Among the games known India, there are many checkers-like games, that don’t resemble checkers at first glance. These games use interesting triangular or circular boards, and pieces move not through squares, but along the lines and their intersections. What’s more, one similar game was known to Native Americans who live rather far away from India. Pretwa, Gol skuish or Egara-guti are some examples of these games. You can learn their rules in a minute but you can play for hours.
In my previous posts on draughts variants I described diagonal draughts, orthogonal draughts, draughts on enlarged boards and “twisted” draughts. But still I’m far from describing all checkers variants. The next chapter of this story is a game of Towers (called Bashni) and modern game called Laska.
I’ve already described Camelot – game excellent in many respects. However story of Camelot does not end here. This game has many variants, with boards of different sizes and with varied number of pieces. And there are Camelot variants for 4 players, more strategic than tactic! Let me introduce you to this games.
Continue reading “Chivalry, Cam, Camette and other Camelot variants”
When I wrote about Halatafl I mentioned that there are many similar games in different countries and on different continents, though played on different boards. It’s amazing how the same game concepts pop out in different cultures. Today I describe few games known in India that are clearly relatives of Halatafl, but also Alquerque (ancestor of draughts). Interestingly all of these games use the same board.
Recently I wrote that Chess and Checkers are two very different games with no common roots. Despite this, there were people who tried to merge this games and results were fascinating. One of those people was George Swinnerton Parker (1866-1952), who created a fantastic game of Camelot. It’s not popular today, but believe me – it’s an underestimated jewel of board games.
I wrote about 64-square draughts variants and about three games from orthogonal draughts family. Every time I mentioned that “draughts” is not one game. It’s a group of games with some common features. So far I described only games played on a 64-square board, although with very different rules. Now it’s time to present games on larger boards with 80 squares (8×10), 100 squares (10×10) and even 144 squares (12×12).
German word “belagerung” means “siege” and this is also a name of a quite interesting “war game” from 19th century. To be precise, this game is interesting variant of Halatafl, very old game mentioned few times on this blog.
I have already complained that majority of board games have simple boards, just straight lines or squares. Games with circular boards (like spiders and flies) are less common, and there are not many games with boards designed on more complicated shapes (like vsadniki).
Today I want to show you a strategy game that makes perfect use from a round board. It’s Ringo
Earlier I have described basic variants of Draughts and by the way I explained that draughts (checkers) is not one game. Draughts is a huge family of games with some common rules. In most draughts games pieces move diagonally, but there are also variations where pieces move in straight lines (orthogonally). Today I would like to show you three variants of orthogonal draughts – Turkish Draughts, Croda and Dameo.
Continue reading “Orthogonal draughts on 8×8 board – Turkish Draughts, Croda and Dameo”
I already wrote on Halatafl game and its variants such as Freys-tafl. Generally, these are “fox games”, where one player plays with the “fox”, and another player plays with “geese”. Aim of the game is different for each player.
In some Halatafl variants there is only one “fox”, and the aim of the game is to kill the Geese (for Fox) or to block Fox (for Geese). Today I want to show you three slightly different variants in which there are two Foxes, and players fight for a territory.
Continue reading “Fortresslike games – more Halatafl variants”
Bona Ludo 