Gemblo

About this board game

Gemblo is an abstract strategy game for 2–6 players that plays in about 30 minutes. Each player uses a unique color and an identical set of translucent pieces, with every piece formed from one to five hexagons.

The goal is to place all of your pieces on the hexagonal game board. Your first piece can be placed normally, but every piece after it must follow Gemblo’s distinctive connection rule: it cannot touch another piece of the same color and must instead be exactly a distance of 1 from one of your previously placed pieces.

Here, distance 1 means the length of one side of a small hexagon. The measured distance cannot directly cross another player’s piece, although it may pass through the junction between two pieces. These restrictions make every placement a careful spatial puzzle, as you work to extend your color while preserving useful routes for your remaining shapes.

• Abstract strategy gameplay for 2–6 players
• Translucent colored pieces made from one to five hexagons
• Placement rules based on distance, contact, and blocked paths
• A final score based on the hexagonal units left unplaced

Once everyone has placed as many pieces as possible, players count the number of hexagonal units in the pieces they could not place. The player with the lowest total wins, rewarding efficient use of the entire set rather than simply claiming space on the board.

In the two-player version, each player uses two colors of pieces. Released in 2003, Gemblo combines accessible geometric rules with challenging decisions about positioning, reach, and the order in which pieces are played.