My cousin may have invented this game (or maybe he found it somewhere else, but he’s brilliant enough to make it himself, shout out to Alex Leone) that’s based on Tic Tac Toe, but with one change: each player only has 3 pieces (he used red & blue poker chips) numbered either 1-3-5 or 2-4-6.
Play starts with Red placing piece 1, then Blue places 2, Red places 3, Blue places 4, Red places 5, and Blue places 6. It’s nearly impossible for a game of tic tac toe to end that early, so next, Red picks up piece one and places it in any of the three spaces that didn’t have a piece beforehand, and that continues until one player wins.
When we were playing, it felt like we got into loops where every move was forced, but neither player could win. What’s this forum’s opinion on how solvable this game is? If it is solvable, what kind of changes could be made to make it more competitive?
Like, maybe you could choose to lock rather than move one, or something like that.