Get to the center before everyone else and win the game! That’s easier said than done in Circular Reasoning. This strategy game has a circular game board that is constantly changing after every round, so you have to think strategically about where you move your game pieces and try to anticipate how your opponents are going to move
The rules for the abstract boardgame Circular Reasoning could fit on a 3×5 index card, and it might have fewer pieces than any game I currently own. The design of the board manages to give those very simple rules some modest strategy complexity, a game that seems to hit the family market target rather well without sacrificing adult playability.
Circular Reasoning’s board comprises three tracks and a center space, with gateway tracks separating each layer. Players must try to move their three pieces—a circle, a triangle and a square—on to the board, through each of the three gateways, and into the center before any other player does so. Each piece may move a specific number of spaces on a track; the circle moves two, the triangle three, and the square four, with movement in either direction allowed as long as a player doesn’t change direction mid-move. A piece may only move to an interior track by passing through the gateway piece that separates the two tracks (or the inner track from the center).
The gateways move clockwise each turn, however, advancing a number of spaces equal to the number of player tokens found on the track just outside of it. Any token can jump over other tokens except when passing through a gateway; if there’s a token just inside or just outside of the gateway, the gate is blocked until either the gate or the token moves. Tokens must move their assigned number of spaces, so players end up chasing the gateways around the board or turning around to try to catch it on the way back.