Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
In the two-player strategy game Iro, you win by moving one of your pieces to the opponent's starting row, but the movement of each piece is dictated by the colors on top of it.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Read the full game description
In the two-player strategy game Iro, you win by moving one of your pieces to the opponent's starting row, but the movement of each piece is dictated by the colors on top of it. To set up, each player arranges six tiles in front of them; tiles are divided into 2x2 grids, with the four spaces of the grid each being in a different color: blue, red, green, and yellow. Arrange the tiles in a rectangle six spaces wide and four deep, with a space of each color in the row closest to you. Place 12 of your 16 pieces on the two rows closest to you, with the remaining pieces going into a reserve. Each piece shows three different colors or one color twice and a second color a single time. Once you've done this, reveal your set-up and place your tiles against the opponent's to create a board eight rows deep. On a turn, you have two options: Swap: Swap one of your pieces on the board for a piece in your reserve. Move: Move one of your pieces on the board 1-3 spaces, with moves being orthogonal or diagonal. The spaces that you move on must match the colors of that piece, and you can land on a color only as many times as the number of times that color appears on the piece. You can move onto a space occupied by your own piece, but you can't end your move there. If you land on an opponent's piece, place that piece in the opponent's reserve and end your movement. If you land one of your pieces in the row closest to the opponent, you win.