Pentox (1991)

A challenging game of strategy. For 2 players, aged 7 years-adult. The game components are: - a hardwood box - 25 wooden cubes, each with 4 blank faces, one face marked with a black circle, and 1 face with a white circle - rules The object of Pentox is as simple as noughts and crosses. The winner is the first person to make a straight line - horizontal, vertical or diagonal - with 5 cubes of the same colour. The cubes are emptied out of the box and arranged in a 5x5 square with the blank faces upwards. Each player chooses a colour, either black or white. Play commences by the first player choosing any of the 16 cubes on the periphery of the square, but they may only choose a square that is showing a blank face OR showing a circle of the players chosen colour. Depending on where the player has taken the cube from, the incomplete row must be made good by sliding any one of up to three possible blank rows into the empty space, by using the selected cube to push the other end of the row. The cube used to push the row is then left at the end of the row with that players colour face upwards. The opponent then replies in a similar fashion. Play continues until one player manages to form a straight line - either horizontal, vertical or diagonal - of 5 cubes of their colour,