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47Balkline

Carom on a table with lines on it. The lines stop a player from keeping the balls in one place and scoring from them for ever: when both of the other balls are in one space, one of them soon has to leave it.

The table as a game of Balkline starts, with the scoreboardAs the game starts A game of Balkline in first person, over the cueOver the cue, in first person

At a glance

Lines cut the table into nine spaces, and two balls may not be kept in one of them for long.

Family
Carom
Tutorial
2 spoken, subtitled tasks.
In the career
No.
Match length
First to 5, 10, 20 or 30, as 47/2 or the stricter 47/1.
Played against
The computer on Easy, Normal or Hard, a friend at the same PC, in tournaments, or online.

The space both balls are lying in is outlined on the cloth: gold while a point may still be made there, red when one of them has to leave.

The tutorial

The commentator talks you through each task, with subtitles. You play every one yourself, and play it again if you miss.

  1. Two balls in one spaceScore a point
  2. Drive one outScore, and send one of the two balls out of the space

The rules

As the game plays them, word for word from the rule book that is a click away in the game's menu and in the middle of any match.

The table and the balls

  • The ten-foot carom table and its three balls: a white, a yellow and a red. Four lines are drawn on the cloth, 47 centimetres in from each cushion, and they cut the table into nine spaces.
  • Each player has a cue ball of their own for the whole game: white for the player who starts, yellow for the other. The red belongs to nobody.

The opening shot

  • The red is on the foot spot and your opponent's ball on the head spot. Your own ball is on the head string, a hand's width to one side.
  • The opening shot has to hit the red first.

Scoring

  • A point is scored when your cue ball hits both of the other balls in the same shot, with or without cushions.
  • Score, and you play again from where the balls have come to rest. Miss, and your opponent plays, with their own cue ball, from where everything lies.
  • The first player to 10 points wins. Another target can be chosen under Settings, Game.

The spaces

  • The rule is about the two balls you play at, never about your own cue ball. A ball is in the space its centre is over.
  • When both of them come to rest in the same space, you may score one point with both still in it. On the shot after that, at least one of them has to cross a line and leave the space. It may come back in before it stops.
  • If you score on that shot and neither ball has left, the point is not given and the turn passes. It is not a foul.
  • Once a ball has left, the count starts again, whether it came back or not. It also starts again for a player who comes to the table and finds both balls in one space.
  • The space is lit on the table while both balls are in it: amber when a point may still be made there, red when one of them has to leave on this shot.
  • That is the game of 47/2: two shots in a space. Under Settings, Game, the stricter 47/1 can be chosen, where a ball has to leave on every shot played with both in one space.

Fouls

  • Sending any ball off the table is a foul: the shot does not score, the turn passes, and the ball goes back on a spot (the red on the foot spot, the striker's ball on the head spot, the other ball in the middle).
  • If the shot clock runs out the turn passes and the balls stay where they are.

What is left out

  • The rules are simplified: there are no anchor spaces where the lines meet the cushions, and a ball lying exactly on a line is given to the space its centre is in.
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Try it, free

The demo is 8-ball in the Classic Room, with its whole spoken tutorial, a practice table and a computer player, for Windows, Linux and macOS. The full game will be sold only on Steam, at $12.99.

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