{"id":837,"date":"2019-10-23T19:11:49","date_gmt":"2019-10-24T00:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sunderedrealm.com\/?p=837"},"modified":"2019-10-23T19:23:53","modified_gmt":"2019-10-24T00:23:53","slug":"in-my-collection-abstract-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sunderedrealm.com\/index.php\/2019\/10\/23\/in-my-collection-abstract-games\/","title":{"rendered":"In My Collection: Abstract Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

I like abstract games! What does that mean! What is an abstract game! Why am I using the exclamation point for questions! \ud83d\ude1b<\/p>\n

Board Game Geek defines Abstract Games as follows:<\/p>\n

An abstract strategy game is a strategy game that minimizes luck and does not rely on a theme. Almost all abstract strategy games will conform to the strictest definition of: a gameboard, card, or tile game in which there is no hidden information, no non-deterministic elements (such as shuffled cards or dice rolls), and (usually) two players or teams taking a finite number of alternating turns.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wikipedia uses the following definition:<\/p>\n

An abstract strategy game is a strategy game in which the theme is not important to the experience of playing. Many of the world’s classic board games, including chess, Go, checkers and draughts, xiangqi (Chinese chess), shogi (Japanese chess), Reversi (marketed as “Othello”), nine men’s morris, and most mancala variants, fit into this category.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When I was growing up I played a lot of standard games like Sorry<\/em> and Risk<\/em> and Monopoly<\/em>. As a teenager I grew to hate Trivial Pursuit<\/em>. \ud83d\ude1b I also played checkers, chess, and tic-tac-toe. And I liked puzzles. Not jigsaw puzzles, but math or physical puzzles. As my interest in board games was rekindled I learned about an entirely new (to me) category of abstract games. <\/p>\n

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Arlekino<\/figcaption><\/figure>Board Game Geek has 850 pages (not games, pages of games) in their Abstract Strategy category. \ud83d\ude2e I don’t have that many, but I do have quite a few! One of the ones I have owned the longest is called Arlecchino<\/em> aka Arlekino<\/em>. I have no idea where I got the game. It was published in 2010, but it’s not available on Amazon at the moment, there is one active auction on eBay (from Canada, eh), and nothing in the eBay history for the past 90 days. <\/p>\n

Wikipedia says:<\/p>\n

Arlecchino is the Italian name for Harlequin, a type of comic servant character.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The cover art for the game shows lots of colors, so perhaps it was inspired by a colorful clown outfit. Unlike most of the abstract strategy games that I know it goes up to four players. Tiles are moved based on color. The piece is moved once for each occurrence of a specific color on the tile, and the goal is to jump (remove) tiles of your opponent. Like many abstract games, the rules are simple to explain but deeper strategies and tactics can be revealed over time.<\/p>\n


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Quoridor<\/figcaption><\/figure>I also have several of a series of abstract strategy games from the French company Gigamic<\/a>. I have Quarto<\/em>, Quads<\/em>, and (pictured) Quoridor<\/em>. Quarto<\/em> asks you to place pieces on a board so that four in a row share some attribute. Quads<\/em> allows players to place tiles on a board with the goal of arranging tiles so that their opponent has no legal placement opportunities. Quoridor<\/em> involves moving your pawn from one side of the board to the other while blocking your opponent with walls. These are all fun \/ challenging games! I have my eye on Pylos<\/em> and Quixo<\/em> and Quivive<\/em> (which seems to be out of print at the moment) as well. What I like about these games is they’re made of wood rather than plastic. The components feel solid. The games could almost be table art if they weren’t already games.<\/p>\n

\"Sprocket\"<\/a>
Sprocket<\/figcaption><\/figure>Finally the other day at Half Price Books I stumbled upon a set of games from a Canadian publisher (Family Games). The first was called Sprocket<\/em> and the second was called One Up<\/em>. (There are apparently more games in the series such as Paradux<\/em>, Stratum<\/em>, and Knight Moves<\/em>.) Like the offerings from Gigamic these games are nicely built with wooden components. I have not had time to play any of these yet, but I’m looking forward to it.<\/p>\n

I have more, but I’ll stop here for now. \ud83d\ude42 <\/p>\n

What about you? Do you have any favorite abstract strategy games from the 850 pages of Board Game Geek? What are they? Let me know in the comments, as I’m always on the prowl for something unique.<\/p>\n

Related Links<\/strong><\/p>\n