If you consider yourself anything like a strategist, ZERTZ is a definite must-have. It's a simple-to-learn strategy board game where the aim is to capture one of certain combinations of marbles, which are shared between the players while in play.

Gameplay is terribly simple. The board is a hexagonal arrangement (with four tiles on an edge) of circular tiles that are designed to hold the marbles securely. A turn is either placing a marble and taking away any edge tile, or making a checkers-style jumping capture. Except captures are cumpulsory. And the marbles aren't anybody's in particular.

Overall, the strategy consists of setting traps for your opponent while trying not to step in them yourself. And since the game lasts a contemplative 15 minutes, you can fool around with different strategies quickly in an evening.

The clincher is the production quality, since the set I bought was made of the sort of resin that pool balls are made of, and I suspect I'd be hard pressed to break it.

The downside of ZERTZ is this: it's one of six games in a line called GIPF that all interelate and enhance one another, and as far as I can tell, ZERTZ is the only game available in the states. So it really is a huge teaser for the whole series.

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)