Logic Puzzles and Strategy Games - part 1

Have you played "Tic Tac Toe" (aka "Xs and Os" or "Naughts and Crosses") recently?
Do your children know how to play?
Did you know you can take this simple strategy game to many, more challenging levels?

Tic Tac Toe
Level 1 - play the standard game on a 3X3 grid.  Rather than wasting a lot of paper by making large game boards, click below for a printable page with many small grids.  Print on both sides to get even more games on a single page.

Level 2 - try playing on a 4X4 grid or a 5X5 grid.  Is one more satisfying than the other?

Level 3 - 3D Tic Tac Toe!  Imagine a regular 3X3 grid on the table, with another hovering directly over it, and a third hovering directly over that.  Now you can get three in a row vertically as well as horizontally!  It takes some serious thinking to play this one!
You can play this on paper using 3 grids side by side,  imagining their spatial arrangement as top, middle and bottom. 

Tic Tac 15 - Player one can only place even numbers in the grid.  Player two can only use odd numbers.  Win a round by making 3 numbers in a straight line add up to 15!


Tapatan - (like Tic Tac Toe, but even more fun!)
Download a Tapatan board (link below).  They're easy to draw, once you know how.  Each player uses 3 game pieces that can be moved around the board.

The game is played in two parts.  The first part looks just like Tic Tac Toe, trying to get three pieces in a row.  If a player does this, that round is over before you even get to part two!

If part one is a draw, players now take turns sliding one of their pieces along any line to an adjoining empty circle.  The first player to get three in a straight line wins. 

Nine Men's Morris - (a level more advanced than Tapatan, and still fun for Middle-School and Adults!)
Nine Men's Morris was played by knights in castles more than a thousand years ago.  It's a great strategy game with simple rules.
Download board and instructions (link below)

Click here to download game boards from my collection