Zenavo Blocks

A quiet garden, a grid of empty squares, and a single tray of weighted stones between you and a calm garden keeper. You take turns: one stone from the tray, one empty square on the grid. That is the whole of it, and it is more than enough to think about. The stones are not equal. Each one carries a weight, and the moment a row or a column fills up, it is claimed by whoever placed the greater total weight inside it. So every placement answers two questions at once. Where does this stone do the most good for a line you are already building? And what are you handing over by leaving the rest of the tray to your opponent? Because the tray is shared, the keeper draws from exactly the same supply you do. Taking the heaviest stone may be the obvious move for your own half-finished column, or it may simply be a way of keeping that weight out of the keeper's hands. Sometimes the strongest play is a modest stone dropped into a line the keeper has nearly sealed, just heavy enough to tip the balance and turn a loss into a claim. Lines rarely resolve the way they look three turns earlier. The goal of each garden is to finish holding at least as many claimed lines as the keeper. A draw on lines is enough; you never need to run away with it, which leaves room for careful, patient play rather than scrambling. Across fifteen gardens the grid widens, and with more squares come more lines crossing one another, more ways for a single well-placed stone to serve two claims at the same time, and more ways for a careless one to gift the keeper a column you had considered safe. There is no timer and nothing to hurry you. Stones sit where you put them, the grid stays in plain view, and you can study the weights still waiting in the tray before committing. It rewards counting ahead, reading the keeper's unfinished rows, and the small satisfaction of watching a line you set up five turns ago close in your colour. A measured, unhurried strategy puzzle for anyone who enjoys turning simple rules over until they stop being simple.

Zenavo Blocks 2.0