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
legandary 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 four such games here, Che, Micropul, Trax, Palago, and Spangles. 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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Tradional 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. Cannon, Knockabout and Triad are modern games from this genre, along with traditional games such as Fanorona and Tablut which 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.
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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. |
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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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