Do you think placing matching cubes together is a kid’s play? Then, think again, as here comes a cube game that’s sure to challenge you. This Plentifun article gives you Qwirkle cube game rules.
Like the original Qwirkle game, the Qwirkle cubes game too, is played by placing cubes in lines to match either their shape or their color. However, unlike the original game, you can roll the cubes till you get the desired shape to match the line.
In 2006, MindWare introduced a tile game called Qwirkle. It was similar to scrabble where you place matching tiles together. A couple of years later, the company brought a reinvention of this game in the market. It is called Qwirkle Cubes. It has proven to be a more strategic and difficult game than the original one. It has bagged several awards like “Dr. Toy Best Vacation Toy Award” and “Parents Choice Recommended Award”. Its popularity is certainly increasing among kids and adults. Let us see how to play the Qwirkle Cubes game.
What you need
- A flat surface
- 90 Qwirkle cubes
- 1 bag
- A notebook and a pen
- 2-4 players
▶ All the players should sit around a flat surface (like a table).
▶ Gather all the 90 Qwirkle cubes. They feature six different colors; namely, red, orange, blue, yellow, green, and purple, and six different shapes; namely, square, circle, star, diamond, starburst, and clover. There are 15 cubes in each color. Each cube has six shapes on its six sides.
▶ Place all the cubes in the bag.
▶ Keep a notebook and pen ready to keep the scores.
▶ Each player has to take 6 cubes from the bag. It will be the first hand of the player.
▶ The oldest player starts the game. He rolls his cubes and tries to place as many cubes as he can.
▶ The cubes should be placed keeping one attribute common. They should be matching in either their shape or their color.
▶ If the first player fails to place more than one cube, he should re-roll his cubes till he can place more than one.
▶ After playing his turn, the first player should grab more cubes from the bag to make them six again.
▶ The next turn goes to the player sitting on the left of the first one.
▶ The second player adds his cubes in the already-formed line matching the shape or the color.
▶ The second player can roll and re-roll the cubes if he cannot fit more than one cube on the grid. However, he may not roll all 6 cubes. The player has to choose which attribute (color or shape) he is going for and which cubes he will need to roll for that.
▶ After playing his turn, the second player should get cubes from the bag to make them six again.
▶ The game continues clockwise till one player uses all his cubes and the cube bag is empty.
▶ In the end, the highest scoring player wins the game.
Scoring
▶ When a player adds a cube in a line, he gets 1 point for every cube in that line.
▶ When a cube is placed to become a part of two different lines, it is worth 2 points.
▶ If a player adds the 6th cube in a line, he gets 6 bonus points in addition to 1 point for each cube in the line.
▶ The player who ends the game gets 6 points as a bonus.
▶ Cubes added to the line must share the same attribute as the other cubes the line.
▶ Each line on the grid will consist of only 6 cubes. It is called Qwirkle. The lines can be made with a combination of 6 cubes of different shapes and 1 color or 6 cubes of different colors and 1 shape.
▶ The combinations should be made with vertical or horizontal lines. Diagonal connections are not allowed.
▶ Not all the cubes in the grid touch each other.
▶ All hands should be played open.
▶ Unlike the original Qwirkle game, in Qwirkle Cubes, a player can roll the cubes till he gets the desired shape. However, rolling the cubes cannot change the color of the cubes.
▶ As all the hands are open, the players can guess each other’s strategies. It becomes a tough task to prepare a game plan as the other player can guess it. The player has to keep his game plan flexible to the other players’ strategies.
The objective of this game is to place the cubes strategically to build lines with matching colors or shapes. However, its main purpose, like other games, is to have some fun.
