Gobblet is a
board game created by
Blue Orange Games. More specifically, it fits into the category of
Abstract Strategy Game. It will seem familiar to anybody who has ever played
Tic Tac Toe or
Connect Four. The game is played on a four by four
grid, and the objective is to create a visible line of your pieces, four pieces long, in any direction. What makes the game
interesting is the pieces themselves.
Each
player receives three large pieces, shaped like
cylindrical cups, bottom up. You can place one of these pieces on the board for your turn. When you do so, removing the large piece reveals a smaller piece that was
hidden underneath it, which can then be placed. Each stack contains four pieces of
decreasing size.
Once on the board, a piece can be moved from its current position to any other space on the board, provided the space is either empty, or contains a piece smaller than the piece you are currently moving. In the latter case, you place your piece over the top of the smaller unit. This is called gobbling. That unit can no longer be moved, nor does it count for scoring purposes. But if you ever move your unit from its holding location, the piece underneath is revealed and back in play.
Since there is a great deal of memorizing which units are contained under which units, and there are many strategies, this game has that winning combination of simple to learn, and plenty to master that makes games like Othello and Chess so addicting. Combine this with the beautiful wooden box and pieces, and the presentation seals the value of this game.