Abstract Strategy

"My next several hours were spent learning how to play tak. Even if I had not been nearly mad with idleness, I would have enjoyed it. Tak is the best sort of game: simple in its rules, complex in its strategy. Bredon beat me handily in all five games we played, but I am proud to say that he never beat me the same way twice." -Kvothe

Tak is a two-player abstract strategy game dreamed up by Pat Rothfuss in "The Wise Man's Fear" and made reality by James Ernest. In Tak, players attempt to make a road of their pieces connecting two opposite sides of the board.

Abstract strategy game where players move disc-shaped pieces across an 8 by 8 cross-hatched ("checker") board.
Pieces only move diagonally, and only one space at a time. If a player can move one of his pieces so that it jumps over an adjacent piece of their opponent and into an empty space, that player captures the opponent's disc. Jumping moves must be taken when possible, thereby creating a strategy game where players offer up jumps in exchange for setting up the board so that they jump even more pieces on their turn. A player wins by removing all of his opponent's pieces from the board or by blocking the opponent so that he has no more moves.
This game, also known as Draughts, is part of the Checkers family.

The Official Checker Board to be used in tournaments and official matches of associations like international WCDF, ACF, and APCA usually shall be colored of green and off-white (buff). Board squares shall be not less than 2 inches nor more than 2½ inches wide. Tournament pieces are Red and White, but called Black and White in game related literature.

Sources:

American Pool Checker Association (APCA)
World Checkers and Draughts Federations (WCDF)
"The Standard Laws of Checkers", with comments by Jim Loy
Tournament Rules for Checkers, www.ehow.com

'Online Play

Boardspace.net (real time play against humans, or play against the computer)

Santorini is a non-abstract re-imagining of the 2004 edition. Since its original inception over 30 years ago, Santorini has been endlessly developed, enhanced and refined by mathematician and educator, Dr. Gordon Hamilton.

Santorini is a highly accessible pure strategy game that is simple enough for an elementary school classroom. But with enough gameplay depth and content for even hardcore gamers to explore, Santorini is truly a game for everyone. The rules are deceptively simple. Each turn consists of 2 steps:

1. Move - move one of your builders into a neighboring space. You may move your Builder Pawn on the same level, step-up one level, or step down any number of levels.

2. Build - Then construct a building level adjacent to the builder you moved. When building on top of the third level, place a dome instead, removing that space from play.

Winning the game - If either of your builders reaches the third level, you win.

Variable player powers - What makes Santorini truly special is its seamless integration of variable player powers into a pure-strategy game. Dr Hamilton has designed over 40 thematic god and hero powers, each fundamentally changing the way the game is played.

Serpent Stones is an interpretation of an ancient game believed to have been played by the Aztecs over 600 years ago. As head priest of an Aztec warrior house, you must command a specialized team of Aztec warriors in ritual combat on the battlefield to satisfy the gods. Drawing on the power of teotl from your temple stone, your warriors can wield specialized nahualli animal attacks to strike or capture opposing warriors standing in your team's way of capturing your opponent's temple stone. The gods may show you favor by giving you an advantage during battle, but will it be you or your opponent that quenches their insatiable blood thirst today?

Players of Serpent Stones sit on opposite sides of a game board featuring seven staggered rows of Serpent Stones and take turns drawing a card and playing/discarding a card from an initial hand of five cards. Serpent Stones features three types of cards:

Warrior cards, which are played on the Serpent Stones to build your Aztec warrior team
Nahualli cards, which strike or capture opposing warrior cards
Teotl cards, which are "god" cards that can give a player some tactical advantage during gameplay

A player wins when either he captures his opponent's temple stone by placing a warrior card on it or he forces his opponent to suffer the "Wrath of Tezcatlipoca", a fancy Aztecian way of saying the opponent ran out of cards.

Micro Robots, a simultaneous play game inspired by Alex Randolph's classic Ricochet Robots, challenges players to quickly determine how a robot can move from one spot on the grid to another.

To set up, choose to use the black or copper side of the four game boards, then arrange them in a 2x2 square. Each game board shows nine dice, and once arranged the completed grid shows 36 dice, with the dice being numbered 1-6 and showing six colors, with each combination of number and color appearing exactly once. Roll the color die and number die to determine the starting location for the transparent robot, then mark this space with the transparent starting token.

In a round, roll the two dice to determine the target space; you can mark this space with a transparent victory token or simply have everyone remember which space they're trying to reach. Everyone simultaneously tries to figure out how to move the robot to the target space, and to move the robot, it must move orthogonally to a space that shares either the color or number of its current location. If the robot starts on "3-green", for example, it can move orthogonally to any space that shows either a 3 or is green; if you'd move it to "5-green", it can now once again move orthogonally to any space that shows either a 5 or is green; and so on.

As soon as a player has a solution, they yell out the number of moves, then take the robot and demonstrate the solution. If the solution takes exactly the number of moves claimed, the player earns a victory token; if not, the player gives one of their victory tokens (if they have any) to the player with the fewest tokens. In either case, the former target space becomes the new starting space for the next round.

If any player possesses five victory tokens, they win! If the 25 victory tokens are distributed before someone collects five, then whoever holds the most tokens wins, with ties being possible.

Expert Micro Robots players can increase the challenge of the game by placing the target victory token on the board, then rolling the two dice once again. The players must now determine a solution that first moves the robot to the space showing on the dice, then to the final destination.

The transparent robot in Micro Robots can also be used in Ricochet Robots. This robot moves like any other robot in that game except that for an additional move it can pass through a wall instead of stopping at it. It cannot move through the central barrier or the exterior walls, and the only target space on which it can land is the colored vortex.