Description of "Link5"
A logical Creation Strategy Game...
The game board is made up of Numbered blocks from 1 through 4, and unnumbered Yellow blocks predetermined to be Wild blocks. All blocks with the same numbers have the same color. (One is Tan, Two is Green, Three is Blue, Four is Gray, and Wild blocks are Yellow.)
Two players, having selected the color they will use, and using the supplied playing chips, alternate in selecting the blocks. The winner is the first of the two players to have selected five blocks in a row, in any direction, horizontally, vertically or diagonally.
The one rule, and the only real rule the game has, is what makes this game so special, and that is that every block selected must always have a number equal to or higher than the previous selection made by that player, and this rule always applies, except that a player can at any time go to a Wild block, this yellow Wild block can assume any value, therefore a player can select afterward, any other block on the board, starting the ascending process all over again. A player may also choose to select Wild blocks consecutively as many times as he/she chooses to. And the ascending rule does not mean that a player has to select blocks sequentially or next to each other, the selections can always be at any location on the board, and of a block of any value, but again the number on the block MUST be equal to or higher than the previous selection made by that player.
The players try to hinder each other's progress, and try to force the opponent to have to go to higher numbered blocks, in order to interrupt a chain, so strategy and not surprise is the way to try to win.
Link5 does not discriminate against any culture or any age group. All the knowledge that a player has to have, is to be able to count to four and so easy to learn that it can be played by anyone that went to the first grade. But it also defies the intellectually gifted, in fact it exploits traits common to all human beings. It plays fast, it challenges the players, it gives pride to the winner and embarrasses the loser, because it’s so easy to learn and yet so very, very difficult to win, its appeal is universal.
