Board game

A foldable baseboard is provided with sixteen fixed tablets, arranged in regular rows. Thirty-three movable tablets are placed in the spaces between the fixed tablets, to make a 7.times.7 square. The tablets are marked out with roads to define paths along which counters may be moved, towards a target tablet. One extra movable tablet is provided, by means of which a player can push a row of the movable tablets, thus improving the road layout, and enabling him to move his counter towards the target. The game apparatus includes target cards, and game money.

This invention relates to a game of the kind in which players move game 
pieces over the board. 
The apparatus required for the game of the invention includes a baseboard, 
and a series of tablets which are laid out on the baseboard, preferably in 
regular rows. The tablets are marked out with roads, or other 
path-defining means, arranged in such a way that either a passable pathway 
is established between adjacent or neighbouring tablets, or no pathway is 
established. 
In the game of the invention, each player chooses or is allotted a target 
tablet and a game counter, and the player endeavours to move his counter 
towards his allotted target, using the pathways established between the 
tablets. In the invention, some of the tablets are movable, and players 
can manipulate the movable tablets so as to create more favourable 
pathways. 
In order to define the manner in which the movable tablets are permitted to 
move, preferably some of the tablets are fixed to the baseboard, in rows 
that are regularly spaced apart. The movable tablets can then run in the 
corridors created between the rows of fixed tablets. 
In the game of the invention, the players attempt to move their counters 
from tablet to tablet, along the pathways, towards the target, which 
preferably are formed by target tablets. Preferably, the game is so 
arranged that each player aims at a different target. Target tablets may 
be identified by emblems placed upon the appropriate tablets. 
Preferably, game cards are provided as a convenient means for allotting the 
targets to the players. The cards may be dealt out, or each player may 
select a card. The game can be played with the targets either disclosed to 
the rest of the players or kept secret until attained. 
The pathways of the invention, as described, may be formed by printing 
roadway-like markings on the surface of each tablet. Depending on how the 
tablets are arranged, either at random during initial setting up, or as a 
result of repeated movements of the tablets by the players as the game 
progresses, the roadway-like markings will in some cases provide a 
continuous path leading from one tablet to another, along which a player 
may move his counter, while in other cases the markings will provide a 
barrier between the tablets. 
It is contemplated in the invention that there are other ways in which the 
pathways of the invention might be constituted. For example, the tablets 
may be provided each with a letter, and a player may move his counter from 
tablet to tablet in accordance as the letters over which he passes make up 
a recognisable word. 
However, the marked-out roadways are preferred. With the marked-out 
roadways, it is easy to set the skill level of the game so that even to a 
beginner or a casual player it is apparent that it is better to approach 
play with some thought for strategy, while yet to the expert player the 
strategy is subtle enough to require his continued attention.

The game apparatus shown in the accompanying drawings and described below 
is an example which embodies the invention. It should be noted that the 
scope of the invention is defined by the accompanying claims, and not 
necessarily by features of specific embodiments. 
As shown in the drawings, the apparatus for the game comprises: a baseboard 
2; fixed tablets 3 which are glued to the baseboard 2 in regular rows 4; 
movable tablets 5 which are slidable within the corridors 6 left between 
the rows 4 of fixed tablets 3; a set of target cards 7, movable game 
counters 8, and a set of game money 9. The baseboard 2 is a 40.times.40 cm 
square, 3 mm in thickness, and made of stiff cardboard. The baseboard is 
hinged, at 14, for convenience of storage. 
The fixed tablets 3 are sixteen in number, and are arranged in four rows 4 
of four fixed tablets. The movable tablets 5 are thirty-four in number, so 
that the total quantity of tablets, both fixed and movable, is fifty. Of 
the fifty, only forty-nine are in play and present on the playing board at 
a time. Thirty-three of the thirty-four movable tablets 5 are arranged 
between the fixed tablets, so as to make up a 7.times.7 square of tablets. 
It will be noted that a whole row 15 of seven movable tablets can be moved 
as a body along the E-W corridor 6. Similarly, the whole row 16 of movable 
tablets, which lies at right angles to the row 15, can be moved as a body 
along the N-S corridor 17. 
To start the game, each player (up to four) places his game counter 9 in an 
appropriate corner of the board, and the players draw one card each from 
the pile 7 of target cards. It is each player's task to observe where, 
upon the playing board, the tablet is located that bears the target emblem 
corresponding to the card he has drawn, and it is his task to reach that 
target tablet with his game counter. As shown, it is preferred for the 
target emblems to have a flavour of educational achievement. 
