CirKis is a piece placing board game, for two to four players, invented by Phil E. Orbanes and developed by Winning Moves Games USA in 2008.[1] However, the game is no longer in production. The game is based on a Penrose tiling.

CirKis
Product Display
DesignersPhil E. Orbanes
PublishersWinning Moves Games USA
Winning Moves France
Winning Moves Germany
Winning Moves UK
Hasbro
Players2 to 4
Playing time15-25 minutes
Age range8 and up

Gameplay

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The game is played on a decagonal board, which contains the scoring pegs, and has a storage well for each of the four coloured sets of pieces. There are 80 total pieces divided into four identical sets of purple, red, green and yellow.[2]

Cirkis board (left) and pieces

The first player must place a piece inside, or touching, the center circle. Then, every piece played must touch the piece previously placed on the board. So, on a player's turn, they must place a piece so it touches the piece that was just played by the previous player.

Players score points by completing circles and stars. If a player has majority of the five segments in the circle or star, they scores 10 points. A five point bonus is awarded to the player who completes the shape if they do not have majority in the shape.

A player can earn a free turn – play anywhere, in three ways:[2]

  1. If they complete the centre star
  2. If they are the first player to use their silver piece
  3. If they place a piece that is completely surrounded and there is no adjacent spot for the other players to play.

Strategy

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  • Each player has the same exact pieces. There are large pieces that cover three segments of a circle. If a player has the chance to play these, they have immediate majority and will score 10 points when the shape is completed. There are no pieces covering three segments in a star.
  • The smaller pieces like the arrow and wedge will come in very handy later in the game when trying to navigate out of tight spots.
  • Free turns can be very valuable, but if the game results in a tie, the winner is the player with the greatest number of pieces remaining. This means that it took fewer moves for that player to reach 40 points.

References

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  1. ^ "CirKis™ Origin". Winning Moves Games. Archived from the original on 2012-02-03. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  2. ^ a b "CirKis" (PDF). Retrieved 9 January 2015.
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