Kensington

Kensington was designed by Peter Forbes and Brian Taylor in 1979, and published by Arxon, among others.

The game is similar to Nine-Men-Morris in a Tessellation of squares, triangles and hexagons,

Pieces are placed on line intersections. Players alternatively play their fifteen pieces on empty intersections. Then pieces are moved one at a time from one intersection to another (a player passes if he does not have a valid move). 

• If a player has pieces on all corners of a triangle, he can reposition one enemy piece. 
• If a player has pieces on all corners of a square, he can reposition two enemy pieces.
• The object of the game is to control the corners of a hexagon.

The game has a design weakness that can be patched with the following rule: 

• It is not permitted for a player to rebuild a triangle or a square until two turns have passed.

 

 

The game had above than average visibility back then, and was quite probably backed by a nice marketing budget. It appeared more than once, at least, on the american Games, the french Jeux et Strategie and the italian Per Gioco magazines. However, it became somewhat obscure after the 1980s. It can be played at Ludii.

 

The board can be (better) used to play Christian Freeling's Lotus, a Go-like game.