Quarto is so easy to learn that I was both introduced to it and taught the rules over the course of a single, brisk, Tiktok. It’s a two-player board game that plays out on a 4×4 grid. Players take turns putting pieces on the grid. The objective is to get a line of four pieces, horizontally, vertically or diagonally, across the board.
This sounds like Connect 4, but rather than using pieces of different colours – I’m red and you’re blue – Quarto’s pieces are little towers that have a mix of four different characteristics. Pieces can be tall or sort, square or round, can be solid or hollow, and can be dark or light. Every piece is some of these things, so one will be dark, short, hollow, and round. Another will be solid, short, dark and square. The objective is to ensure that every piece in the line of four pieces you make shares at least one characteristic. You don’t have to place all the pieces in the line, but you do have to complete it, at which point you shout “Quarto!”
One final rule. Your opponent chooses the piece you play each turn, and you choose the piece they play.
@_thegamesweplay A better version of a childhood classic. #quarto #boardgames #boardgame #gamenight #gamenightideas #boardgamestiktok #recommendations #fyp #foryou #gamesfortwo ♬ Monkeys Spinning Monkeys – Kevin MacLeod & Kevin The Monkey
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Quarto is extremely good. God, it’s quick, too. Our set arrived last night and my daughter went from bemusement as I tried to explain the rules to absolutely flattening me in the space of ten minutes. I love the simplicity of it, but also the fiendishness. That 4×4 grid? Not a lot of real estate there, so you’re elbow to elbow from an early point in the game. I also love the ritual of politely handing your enemy the absolute most useless piece you can find, smiling at them sweetly, and wishing them well.