Tock

Tock is a board game, similar to Ludo or Sorry!, in which players race their four tokens around the game board from start to finish—the objective being to be the first to take all of one's tokens "home". Like Sorry!, it is played with cards rather than dice.

Overview

Tock is a Cross and Circle game in the style of Pachisi, an Indian game played since the first millennium BC. Its exact source is unclear, but it probably began as a variant of Ludo, a board game which appeared in England in 1896.

Variations

Some versions of the game use pawns or "men"; other versions use marbles instead, which advance on a wooden board with circular indentations in it to hold the marbles. While the game is designed on the basis of a French deck of cards with jokers removed, there are some versions that come with cards specially made for the game that depict the actions they allow.

Rules Overview

At the beginning of each round players are dealt a number of cards which they play in turns to move their tokens around the board. While most cards provide only a single specific number of fields to move forward, some cards have special functions. If at any time a token lands exactly on the field occupied by another token then the moved token replaces the resting one (which is placed back into the corresponding player's starting area). If a player has no cards he can execute with his tokens on his turn then he must discard his entire remaining hand and wait for the next hand to be dealt.

Card Functions

Most cards allow the player to move one of his tokens forward for a number of fields corresponding to the card's face value. Some cards however have special functions:

Ace — Can be used as 1, or to move a pawn from the starting area onto the starting field.
4 — Move four fields backward.
7 — Make 7 individual moves of one field. These moves can be freely distributed among all of his tokens.
Jack — Make a move of 11 fields or may swap one of his own tokens with any other token on the circle track.
Queen — Make a move of 12 fields.
King — Allows either a move of 13 fields, eliminating any token in his path or to move a pawn from the starting area to the starting field.

Team Variants

Aside from a "Free for all" play style the game also supports a variety of team based modes. Common to all team based variations is that once a team member has managed to bring all of his tokens home he helps move his partners' tokens. Also after every hand is dealt the team members exchange one card with each other.

Two versus two players standard - Players on opposite sides of the board team up.
Three versus three players - On a six player board the teams' players are placed in alternating order around the board. Each team member exchanges card with every other team member when a new hand is dealt.
Two versus two players extended - On a six player board each team will receive an additional common color of tokens. They teams are placed like in a 3 vs 3 game. Each player may move with his own or the common color.
Two vs. Two vs. Two players - Players on opposite sides of the board team up. This variant is more "cutthroat" than the other team based variants because there are more hostile turns than friendly turns in every round.

External links

This board game-related article or section is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.