Gro: Battle for the Petri Dish
I had never heard of GRO: Battle for the Petri Dish (Interformic Games, 1999 – Greg Turner), until I found the companies website on the internet one day. The theme sounded interesting, so I made an opportunity to play the game. When I first saw the game, I had to admit that my hopes were not high. The components were low in quality (even though a German company is releasing it with better pieces), and it was an abstract strategy game – something I not too terribly fond of. However, the theme is one of my favorites – amoebic warfare (I’ll grant you it’s not a common theme), so we gave it a whirl.
I didn’t dislike the game, and actually was willing to immediately play another game. I do enjoy this game, and although it won’t hit the table often, it will be played enough to cover its money value. It has some similar characteristics to Go, but is simpler, yet clever in its mechanics. GRO is a fun game, and even though I haven’t won a game yet (!!!), I find that it’s short enough that I do not tire of it and am willing to play multiple games of it whenever I play it.
To play GRO, a board is placed between the two players, containing fifty-two dots connected in a grid that is seven squares by seven squares (with the three squares in each corner missing) allowing the whole thing to fit into a circle. The six dots in each corner are darker than the rest, and represent the goal areas. Each player is given sixteen tokens of their color (red or blue), which they will use to represent their germs on the board. Each player places one of their germs anywhere on the dish, and the game is ready to go. One player takes the first turn, and then play alternates until the game is over.
On a turn, a player may move, grow, or divide a germ. When moving a germ, the player may move the germ to any adjacent space (orthogonally or diagonally). After moving, the germ must have enough liberties, or the move cannot be made. Liberties are open spaces that are orthogonal (not diagonal) to the germ. Small germs – one chip - need one liberty, medium germs – two chips stacked – two liberties, and large germs – four chips stacked – need three liberties. A player may also grow a small or medium germ, which doubles the size (add the chips). Liberties must still be observed, however. Large and medium germs may divide. This means that only half of the germ moves to a legal location, leaving the other half in the space where it started.
Whenever a germ has no liberties, it is killed. Large and medium germs are not killed whenever they have fewer liberties than they need, but they may not divide, grow, or move. Any germ that is “killed” is removed from the board. Whenever one player controls three of the four goal areas (have a piece there, with none of the opponent’s), the game is over, and that player wins!
Some comments on the game…
1.) Components: Since GRO is an independently made game, the components are rather inexpensive. The whole game comes in a large plastic bag, and includes two smaller bags, each filled with red or blue poker chips. There are two large cardboard stock reference sheets included. Both of them show examples of how to move, divide, grow, and count liberties. On the other side of these sheets, there are examples of a five-turn game, which was very helpful in learning how to play the game. The board is another sheet of cardstock, with no illustrations – just a grid of dots. The components are cheap, but the game is inexpensive, and you get what you pay for. If one really likes components, the game was re-released in Germany, in an actual Petri dish!
2.) Rules: Understanding Go helped understand how liberties worked, but even so, this game doesn’t even approach the complexity of Go. GRO is a rather simplistic game, and thanks to the reference sheets, was very easy to learn and teach. The rules were written very clearly, so well I wish that other companies would do the same.
3.) Time: Even though this is an abstract strategy game, games that I usually find to be long, drawn out, and boring, the game play went very smoothly. We were able to fit two games into thirty minutes, easily, and the time went by quickly.
4.) Theme and Fun Factor: The theme is there, but practically non-existent. I can pretend that my chips are amoebas all I want, but with a plain board, and no pictures on the discs, all I have is my imagination. Now, I don’t normally find abstract strategy two-player games very fun, but this one I enjoyed quite a bit. It was like a cross of Go and other simple two-player games that I have formerly played on the computer.
5.) Strategy: Taking control of the corners is crucial, and sometimes it’s hard to determine if you should grow, divide, or move. Obviously I can’t figure it out, as I have a consistent losing streak in the game. Yet I’ll try a different strategy next time, and eventually I’ll win! I like games where the strategy isn’t immediately evident.
I recommend this game, therefore, especially to those who like two-player abstracts. I’m not a big fan, yet I still enjoyed this game quite a bit. For it’s price, you certainly get your money’s worth. If I could do it again, I’d snag the one with better bits, as I’m a big fan of components, but this version is still very worth it. If you like Go, give this much simpler game a try, I think you’ll be pleased.
Tom Vasel
"Real men play board games"
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