Distrix

Distrix is an award-winning, perfect-information game in which two players, Red and Blue, battle to control a 6x6 region called The Matrix. The number in each square of the matrix equals power, and Red and Blue are equally powerful. During the game, players use colored tokens to group the squares into 9 districts, one square at a time. The tokens are not player specific; all tokens are available to both players. As districts are formed, power is unevenly allocated. Red controls some districts, and Blue controls others. The game ends when one token occupies each square and no legal moves remain. Whoever controls more districts is the winner.

The idea is simple, but game play is incredibly challenging. You and your opponent are equally powerful at all times, so there's one path to victory: you must cleverly spread your power to win many districts by narrow margins and lose few districts by large margins. This is how election districts are rigged, or gerrymandered, in the real world. But, in Distrix, an opponent responds to your every move. Each district is a tug-of-war that you want to win narrowly or lose by a lot. But be careful...you may accidentally win it by too much or barely lose it! Nine districts are in play, so there's a lot to keep your eye on. Spatial awareness is critical because the shape of one district affects another. And there's a special rule that can be highly disruptive at the end: squares may be reassigned from large districts to adjacent smaller ones. Overall, it's a stunningly pure battle for power that combines basic arithmetic, spatial awareness, and expert move timing. Game play is intense from start to finish; all games are closely contested; and endgame surprises are remarkably common.

Distrix is for 2 players ages 14 and up and takes 30-60 minutes to play. Each game set includes 36 tiles, 9 home base tokens, 99 expansion tokens, 9 scoring tokens, a scoreboard, a rulebook, and a rule summary sheet.

Distrix is abstract yet relevant. The game introduces a method for dividing any region into a given number of districts of nearly equal size, one sector at a time. The same method can be used to form election districts of nearly equal population within US states. Thus, the game offers a potential solution to America's gerrymandering problem. Instead of one political party rigging new election districts to its advantage, multiple political parties could form new election districts in a high-stakes game, one voting precinct (or county, census block, census tract, etc.) at a time.

Distrix won the Best New Abstract Game Judges Award at the 2021 UK Games Expo and a silver medal in the 2020 Serious Play Tabletop Game Competition.