Tumbleweed

About this board game

Tumbleweed is a two-player board game played on a hexhex board, with a listed play time of 200 minutes. Players use a supply of stacked checkers to build positions, capture opposing stacks, and occupy more than half the board.

At the heart of the game is line of sight. A stack can see a hex when the two spaces are connected by a straight line with no stacks between them. On each turn, a player places a stack of their tokens on a hex seen by at least one friendly stack.

The height of every newly placed stack equals the number of that player’s stacks that see its destination. Players can also replace an existing stack, provided the new stack is taller than the one already there. This rule supports both capturing opponent stacks and reinforcing your own.

• Two-player play on a hexhex board
• Stack-based placement determined by lines of sight
• Taller stacks can capture or reinforce
• Victory goes to the player occupying over half the board

Before play begins, the host sets up the board with a stack of two neutral tokens in the central hex and one starting token for each player in hexes of the host’s choosing. The guest then decides which side to play.

The game ends when neither player can make another move or after two successive passes. With its distinctive stacking system and strict placement rules, Tumbleweed offers a focused contest in which every visible stack can affect future moves. It was voted Best Combinatorial 2-Player Game of 2020 on BoardGameGeek.