Tic Territory Battle
Difficulty: Easy–Medium
Players: 2–6
Age: 9+
Time: 20–90 minutes
Scoring: At the end of the game
Style: Patterned laydown / territory control
You will need: A large playing surface and a different set of tokens for each player.
Before playing, players should understand Tics, Singles and Nics from the TIC Card Principles.
Objective
Build groups of 3, 4 or 5 cards that all Tic in the same way and claim them as your territory.
Place one of your tokens on each card belonging to a territory you create.
But be careful: territories are not permanent. Opponents can expand them, take them over, or create new territories that overlap yours.
At the end of the game, the player with the most territory points wins.
What Is a Territory?
A territory is a connected group of 3, 4 or 5 cards that all Tic in the same way.
In other words, every card in the group has the same two properties in common.
For example:
- three Orange-Star cards
- four 4-Triangle cards
- five 2-Red cards
A territory may form any connected shape, including:
- a straight line
- an L
- a T
- a cross
- another side-to-side connected formation
Cards must connect edge to edge. Diagonal, corner-to-corner contact does not count.
Setup
Each player chooses a distinctive type or colour of token.
For example, one player could use pennies, another nickels, and another small cubes.
Deal each player 6 cards.
Place the remaining deck face-down.
Turn the top card face-up and place it in the centre of the playing area. This is the starting card.
Determine who plays first by any agreed method. Play proceeds clockwise.
Taking a Turn
On your turn, you may play one or more cards from your hand.
All cards played during the turn must lie along one straight row or one straight column.
Your play may:
- extend an existing row or column;
- create a new row or column perpendicular to an existing one; or
- straddle cards already on the table, provided all the cards you play are in the same straight row or column. A straddle play may pass over any number of existing cards between the cards you lay down.
Every card you play must be legal.
Each newly played card must Tic with at least one card touching it edge to edge.
This Tic may be with a card that was already on the table or with another card played during the same turn.
At every other new edge-to-edge contact created by the play, the cards must at least Single.
Nics are never allowed between touching cards.
A card can interact with as many as four surrounding cards: above, below, left and right.
Diagonal cards do not interact.
Connecting a Play to the Existing Layout
Except for the opening play, every laydown must connect to cards that were already on the table before the turn began.
At least one newly played card must Tic directly with an existing card.
A Single may be created where a new card touches an existing card, but a Single alone cannot be used to attach the entire laydown to the existing grid.
Relationships between cards played during the same turn do not satisfy this connection requirement by themselves.
For example, if you extend the end of an existing row by 2 cards, the first new card touching the existing row must Tic with the existing card. It is not enough for that connection to be a Single while the two newly played cards Tic with each other.
If a laydown straddles existing cards and therefore creates more than one separate group of newly played cards along the same row or column, each separate group must connect to the existing layout through at least one Tic.
After this connection requirement is satisfied, all other new side-to-side contacts may be either Tics or Singles. Nics are never allowed.
Creating a Territory
Whenever your play creates a connected group of 3, 4 or 5 cards that all Tic in the same way, you claim that group.
Place one of your tokens on every card in the territory.
The territory may include:
- cards you just played; or
- a combination of newly played cards and cards already on the table.
A single play may create more than one different Tic territory.
If a card belongs to two different territories that you control, it may have two of your tokens on it.
Taking Over Territory
Territories can change ownership throughout the game.
There are two ways to capture an opponent’s territory.
1. Expand Their Territory
If an opponent controls a three- or four-card Tic territory and you add one or more cards that Tic in exactly the same way, you take control of the enlarged territory.
For example:
An opponent controls three Orange-Star cards.
You add a fourth Orange-Star card.
The new four-card Orange-Star territory now belongs to you. Remove the opponent’s tokens from that territory and replace them with yours.
The same rule applies if a play expands a three-card territory directly to five cards.
2. Overlap Their Territory
You may also create a new Tic territory that overlaps an opponent’s existing territory.
Any cards shared by the opponent’s territory and your new territory change ownership.
Remove the opponent’s token or tokens from each shared card and replace them with one of your tokens.
Any of the opponent’s tokens on cards that are not part of your new territory remain in place.
In other words, only the overlapping cards change ownership.
If You Cannot – or Do Not Want to – Play
If you cannot make a legal play, draw one card from the deck.
You may also choose to draw instead of making a legal play if your available play would not create, expand, or otherwise improve a territory.
If the card you draw creates a playable move, you may immediately play that card by itself, or include it with other cards from your hand, but your play must include the drawn card.
Otherwise, keep the card and end your turn.
Ending Your Turn
After making your play, draw cards from the deck until you have 6 cards in your hand.
If you already have 6 or more cards, do not draw.
Then play passes clockwise.
End of the Game
When the draw deck is empty, continue playing with the cards remaining in your hands.
Players continue taking turns until all players have emptied their hands or no further legal plays can be made.
Then score the game.
Scoring
Count the territory tokens you have remaining on the board.
Each territory token = 1 point.
Then subtract 1 point for each card remaining in your hand.
The player with the highest final score wins.
Extreme Card Bonus
At the end of the game, check the territories you control.
If an Extreme TIC card belongs to one of your territories, add:
- 1-circle-violet: +1 point
- 5-star-red: +2 points
The Extreme Card must be part of a territory you control at the end of the game to earn the bonus.
If an Extreme Card belongs to more than one of your qualifying territories, score its bonus for each territory.
Shorter Game / Smaller Table
For a shorter game, shuffle the full deck but use only a predetermined portion of it as the draw pile.
Another option is to play with a 4 × 4 × 4 TIC deck. Remove every card containing:
- the number 5;
- a star; or
- the colour red.
This leaves four numbers, four shapes and four colours:
4 × 4 × 4 = 64 cards.
This smaller deck also makes it easier to keep track of which cards have already been played and which may still be available.
To conserve table space, cards may also be overlapped approximately halfway when laid down. Keep the rows and columns clearly aligned so that it remains obvious which cards are touching edge to edge.
