Talat

About this board game

Talat is an abstract strategy game for 2–3 players with an average play time of 33 minutes. Originally published in an all-wood edition as Drei, it is designed around the challenge of tracking two connected battles at once.

In the three-player game, each pair of players shares a board. Every player has nine towers featuring three heights and three shapes: square, hexagonal, and triangular prisms. Players take turns placing their towers along the starting edges, with five towers on one board and four on the other.

On each turn, choose one tower on one board and move it one space forward, either straight or diagonally. Moving on one board means you cannot move on the other, making every decision a choice between two active battlefields. Towers may capture opposing pieces by moving onto their spaces, but only when the required height-and-shape conditions are met.

• Equal-height towers: the capturing tower must have more sides.
• Different-height towers: the capturing tower must be exactly one level taller.
• Special exception: the smallest triangular tower can capture the tallest hexagonal tower.

Capturing also permits sideways movement, unlike ordinary movement. This means a tower that reaches an opponent’s back row may still be vulnerable—or may still threaten a capture. If no capture is available on a board, that board freezes, and no further movement is possible there. The game ends as soon as two boards are frozen.

Talat rewards both aggression and positioning. Score five points for every captured tower and three points for each of your own towers that reaches an opponent’s starting edge. The player with the highest score wins.