Nevo

Nevo, aka 2-5-8, is a 1979 game by Michael Vonderheid, published by ArtDeco Games.

The game is played in a 7x12 grid, and each player has twelve pieces. 

The initial setup,

The rules:

• On her turn, the player moves one friendly piece to an adjacent (orthogonal or diagonal) empty space.
• Any piece that becomes isolated, i.e., not adjacent to another friendly piece, is removed from the board.
• Pieces that move to the adversary area score points. In the first enemy row, the player gets two points; in the second row, five points; and in the last row, eight points.
• for a piece to score the previous rows in its column (in the adversary area) must be occupied by friendly pieces, 
• for each one of these columns, only the furthest piece scores (eg, three pieces in the same column only score eight points)
• The player that first achieves a position worth sixteen points wins the game, but with three different pieces (so, two pieces scoring eight points each is not enough).
  

Some notes:

• Since isolated pieces are removed, it means that a piece movement must be thought in tandem with the group it belongs
• The original rules state that it is a decision of the adversary to remove these isolated pieces. I'm not sure if there is any board position where it would be advisable to keep these enemy pieces on board.
• If a column (in the adversary area) is not entirely occupied, the more advanced pieces don't score points
  
• Notice that there are no jumps or captures. This is a race and blocking game.

Here are the original rules:

Perhaps it's not needed, but since pieces can move backwards, there should be a rule about repeating positions. A Ko-like rule would not be easy to implement. It could result in a draw after three repetitions, just like in Chess, or end with a win for the player with the current highest score.

 

The game had a brief review on Jeux et Strategie #2:

And an even briefer mention in GAMES magazine #20,

 

 

Oh, and here's Omar Sharif, well-known actor and less-known game tutor: