Game: Tic Tactics

The title gives Tic Tactics away. It's the age-old game of Tic-Tac-Toe with a tactical twist, spread out across nine separate Tic-Tac-Toe boards that collectively form one mega, meta-board. You control where your opponent moves, and your opponent controls where you move, and in spite of that rather oddball description it's actually very simple to play, and also insidiously entertaining. Understand?Probably not. Okay, imagine a Tic-Tac-Toe board - perhaps better known to some of you as X's and O's. Now imagine that each of the nine squares on the board is comprised of another, smaller Tic-Tac-Toe board. To claim one of the squares on the big board, you must win the game of Tic-Tac-Toe in that square. Win a game, claim a square, and when you've claimed three squares in a row, horizontally, vertically or diagonally, you win. Easy peasy - that's Tic Tactics."But there's a catch! Oh, isn't there always? You alternate turns with your opponent, chosen at random, from amongst your Facebook friends or in a "pass-and-play" game with a real person, and where your opponent plays determines which of the nine boards you'll make your succeeding move on. Say, for instance, he plays the upper-left square of the board in the middle - you must play on the board in the upper-left corner. On that board, you play the middle square in the bottom row, and so your opponent must now make his move on the board in the middle square of the bottom row. So it goes, back and forth, until victory (or a draw) is declared.It's simple (really, it's one of those things that's easier to do than to explain), but it encourages devious play. It's not easy keeping track of the possible consequences of every move you make, and it's sometimes preferable to pass up on an advantageous square in order to force your opponent into an even more disadvantaged position. Even if a square is won, you can still be forced to play on it, but if your opponent tries to make you play on a board that's full, you'll be allowed to make your move anywhere you like.