Siege Stones

Siege Stones is a lovingly crafted strategy game for 2-4 players. Elegant and subtle, the game is easy to learn and the strategy deep enough to make it worth playing again and again.

It is difficult not to be impressed by the quality of the game components - beautiful glass markers add sparkling color to the wooden board and playing pieces. After a few turns, however, it quickly becomes apparent that the game is every bit as attractive as its components.

The object of the game is to lay claim to 4 of the 9 wooden "towers." To do so, you must surround a tower with pieces of your color. However, proximity to a tower weakens the value of your pieces. Thus, while you're engaged in a battle for a tower, another tower placed near your pieces weakens your claim. This makes the game strategically subtle - enough to give it a high replay value. Variations, including Siege Stones Charge, further extend the replay value, and invite players to create yet more versions of this challenging, subtle, and fast-paced game.

Siege Stones is one of the few strategy games that is as fun for 3 players as it is for 2 or 4. That discovery was the proverbial tipping point for us - making Siege Stones a most definitely Major FUN Award-worthy strategy game.

25 Puzzling Years

Gamepuzzles (a.k.a. Kadon Enterprises) is celebrating its 25th Anniversary. That's 25 years devoted to, as they say, "the joy of thinking." In the process, their website, and their collection of beautiful puzzles and puzzle games, has grown into a treasure chest of invitations to a livelier, more playful mind.

To get started playing, try the Coloring Book. I won't spoil it for you, except to say that it could very well be the easiest, and most satisfying, online coloring experience you've ever had. Next, try the "Puzzle Parlor" - it's a collection of Flash puzzles that are graphically engaging and vary in challenge from mild to egregious. If a lot of these puzzles remind you of M. C. Escher, consider yourself smugworthy. Much of the fun that is inherent in these puzzles comes from interacting with the Escher-like art of geometric transformations. It is getting to play with the playful sides of both art and mathematics.

But the real treasure is their collection of almost 150 lovingly crafted, moderately-priced puzzles and puzzle-games - so lovely and enticing that you will find the time you spend virtual window shopping downright inspirational. And if you're diligent or lucky, you may even discover some of the hidden puzzles and contests sprinkled enticingly throughout the site. And, as if you actually needed the incentive, you may win a prize for solving them!