Qomet is the latest game in Gigamic\u2019s line of well-produced abstract strategy games that have made-up titles starting with Q, dating back to the 1991 game Quarto. Qomet\u2019s all-wood components are indeed impressive, but the game itself is a little too light and doesn\u2019t have enough room for any deep strategy, instead coming down to which player makes a mistake first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Qomet, each player is trying to create a square on the board with four of their seven stones. A square of any size counts as long as the paths between the corners are connected by the carved grooves on the board \u2013 you can make a square that is 45 degrees off from those grooves, but it won\u2019t count. On your turn, you can place a stone on any open space on the board, or move one of your played stones one space along a groove. If there\u2019s another stone in that direction and nothing beyond it, you can push that stone one space at the same time as you move your own. A second stone beyond that one would prevent you from moving in that direction at all. You may push a stone off the edge of the board as well, using any of the eight spaces around the perimeter, giving that stone back to its player to re-use on a later turn. Play continues until one player makes a square or one player has no legal moves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The extent of the strategic elements in Qomet is trying to set up a situation where your opponent has to choose between two options, either of which works for you, so that no matter what they do, you can either get the square on your next turn or set up an inevitable win from there. It seems like control of the center is helpful, although the board\u2019s concentric squares allow you to win without placing anything in the nine central spaces, assuming your opponent hasn\u2019t won by filling those up. In my few plays, the plays after the first few felt very reactive, without enough pieces or options to build up towards something. It\u2019s also easy to fail to see a square in progress, but that may decline with more plays as you get used to the board and the rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The components here are all wood and extremely high quality. That wooden board is surprisingly heavy and polished to the smoothness of plastic, and the game should be able to withstand years of play. I assume that\u2019s why the game retails for $40<\/a>, but for a game I didn\u2019t love and that you could easily replicate at home with some coins and a print-and-play board, I couldn\u2019t justify purchasing it at that price, even though I respect the decision to go for high-end components. Qawale is a better strategy game in the same line and comes in a mini version for $25<\/a> that\u2019s more reasonable and also takes up less space on the shelf. I\u2019d give Qomet a 5.5 on the old Paste grading scale, with some regrets given how much effort Gigamic put into its production.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Qomet is the latest game in Gigamic\u2019s line of well-produced abstract strategy games that have made-up titles starting with Q, dating back to the 1991 game Quarto. Qomet\u2019s all-wood components are indeed impressive, but the game itself is a little too light and doesn\u2019t have enough room for any deep strategy, instead coming down to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[815,582,451,537],"class_list":["post-11213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abstract-games","tag-board-games","tag-strategy-games","tag-two-player-games","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11213"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11214,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11213\/revisions\/11214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}