Troy

(Click to Enlarge)

Best known as the setting for the Trojan War, which took place sometime between the 12th and 14th centuries BC, the city of Troy has been the subject of people's imagination and fascination in many legends since then. Once more, by the mind of SmartGames' lead designer Raf Peeters, Troy takes the center stage as the setting for a unique logic game that puts you in the role of city savior and protector. Are you up to the challenge?

The main goal of Troy is to place the walls around the city to protect your knights (blue) from the enemy (red). The game has an equal number of friends and foes, four tokens for each side, and four uniquely-shaped walls. Once the knights have been placed on their respective positions you can't move them around. Only the walls can be moved.

(Click to Enlarge) - Challenge 40 (Left: Start Position; Right: Solved)

Setting up a challenge to play is very simple. The game board is divided into 16 individual squares, and only one knight can occupy a space at any given time. The squares have holes in them to hold the knights in place so they don't move accidentally, and the space between the squares is used to place the walls. Each challenge shows you the initial position of the knights, and on the "Starter" levels it even shows you the position of one or two walls. Not every challenge features enemy knights. When that happens, though, you still need to find a way to keep your knights protected from any possible attack, and only the walls can help you on that task.

Placing the walls around the game board is not without some rules, however: for example, you have to be careful where to put the part of a wall with a tower, because it can't be placed against another wall; the walls have to be placed in the indentations between the squares or they won't fit: you can't completely isolate an enemy knight with walls on its four sides.

Each of the 60 included challenges have only one solution, but despite the harder levels appear a little intimidating, I found this is not as difficult as other logic games. I particularly liked the presentation of the challenge booklet, which looks like a ring notebook. You should always start with the easy levels, and by the time you reach the "Wizard" level you'll be able to think more clearly on how to find the correct solution.

(Click to Enlarge) - Challenge 57 (Left: Start Position; Right: Solved)

Closing Comments:

One thing that you never see from SmartGames, even after so many released games, is repetition or recycled ideas. Troy feels as original as if it were the first game designed by Raf Peeters, and that's something not many game companies can say about their games. I highly recommend Troy, a game that can be played by the whole family.

Availability: Troy, and many other games by SmartGames are available at PuzzlesdeIngenio.com.

Links:

SmartGames Official Website