Dobývání Hradu

Dobývání Hradu, Czech meaning “The Conquest of the Castle”, is a 1984 uncredited game, published by Tofa (a Czechoslovakian game publisher).

[Rules translated from here] Both players begin by building the fortifications of their castle, placing keeps, towers, and walls. Then each positions their soldier-pawns on their own fortifications to defend themselves and prepare to attack the neighboring castle! A medieval battle is about to take place.

EQUIPMENT

• A square board of 381 squares (19×19)
• Construction pieces for the castle fortifications (walls, towers, and keeps)
• 16 soldier-pawns: 8 black and 8 white

The board is empty, and each player builds the fortifications of their castle by placing the keeps on the red squares, the towers on the grey squares, and the walls on the yellow squares.

OBJECTIVE OF THE GAME
To win, players try to occupy the central square of the opponent’s castle (marked by a black circle). As soon as a player reaches this square, they win the game and it ends immediately.

PLACEMENT OF SOLDIERS
Once the fortifications are built, the players alternately place their eight soldier-pawns on the walls, wherever they choose. A random draw determines who begins.

MOVEMENT AND CAPTURES
Players take turns moving one of their soldiers. A soldier may move forward, backward, left, or right, but never diagonally. A soldier can move any number of squares, but the path must be clear and fortifications are obstacles to this kind of movement.

In addition, in a single turn, a soldier may:

• climb onto a wall,

• move along a wall, or

• climb down from a wall.

Each of these counts as one step of movement. For example, to access a wall, a soldier must first move to a square adjacent to it, then on the next turn climb onto it.

Soldiers may not stop on the central square of their own castle, though they may pass through it. All other squares inside castles and along walls are accessible to both players’ soldiers.

During a move, a soldier may capture an opponent by occupying their square. The captured soldier is permanently removed from the game. Captures are not mandatory.

the original rules in Czech

The automated translation of this second ruleset:

“The Conquest of the Castle” is a game for two players. Before starting, each player builds the fortifications of their castle on their half of the playing board. Wooden blocks are used to build the walls with battlements and towers.

The game begins after the drawing of lots for the color of the figures — the soldiers. After the draw, each player places their soldiers on the walls of their castle so that the initial setup is on top of the castle walls.

The aim of the game is to conquer the central square of the opponent’s castle.

The game begins with the first move by the player with the white soldiers. Both players then alternate turns, one move at a time. Players are required both to attack and to defend.

During their turn, soldiers move on the playing field, that is, outside the walls, between the castles, or along the walls, and may move forward, backward, to the right, or to the left by any number of squares. Diagonal movement is not allowed. Soldiers cannot move diagonally.

Movement of soldiers is limited by the fortifications. When climbing onto or descending from the walls, a soldier may only move one square. In other words, a soldier can only climb onto a wall from an adjacent square at its base. To step down from the walls, a soldier must first descend to the first square next to the wall. Gates are not considered as part of the walls; soldiers may pass through them without restriction.

No soldier may step onto or move across the central square of their own castle.

Soldiers who are captured are removed from the game. A capture occurs when a soldier occupies the square on which an enemy soldier is standing.

The conquest of a castle and the capture of its central square is the key to victory in this tactical game. To succeed, the player must skillfully coordinate the movements of their soldiers, because a clever strategy is always better than sheer force.

Wishing you many enjoyable moments with the game — The Manufacturer.

Duel Masters

Duel Master is an unpublished 1986 game by M. Labruyère.

the initial setup

The rules:

• Each player starts with three pieces on her home base.
  
• At her turn, the player drops three friendly pieces on empty intersections
• Each intersection must be connected by a chain of friendly pieces to the player's base
  
• Pieces can also be played on top of a single enemy piece, occupying its place; this move blocks the enemy's chain/branch at that position
• These stacks of two pieces cannot be interacted again
  
• Wins the player that connects the two starting positions
  

This is a very interesting connection game with a stack-capturing theme. The rules are not explicit if all three pieces are dropped simultaneously, or in sequence (which means, the second dropped piece could be adjacent only to the first). I would suggest the second option, making the game more dynamic.

Here's the review of Duel Master in Jeux et Stratègie #41:

The review is quite negative due to the apparent lack of drama the game seems to have. I would suggest that this is just relevant at a beginner's level. Movements without proper support will result in a quick defeat.

There's a newer interation: O'ling published in 2005 and designed by Pascal Nivesse,

At Escale à Jeux there's the following interesting remark:

Paul Lequesne, who enjoys delving into Russian literature [...] points out that O'ling, like Duel Masters, is directly derived from a traditional Russian game: the Клоподавка (Bedbug Mash).

We already mention Клоподавка (a pencil and paper game) here at the blog.

XandO

XandO is a 1979 pencil & pen paper from Sid Sackson. 

BGG description:

XandO is played on a 6x6 square grid. The game begins with the players taking turns to blacken four squares of the grid (two each). After that the players take turns to mark their symbols (X and O) in empty squares, with the option of blackening a square instead on their last turns.

Once the grid is full, players score for consecutive lines of their symbols in any direction. However, while even numbers of symbols score positively, odd numbers (greater than one) score negatively.

A game consists of two rounds. In the second round of a game, the same four squares are blackened as were chosen at the start of the first round and the player who went second now goes first.

Here's the game introduction at GAMES #10:

Orion

Orion is a 1971 uncredited game published by General Mills and Parker Brothers.

The game comes with 20 pieces per each one of the four colors.

In fact, Orion is not a single game, but a game system. The rule book includes fifteen games and seven puzzles. 

At BGG there's a wiki with more games developed by the community.

More information at www.ludism.org/orion.

Deflections

Deflections is a 1985 game by Nik Sewell, published at Pentagram Games.

the centerpiece is the energy gun that shoots projectiles 

The game uses projectiles that move through the board, reflecting on different types of walls. These projectiles keep increasing in numbers, until one player is unable to escape thus losing the game.

 the different types of pieces and shields 

Here are the original rules (click to expand) explaining the rather convoluted rules of projectile movement.

This seems like a game more appropriate to be played on a computer. Updating many projectiles with difficult update rules is a recipe to constantly create invalid positions.

2026