Master C has had a bit of a thing for playing noughts and crosses recently. He’s realised that with a bit of logic you can make it impossible for the other player to win. He likes winning. Rather a lot. As a responsible parent I realise that it’s my duty to make sure he understands that in life it’s not all about the winning. Nor is it possible to always win. That’s where finding a copy of the vintage 1978 game Super 3 comes in rather useful.
Now, Super 3 isn’t a game that I’m at all familiar with and a bit of online research suggests that it only came out under the name Super 3 I’m 1978. There was a 1992 variant called Super Tic-Tac-Toe, but it appears that it was relatively short-lived.
In Super 3 there is a plastic game board which has nine squares on it. These are numbered 3 to 11, in numerical order. Each square is in turn made up of nine peg holes. These two are numbered 3 to 11, but the centre hole of each does not have the number 7. Instead it just has the number of the square there.
Now the aim of the game is to take either three squares in a row (horizontal, vertical or diagonal) or a total of five squares. To win a square you have to either have three pegs in a row, or a total of five pegs. To be able to place a peg in a hole you have to roll the dice. If you roll a number from 3 to 6 or 8 to 11 you can either place your peg in a hole with that number, or in any hole other than the central one of the square with that number.
Players who roll a 7 can place a peg in any central hole, or in any hole in square number 7, including the central hole. If you roll a 12 you can place a peg anywhere on the board. Rolling a 2 allows you to remove an opponents peg and then roll again.
Once you have enough pegs to take a square you remove your opponent’s pegs from that square and fill it all in with your own pegs. Once this is done that square can not be touched again, even if your opponent rolls a 2.
All these instructions seem a bit confusing on first read, but once you start playing it’s actually really easy to know what you’re doing.
Super 3 is actually a fantastic game to play one on one with a child. It worked brilliantly for my 6 year old son. Complicated enough that he didn’t get bored, but not so complicated that he found it hard and gave up. It requires a bit of strategic though and to understand the rules about when you can place a peg where, but it’s a brilliant game for practicing adding up the totals on two dice too.
Super 3 – the facts
Published by MB Games in 1978. For two players, aged 7 to adult.
The blurb on the box says:
“The exciting game within a game. Three in a row wins you a box, but carry on, you must get three boxes in a row to run the hame. Your opponent may even be a box ahead, but a little luck and clever strategy can still cheat him of ultimate victory. Play this endlessly absorbing game within a game with all the family”