Defuse

I have been playing many boardgames online lately, that my blog is starting to look like one for digital games. So I need to play a physical game once in a while to get back to something non-digital. I need a digital detox. I still have games bought last year which I have not played. Defuse was one of them. 

The Game

Defuse is a game design from Thailand. It won several awards a few years ago. This is a roll-and-write game inspired by Minesweeper, that computer game in older versions of Windows. I used to play a lot of Minesweeper and I was pretty good at it. 

Minesweeper

Every player has a sheet of paper like this. This is your player board. This photo above shows the end of a game. At the start of a game it is blank, of course. The game is played over 10 rounds. Every round four dice are rolled, two black and two orange. You must pick a colour and use the numbers rolled to fill your sheet. 

The coloured spaces on your sheet are buildings. No colour means open space. Numbers need to be filled in buildings for them to score points, although you can write numbers on open space. Similarly bombs (black dots) can be drawn anywhere, just that if they are drawn in a building, that's one building you won't be able to use for scoring. 

The 8-sided dice give you numbers, and the 6-sided dice give you pips. When you fill a number in a space, it means how many spaces around it are bombs (including diagonally adjacent spaces). Pips are bombs. You must draw the same number of bombs as the number of pips. You must fill the number first, because your first bomb must be adjacent to that number. Subsequent bombs must connect to your first bomb drawn this round. 

When the number in a space matches the number of bombs surrounding it, that's good news. It means this space is secured. All bombs have been identified. All these bombs are defused. You draw a box around the number, and circles around every bomb next to it. You also draw lines linking the bombs to the number. If there are empty spaces next to the number, you cross them all out, because it is impossible for them to have bombs now. If the space with the number is a building, it will help you with scoring. 

Sometimes invalid situations occur, e.g. the number of bombs surrounding a number is more than the number, or all spaces around a number have been filled, but the number of bombs is too low. In such situations, you will need to use tools to make corrections. There's a tool which lets you change a number. There's one which lets you add or remove bombs. You start the game with some tools, and during play you may gain more. Leftover tools are worth points. In case you run out of tools and cannot use them to fix any invalid situations, you must still make the fixes, just that instead of using tools, you are taking penalty. In game terms these are called mistakes. Every mistake costs 1 point. If you make more than 20, you lose immediately. 

Most of your points come from buildings (i.e. coloured spaces) which have numbers and have been secured. It is not possible to put a number in every building. You'll have to choose. Orange is residential. Everyone compares the sum of their numbers in orange buildings. You score points based on ranking. Purple is government departments. You want to fill the same number in them. The more same numbers you have, the more points you score. Other colours score in other different ways. One other way you score is complex bombs. This means defused bombs linked to two or more numbers. This is one consideration when you fill your sheet. 

The Play

I found the game difficult to learn. It is based on Minesweeper, but there are many other rules. Now that I know how to play, it isn't actually that complicated. But somehow reading the rules was quite challenging. Maybe it's the small font making reading difficult, or maybe how the rules are written and organised can be done better. I needed to actually play the game to get a clear understanding. The first few rounds I still had to refer to the rules several times. I made quite a few mistakes I had to correct, and I created a mess on my sheet. 

Once I understood how the game worked, it was smooth sailing. The board initially gives an impression that there is a lot of space. Once you get into it, you will realise that the spaces quickly fill up. By Round 10 you will be more or less running out of space. There is no direct player interaction, but for some of the scoring criteria you have to compete with the other players. So there is some pressure. It is helpful to watch your opponents. It helps you decide where to compete and where to concede, so that you don't waste effort and you grab opportunities which others have given up. Overall this feels like a solo game, since this is roll-and-write after all. 

The Thoughts

It's interesting to see Minesweeper implemented as a roll-and-write game. If you have played Minesweeper before and enjoy it, or if you like roll-and-write games, give it a go.