Scott Tepper: Games You Haven’t Played: Botts & Balls

If the Olympics ever decided to expand their reach into non-athletic realms, say, for instance, boardgaming, and one of the categories was Best Self-Produced Game, I would lay odds that Ann Lesnik would take home a medal for Botts & Balls.  About 4 years ago, Lesnik released a limited first edition of Botts and Balls.  As the game contains 87 intricate handmade clay pieces, the word “limited”, in this instance is not an exaggeration.  Although there has been much demand for the game, because of the exorbitant amount of time required to produce the extremely detailed pieces by hand, it was 4 years before Lesnik decided to make another set of 10 copies of the game this past year.

Few games exist that exude the charm of Botts & Balls.  It would have been far simpler for Lesnik to simply make the pieces out of colored cardboard, or some such reproducible material.  Instead, she chose to make the components(3 Botts, 4 Obstacles, and 3 tokens in each of 6 colors, as well as 27 Balls in 3 different finishes) out of polymer clay.  While it takes considerably more time to sculpt each piece, the effect is far more attractive.  It isn’t only the sculpted pieces, however, that are well-produced for a made-at-home game.  The playing board is made up of 6 printed triangular foam boards that fit together perfectly to make a hexagonal playing field broken into triangular spaces.  The game box (which is also nicely home made) contains a drawstring bag to hold the Balls, and an extremely professionally made, full-color, rulebook.  The only things that don’t appear to be home made are the two 6-sided and 10-sided dice, and the packing foam inside the box to protect the components.

Isn’t creepy how their eyes follow you when you move back and forth?

If you’ve played the game, Ricochet Robots, but came away wanting a little more player interaction, then Botts & Balls might be the game for you. B&B is at heart a game of geometry with a soccer theme.  On a players turn, they attempt to maneuver their Bott(s), hopefully coming in contact with one of the Balls on the board so that it will rebound into one of the 6 goal pockets.  The first person to reach a certain number of points, wins the game.

The setup of the game is pretty easy.  Surprisingly for a self-published game, the 6 pieces that comprise the playing board are double-sided (depending on whether you want to play a shorter, simpler game, or a longer, more challenging game) and fit together easily.  The Obstacles (triangular pieces in each of the 6 colors) have small and large black beads in them to denote the numbers 1-10 on the sides.  The obstacle with the single small bead is placed in the middle of the board, so a multicolored hex with a single bead on each side is created.  Six white Balls are placed next to each side of the center hex.  Next the players place their remaining obstacles where they choose on their section of the gameboard, in effect creating a different board every time you play.  Lastly, the players start the game with one of their Botts in their goal area.

Yellow can score 3 points.  Can you find it?

On a player’s turn they have 6 movement points to use between moving their Bott(s) and balls.  Movement of a Bott is straightforward physics.  A Bott moves by sliding it in a straight line until it comes into contact with another Bott, Obstacle, Ball or outer wall of the board.  If the player still has action points left, player can then choose to “reflect” the Bott off the object, move a different one of his Botts, or, if the last movement brought the Bott into contact with a Ball, the player can use any or all of the remaining movement points to move the Ball.  Balls move just like Botts do, ricocheting off Botts, Obstacles, walls, and even other Balls.

The rulebook covers all the possible methods of Ball and Bott movement, including situations, for instance, where a player’s Bott moves into a chain of Botts that has a ball at the end.  The energy from the moving Bott can be transferred through the other Botts and into the Ball, which can then continue the movement.  A few additional rules clear up any gray areas that one could come up with.  Players can only ever move their own Botts.  They may not move their opponents’ Botts.  A player must move their Bott(s) before moving Balls.  Once a player moves a Ball on their turn, they may not, for the rest of their turn, move their Botts. 

