickstarted it and still love getting it out to play.