Player no 1 now takes the remaining movable tablet 18, places it, as 
illustrated in FIG. 2, against the end tablet 19 of the middle row 15M of 
the three rows 15 of seven movable tablets (there are six such rows, the 
three rows 15 lying East-West, and the three rows 16 lying North-South) 
and he uses the tablet 18 to push the whole row 15M along the corridor 6 
until the tablet 20 at the opposite end of the row 15M is pushed out of 
the playing area, whereupon the movable tablets in the row 15M have each 
moved one position along the corridor. 
Each row of seven movable tablets may be moved either way along its 
appropriate corridor, so that there are twelve moves altogether available 
to each player. It is up to the player to decide which of the twelve will 
be to his best advantage. 
Player no 1, having altered one row, is now at liberty to move his game 
counter 25 along the new road layout that has opened up. 
Each player in turn makes an alteration to the rows 15, 16 of movable 
tablets, in an effort to create a path to his target tablet. 
As the game progresses, the game counters become displaced over the playing 
board, and also, since some of the target tablets are movable tablets, by 
the time a player has engineered a pathway to the target, the targets may 
have moved. 
To illustrate the procedure, again consider the position shown in FIG. 2, 
for example: here, a player's game counter 25 is located upon a tablet 26; 
and this player, as a result of his drawing a particular one of the cards 
7, happens to be aiming for the target emblem shown as a Rainbow, which 
happens to be on the fixed tablet 27. 
By pushing the middle East-West row 15M to the left, as shown in FIG. 2, 
the player is able to create a pathway whereby his game counter 25 can 
reach the target tablet 26, as will be seen by perusing FIG. 2. Upon 
reaching the target tablet with his game counter, the player may now show 
the rest of the players the card 7 he was holding, and may draw the 
appropriate amount of money from the bank. He then draws a fresh card, and 
the game continues. 
The aim of the game as described is to collect money up to a predetermined 
amount, the first to do so being the winner. As an added twist, however, 
it can be stipulated that the player with the money has not actually won 
the game until his game counter is back to its home starting position. The 
rest of the players can then try to prevent this player from reaching 
home, until they too have accummulated the predetermined amount. 
Various rules can be made for situations that occur during play, such as: 
whether counters can "overtake" each other on the roads; or what is done 
if a counter happens to lie on the tablet 20 that is pushed off the end of 
an altered row; and so on. 
It is preferred that the players only have one target card at a time, but 
it might alternatively be arranged that the cards are dealt out to the 
players at the start of the game, and the first to reach all his targets 
is the winner. The game might even be played without target cards at all, 
whereby the winner is, say, the first player to check off all the targets. 
Similarly, the game alternatively can be played without game money; in that 
case the score may be kept, for example, by accumulating game cards. 
As regards the physical construction of the game components, it is 
important that the fixed tablets be very accurately positioned on the 
baseboard. If a fixed tablet should be slightly out of position, or skewed 
or misaligned in some way, the rows of movable tablets could not slide so 
freely. 
In fact, only quite a small margin for manufacturing misalignment of the 
fixed tablets can be allowed. The corridors of course do have to be 
slightly wider than the width of the tablets, but it is important that the 
clearance or fit between the corridors and the tablets be quite tight. All 
seven movable tablets in a particular row (e.g. row 15M) are, when the row 
is being pushed, naturally in end-to-end contact with each other, i.e. 
with no clearance between the tablets, and it would therefore be most 
obtrusively noticeable if the immediately adjacent parallel row (e.g. row 
28) alongside, made up of both fixed and movable tablets, were spaced out. 
On the other hand, inevitably the movable tablets will undoubtedly become 
as misaligned as they are permitted to become, during play. The corners of 
the tablets are rounded, to provide some degree of self aligning action as 
a row is pushed. It has been found, with tablets 5 cm square, a corner 
radius of about 7 mm is sufficient to ensure that the tablets (almost) 
always can be manipulated without becoming jammed. A nominal clearance of 
about 0.5 mm is allowed between an adjacent pair of fixed tablets 3 and 
the movable tablet 5 between them. 