If a player is able to bounce one of the white Balls into one of the six goal pockets that surround the board, they score one point.  If they were able to maneuver the ball into their own goal pocket, they score an additional 1 bonus point.  Points are kept track of with a player token moved along the scoring track that is printed alongside the gameboard wall. 
When a player scores a goal, they lose the remaining movement points for that turn.  The player randomly draws a replacement Ball out of the bag and then rolls both the 6-sided die that has player colors instead of numbers, and the 10-sided die.  The resultant color/number combination dictates the the sector on the board, as well as next to which Obstacle, the new Ball is placed.  A subsequent goal scored with a gray Ball scores 2 points, with a black Ball, 3 points.

A player may, on one of their turns, give up 1 point from their score to bring the 2nd of their Botts onto the board from their goal area.  On a subsequent turn, a player can bring their 3rd Bott into play by giving up 2 victory points.

Depending on the number of players, or how long you want the game to be, once someone scores a certain amount of points, they win. 

Bott’s eye view of cuteness

So how does it play?  As I previously mentioned, Botts & Balls feels somewhat like Ricochet Robots.  The players try to mentally come up with the best route to make a score.  The main difference between the two games is that B&B is more interactive.  To me, Ricochet Robots is more of a simultaneous puzzle race game, like Set or Turbo Taxi.  This type of game can be fun if you have the innate ability to solve these kinds of puzzles.  Unfortunately, if you are playing these games with someone who clearly has a more developed skill at figuring these puzzles out, you will mostl likely never score during the game, and the game will result in a rout.

Botts and Balls however, allows players to move their Botts to score on their turn as well as set them up for possible future scoring.  So the game is more about strategic moving and preparation than a simultaneous race to score.  Granted, players who are at ease with the geometry of angles and vectors will, in general, do better than those who who have trouble calculating paths in their head.  Resnik, though, has added a rule rarely seen in games that ameliorates this situation.  Other players can offer advice to the active player.  On a player’s turn, if another player points out a series of moves that triggers a goal, and the active player decides to do these movements, then the help offerer receives a victory point.  What this rule then offers is an incentive for all the players to remain involved even when it isn’t their turn.  As a result, Botts & Balls becomes a more engaging game than if you simply had to wait for 5 people to take their turns before you could could get another chance at scoring any points.

While we generally think of abstract games as anti-thematic, and Botts & Balls certainly looks like an abstract (no money, no fighting, geometric board), this game surprisingly has a thematic feel.  A good portion of the atmosphere comes from the crafting of the figures.  It is not hard to imagine, while playing the game, that you are controlling these little robots in a multi-player soccer match.  The only way I think that Botts & Balls could be even more thematic is if they had powers that let them interact more, a la Battlebotts.  I am sure some people could come up with such house rules.

Will you like this game?  That depends on how you feel about puzzle games, and plotting out moves in your head.  Granted, one could argue that in some respect, most games require some sort of problem solving.  With 6 action points at your disposal you have enough options to make your choices varied without being overwhelming.  The rules have been worked through so well that this game, while a small, self-published production, feels like a big publisher game.

Quick Overview

Number of players 2-6
Theme: Robot Soccer
Components:  Very good
Rules explanation: 5 minutes
Effect of Luck:  very small
Game Length: About 1.5 hrs
Replayability: Good

© 2008 Scott Tepper

---

Comments:

You must register with BGN in order to comment. Registration is free, but if you appreciate the news, previews, reviews and other material posted on Boardgame News, please consider becoming a member to keep the info flowing to your screen!

Wow, such beautiful pieces.  And a more interactive Ricochet Robots… I know of two local players who would be all over that… Posted by Matt J. Carlson on Sep 16, 2008 at 07:05 AM | #

Thanks for sharing, Scott.  It appears that the components AND the rules were finely crafted.  The cuteness factor rivals the Fragor games. I’m curious, though--does the rule about offering advice ever get annoying, as a slow player never has the chance to think for him/herself? Posted by Jeff Allers on Sep 16, 2008 at 10:48 PM | #

Jeff, I haven’t played the game enough with expert B&B players to know if suggestions get annoying.  Usually people can come up with goals on their own, but occasionally there are complicated goals that players don’t see, and it’s in those instances where the suggestion rule does help. Posted by Scott Tepper on Sep 17, 2008 at 06:13 AM | #

< Back Home