Dvertz (Dzertz, Zeronn, etc)


(These rules are written with the assumption that you are familiar with both Dvonn and Zertz rules)


First phase is the same as in Dvonn, with all the pieces being placed on the board. There is a common reserve of all the Zertz marbles including the extra three for tournament play.

In the second phase, each move by a player consists of two parts: the Dvonn move and the Zertz-like move. The Dvonn move is exactly as it is played in Dvonn. The Zertz-like move means jumping if you can or placing another marble on a board piece. The Zertz-like move does not include the removal of an edge piece from the game like in normal Zertz. You can make the Dvonn and Zertz-like moves in either order.

You can win by either Dvonn or Zertz, whichever happens first. By Zertz, it means having 4 white marbles, 5 grey marbles, or 6 black marbles (cannot make a set of two each color). This is one more than normal Zertz. This is also constructed so that all the marbles can be taken but noone has the winning number. By Dvonn, it means controlling the most pieces when noone can make another Dvonn move (just like normal Dvonn).

Quirks: Marbles on islands that are not connected to a red Dvonn piece return to reserve, instead of going to the player who causes the island. Zertz marbles move with a stack when the stack moves. This does not count as a "jump" with the marble (cannot gain marbles through this move). A marble on a stack being moved onto a second marble "crunches" the second marble. This means that the second marble returns to the reserve. Lastly, if a player has no Dvonn move, they must still make their normal Zertz-like move (jumping or placing) each turn.


This complex hybrid seems to vastly increase playing time. Zertz takes about 10-15 minutes, Dvonn takes about 20-25 minutes, and Dzertz takes about an hour and a half. Course, we've only played a few times so far. You can easily change some rules to better fit your version of the game. This version seems to balance the strategies fairly well.


Here is why we chose the rules we did. The set of two each color is way too easy to get, though three of each color may be fair. We didn't want the game to end in Zertz all the time, so we made it more difficult to make the Zertz win, but still very possible (in the two games we have played, Dvonn decided the game but with almost all maximum non-winning Zertz marble colors for the opponent). Crunching the marbles seemed appropriate, since there are very few other choices for that situation. Allowing island marble capture didn't work well, since Dvonn allows for very large islands to be made and controlled by a single player. The end was difficult to decide. One method would be to stop Zertz movement when one player lost all movement capabilities. However, this diminishes the importance of Zertz. It was also undesirable for the stuck player to stop placing marbles, because their only moves would be jumps in reaction to the mobile player. It adds an interesting dimension to force Zertz to keep playing, though it is still in the mobile player's advantage.