Mensa Select

Khet (a.k.a. Deflexion) is a chess-like board game that has two built in lasers and movable Egyptian-themed game pieces that have embedded mirrors which can be positioned to bounce the laser light around the board and hit opponent pieces.

To play, players alternate moving their pieces around the board. Some pieces have mirrors and some do not. Bounding the board is a raised frame into which are built two low-power lasers, one for each player. The game pieces include a "pharaoh", obelisks, and pyramids with mirrors. After each move, a player must press the button on his/her laser. The beam bounces from mirror to mirror around the playing field. The challenge is to protect one's own pharaoh while maneuvering to "light up" the opposing player's pharaoh.

Reimplemented by

Khet 2.0

In 6 nimmt!, a.k.a. Category 5 and many other names, you want to score as few points as possible.

To play the game, you shuffle the 104 number cards, lay out four cards face-up to start the four rows, then deal ten cards to each player. Each turn, players simultaneously choose and reveal a card from their hand, then add the cards to the rows, with cards being placed in ascending order based on their number; specifically, each card is placed in the row that ends with the highest number that's below the card's number. When the sixth card is placed in a row, the owner of that card claims the other five cards and the sixth card becomes the first card in a new row.

In addition to a number from 1 to 104, each card has a point value. After finishing ten rounds, players tally their score and see whether the game ends. (Category 5 ends when a player has a score greater than 74, for example, while 6 nimmt! ends when someone tops 66.) When this happens, the player with the fewest points wins!

6 nimmt! works with 2-10 players, and the dynamics of gameplay change the more players that you have. One variant for the game has you use 34 cards, 44 cards, 54 cards, etc. (instead of all 104 cards) when you have three, four, five, etc. number of players. This change allows you to know which cards are in play, thereby allowing you to track which cards have been played and (theoretically) make better choices as to which card to play when.

Qwixx is a quick-playing dice game in which everyone participates, no matter whose turn it is. Each player has a scoresheet with the numbers 2-12 in rows of red and yellow and the numbers 12-2 in rows of green and blue. To score points you want to mark off as many numbers as possible, but you can mark off a number only if it's to the right of all marked-off numbers in the same row.

On a turn, the active player rolls six dice: two white and one of each of the four colors listed above. Each player can choose to mark off the sum of the two white dice on one of their four rows, then the active player can choose to mark off the sum of one colored die and one white die in the row that's the same color as the die. The more marks you can make in a row, the higher your score for that row. Fail to cross off a number when you're the active player, however, and you must mark one of four penalty boxes on your scoresheet. If you mark off the 2 or 12 in a row and have at least five numbers marked in that row, you get to also mark off the padlock symbol in that row, locking everyone else out of this color.

When either a player has four penalty boxes marked or a second color is locked, the game ends immediately. Players then tally their points for each color, sum these values, then subtract five points for each marked penalty box. Whoever has the highest score wins.

This is a strategic marble stomping game.
Outwit your opponents by stomping their marbles before they stomp yours!
Outmaneuver by leaving their "stomper" trapped with no escape. OUTSTOMP the competition and you win!
Each player has a "stomper" piece with a marble of a different color attached to the top. On a player's turn, he or she may stomp any marble (by putting it on top of it, knocking it underneath the board), not in the outside ring. On the following turn, the player can stomp any adjacent marbles of the same color, or stomp a marble matching the color of his/her "stomper" piece.

From the Publisher:

Hive is a highly addictive strategic game for two players that is not restricted by a board and can be played anywhere on any flat surface. Hive is made up of twenty two pieces, eleven black and eleven white, resembling a variety of creatures each with a unique way of moving.

With no setting up to do, the game begins when the first piece is placed down. As the subsequent pieces are placed this forms a pattern that becomes the playing surface (the pieces themselves become the board). Unlike other such games, the pieces are never eliminated and not all have to be played. The object of the game is to totally surround your opponent's queen, while at the same time trying to block your opponent from doing likewise to your queen. The player to totally surround his opponent's queen wins the game.

Online Play

Boardspace.net (real-time, AI option)
BoardgameArena (real-time)