You must take these categories as
arbitrary - the more categories the more fuzzy boundaries.
The Gipf GamesThere are six games in the
Gipf set: Gipf, Zèrtz,
Yinsh, Dvonn,
Pünct and Tzaar.
The
gipf games have a special place here because Zertz was the
legendary final straw
that led to establishing the site. It still took
almost five years to get all six of them online, just
because there were so many other great games competing for
developer time. All of the Gipf games are pure
abstracts with unusual mechanics.
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Tile Pattern GamesThis is a category of games where these is no board, just a bag of tiles which can be played on any flat surface. There are currently six such games here, Cookie Disco, Che, Micropul, Trax, Palago, Spangles and Hive. These games represent the ultimate in portability. They're very easy to explain or learn. They're also devilishly difficult to master. More games in this group are definitely coming. |
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Traditional Abstract GamesFor most people, Chess and Checkers are the only abstract strategy games they have every heard of. Their loss - there are a lot more games from ancient to relatively modern that are "traditional" somewhere. Boardspace hosts a few of them. Fanorona and Tablut are definitely traditional. Hex, while only about 50 years old, is definitely in the traditional mould. Lines of Action, a youngster at 40, uses traditional equipment and is destined to be a classic. |
Checkerboard gamesGames you can play with a checkerboard and checkers are especially attractive, because almost everyone "owns" them without any extra purchases; Lines of Action, is one of these, but also Dipole and Tumblingdown. There are literally hundreds of great games you can play with just a boring old checkerboard. |
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Capturing GamesChess is the canonical capturing game - you won't find that here - but Xiangqi (Chinese chess) is. There are many other games where the primary activity is removing your opponents pieces. Traboulet is a marble pushing game with a clever board mechanic. Khet is a definitely-modern game played with real lasers Entrapment is a pawn-and-barrier game with a capuring objective. Cannon forms lines of soldiers into "cannons" that shoot at the opposing forces. Knockabout uses dice as pieces to knock either other out of the arena. Triad is an unusual capturing game for 3 players. Traditional games such as Fanorona and Tablut are also found here. |
Racing GamesIn racing games, the players
race to move pieces to some goal, with many variations on
the pieces and board involved.. Breaking Away is a
luck free game based on bicycle racing. Warp-6
and Octiles are unusual
representatives of the pure racing variety. Truchet is an interesting
crossover that combines elements of racing, stacking and
capturing. Arimaa is a race
game with a strong capturing component. Gyges Gounki and Kamisado
are fast race-across-the-board games with unusual move
styles.
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Connection Games
There are a lot of games in this category, with and without
boards, and on various types of grids. The granddaddy
of all modern connection games is Hex, where you try to
connect opposite sides of a board, followed
closely by Lines
of Action, where you try to connect all your
pieces. A more recent example of connection games is Army of
Frogs, where you try to connect all your pieces on a
boardless hex grid. Volo is a connection
game inspired by the behavior of flocks of birds.. |
Euro GamesJust what are Euro Games? Dunno, but I know 'em when I see 'em. These are generally multi-player stratgy games with a limited amount of luck. Variety and uncertainty in the game arises out of the chaos of players' decisions. Boardspace hosts Container, an economic game with a shipping theme, and Medina, a city-building game, and Yspahan, a "victory points" economic game. Raj is an abstract bidding game which uses cards as bidding tokens. Mogul tense auction game with some poker-like elements. |
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Stacking GamesAnother fuzzy category is
games where manipulating stacks of pieces is the principal
mechanic. Crossfire, Dipole,
Dvonn, Exxit
and Tumblingdown are
clearly in this category. If you're a little bit
liberal, Santorini and Volcano
would fit too.
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N-in-a-row GamesThe Tic-Tac-Toe family tree is full of more interesging siblings. Gobblet is 4 in a row with nested pieces. Quinamid is 4 in a row with sliding stacked boards. Syzygy is 3 in a row on a sliding matrix. |
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Polyomino GamesThere are a bunch of really
simple, pure abstract games that use polyominos as their
pieces. Pan-Kai was the
first of these, followed by Universe and Phlip
(which combines Pan-Kai with Reversi) and Diagonal-Blocks,
which uses a diagonal connection rule. |
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The Rest of the GamesDefinitely not the
also-rans. These are the games that are so unusual
that they're in a category by themselves.
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