If the movable tablets are made the same nominal size as the fixed tablets, 
the aggregate length of a row such as row 28, made up of both fixed and 
movable tablets of the same nominal size, would be about 2 mm longer than 
the aggregate length of a row made up only of movable tablets, all in 
contact with each other. Such a small difference as that would not be 
noticed, but the clearance must not be allowed to become too great. 
Alternatively, the fixed tablets can be cut slightly smaller (1 mm or so) 
than the movable tablets, to compensate for the clearance that must be 
provided. This is the condition illustrated in FIG. 2. 
If the game were to be manufactured with tablets substantially smaller than 
5 cm square, the clearance that would have to be provided would be more 
troublesome, since it would be proportionately larger. 
The baseboard 2 is provided with tablet-shaped indentations 30 in its upper 
surface, into which the fixed tablets 3 may be accurately positioned 
before glueing. The indentations 30 are pressed in using a suitable jig to 
ensure positional accuracy. Alternatively, the fixed tablets could be 
formed integrally with the baseboard, as a unitary plastic moulding for 
example, or a vacuum-formed plastic item, in which the outlines of the 
fixed tablet are incorporated into the mould. 
For a family board game, the skill level should not be such that players 
require several minutes of concentrated study to figure out the next move 
(as in chess, for example). Nor should a family game be such that certain 
quite simple strategies, once assimilated by even a dull player, will 
enable the player always to make the best play in a particular game 
situation, simply by rote. 
For a family game, it is preferable that a player should be able to develop 
his skill level so that he can beat the unskilled player slightly more 
often than would be determined by simple chance, but only slightly more 
often. If too much skill is required, some family members will have no 
chance of winning, and that is not the intention. 
The combination of fifty tablets, of which 32 are T-junctions, 9 are 
elbow-corners, 8 are straight-on, and 1 is a cross-roads, has been found 
to impose just the right balance between skill and chance. 
When two tablets are placed together, there are sixteen possible side-edge 
to side-edge engagements. When the tablets are both T-junction tablets, 
nine of these sixteen engagement combinations provide through-roads, the 
other seven being blanked off. Thus if all the tablets were T-junctions, 
on average a little over 50% of the tablet-to-tablet engagements would be 
passable, the rest impassable. When some of the tablets define elbows or 
straight-ahead roads, the percentage is reduced to about 40% passable. 
Forty-nine tablets arranged in a 7.times.7 square, have a total of 
eighty-four edge engagements. For the purposes of the game, it is 
preferred that of these eighty-four edge engagements, between thirty-five 
and forty are passable (the actual number depends on the particular 
arrangement). The above stated mix of T-junction tablets with the other 
kinds of tablets produces this favourable proportion of passable 
engagements, on the average. 
The effect of this is that on the playing board at any one time there are 
always several three- and four-tablet pathways open, and some five-tablet 
pathways. 
Hence, during play it constantly appears to a player that he is just on the 
point of establishing a through road from the tablet his game counter is 
on to the target tablet, even though when it comes to it he cannot quite 
make it all the way. It is this aspect of seeming always to be on the 
brink of a breakthrough, but (almost) never quite achieving it, that makes 
the game exciting, and maintains interest over a long period of time. 
This favourable relationship, in the embodiment described of the invention, 
between skill, chance, and the players perception of achieving success, 
mainly arises from the above quoted ratio of passable to impassable 
pathways. If more pathways were passable, the game would become too easy 
in that a player would easily establish a path to his target nearly every 
play. Similarly, if fewer pathways were passable, the game would become 
too frustrating, and players would lose interest. 
The playing board need not be square, but may be rectangular. It is even 
contemplated that the periphery be not a regular shape at all, but that 
the several rows might have each a different number of movable tablets. 
However, the 5 cm tablets arranged in 7.times.7 rows has been found to 
give a well-balanced compromise between the skill requirement of the game, 
and the requirement of manufacturing tolerances that can be readily 
achieved. 
In fact, it is contemplated that the tablets might be triangular, rather 
than square or rectangular. Triangular movable tablets could be placed in 
corridors between fixed tablets, such that a whole row of triangular 
tablets could be pushed bodily from one end of the row. However, the 
square arrangement as described is superior in almost all respects, and is 
generally preferred. 
Other variations are contemplated, in the invention, as regards the manner 
of scoring. For example, amounts of money could be marked out on (some of) 
the tablets, and players could collect those amounts as they pass the 
particular tablets. Or, tokens could be placed on selected tablets, for 
the players to pick up in passing.