Description

Portcullis features an upright wooden board shaped like a castle gate, which is very thick to prevent players from seeing each other’s pieces before placed. It has a 6x6 grid of holes into which 36 playing blocks—18 dark, 18 light—can be pushed. There are two wooden trays for each player to sort their wooden playing blocks. (When not in use, the pieces, trays, and board are all able to stack on top of each other for display.) The blocks have one of four different flags painted on either end, always a different flag on each side for a total of six combinations of flags.

To win the game, a player must create a pattern of flags on his side, the shape of which is to be agreed upon before the game. It can be a square shape (A) or a flag shape (B):

AA
AA

B
--BB
B

or

---B
BB
---B

Typically the flag shape is used, as it is harder to block. A player’s pattern may utilize flags from either player’s pieces (the directions the flags point is of no consequence) and the pattern is not affected by any other flags in the board.

Players take turns choosing their blocks in secret and placing them according to a key painted on the upper right hand corner of each side of the board, pointing the flag on the player’s side according to the key in order to remember what flag is on the opposite side. When either player sees a complete pattern on their own side, they turn the board and the game ends. A draw can occur if all blocks are played with no pattern completed. The rules provide for several variations that include bluffing, different goals, pushing blocks out, and different endings.