Desdemona

Setup on a 7×7 board

The game is played on a square board of sizes 7×7 or 8×8. There are two players, Black and White. Each player has two pieces in his color on 7×7, three on 8×8. There is a sufficient supply of bi-colored stones.

Setup
On 7×7 the pieces start on b2 and f2 for Black, b6, and f6 for White. On 8×8 it’s a4, b2, and g2 for Black, b7, g7, and h5 for White.

Play
Black moves first. Turns then alternate. On his turn, a player must do one of two things

1. Move a pawn in a straight line across any number of empty squares (orthogonally or diagonally) ending the move on an empty square. Then place a stone in your opponents color on an empty square away in a straight line across any number of empty squares (orthogonally or diagonally) from the pawn that was last moved, or …

2. Move a pawn in a straight line across any number of empty squares (orthogonally or diagonally) ending the move on an empty square adjacent to an opponent’s stone. The piece and the stone now define a line (straight or diagonal). If the next square of that line, going in the direction of the stone, is vacant or the next squares hold same-colored stones followed by an empty square, then your color stone is placed on that square, thus trapping the opponent’s stone(s) between itself and the moving piece, and flipping them all over to the moving player’s color.

Moving is compulsory, unless impossible, in which case a player must pass. If one player cannot move anymore, the other must proceed, but may only do so with capturing moves. The game ends when neither player can move.

The player with the most pieces on the board wins.

Online play is available against an Ai or turn based at https://mindsports.nl/index.php/the-pit/1046-desdemona

BGG entry, https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/313894/desdemona

Copyright 2020, Rey Alicea

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PO-GO my first published game!

My first game published by Nestor Games, click this link to go to the publisher game page!

Here are the Official Rules!

BGG entry, https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/164626/po-go

Copyright 2020, Rey Alicea

Sapos

Sapos (Toads in Spanish) 

Sapos is played with 32 bi-colored pieces on an 8×8 board with the following setup:

Two players Dark and Light. Each player has 4 pieces on the board and 12 in reserve.

Dark’s 4 pieces are placed on the points d2, d3,e2,e3, and Light’s 4 pieces are placed on d6,d7,e6,e7

Players take turns performing any number of these actions:

• hop a piece over an ortho-diagonally adjacent friend into an empty square.

• jump a piece over an orthogonally adjacent enemy into an empty square, capturing the jumped enemy and placing it into your reserve.

• spawn a piece from your reserve in an empty square ortho-diagonally adjacent to the last hop

There are some rules for the flow of a turn:

• You will only ever hop and jump with a single piece during your turn.

• If you have a 2×2 formation of pieces at the start of your turn, you must move with one of those pieces.

• You can hop and jump multiple times.

• Once you make a jump you may no longer hop.

• If you don’t make a jump you must end your turn with a spawn.

• After Player 2’s first turn she must immediately move again. Neither sequence may contain a jump.

Here are some examples of valid turns:

hop, spawn

hop, hop, hop, spawn

jump

hop, hop, jump, jump

And Player 2’s first turn likely looks like this:

hop, spawn, hop, spawn

If your opponent is unable to finish her next turn, you win by starvation!

This win condition means that if you have 0 in reserve at the start of your turn then you must jump since you otherwise cannot afford to spawn.

BGG entry, https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/132411/sapos

You can play on Chessicals.com

Copyright 2020, Rey Alicea

In search of the perfect abstract

Welcome everyone to my obsession, my search for that elusive perfect abstract game!

So, I hope you join me in the days, weeks, months and years ahead.

I don’t know if I’ll ever find it, but I bet it’s going to be a fun ride!

Note that all rights are reserved on all the games presented in this site. Those that wish to program or sell any of these games in any form should contact the author at rey.alicea@gmail.com for permission or a license to do so.