Caesars

Caesars is a 1980s uncredited game, published by Idéal Loisirs.

The game is played on a 4x4 board, where each player has a different set of eight Othello-like pieces.

The rules:

• The board starts empty
• On the first turn, the first player drops a friendly piece with either side facing up
• On their remaining turns, each player:
  
• Moves and flips one of their opponent's pieces (if no movement is possible, pass this step)
  
• Then drops one friendly piece on an empty square, with either side facing up
• Wins the player that makes a 3 in-a-row (orthogonally or diagonally) with friendly pieces with the same side, provided the adversary cannot break this line on their next move
  

When the board starts getting full, players will have less and less leverage to change the adversary position. On the other side, less pieces will get flipped, which might be bad for either player.

In the next position, Black to move. One possible option is to move white's d3-d4 and flip (in the corner, the piece is quite harmless) and place a piece at b1 with the 'ball' side. That means that if the adversary moves either b1 or c1, he can reply with a 3 in-a-row:

Here's a game description at Jeux et Stratègie #43:

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

Royal Reversi

Royal Reversi is an Othello variant for two to six players and played on a modified board.

The game was introduced in the book Reversi and Go Bang (1890) by an author mysteriously named 'Berkeley' [archive.org]. Here are the relevant pages:

 §

A later iteration of this game was commercialized in 1938 as Chameleon at Milton Bradley.

The official rules:

Here's the review of Chameleon from The Gamer #7,

Pasta

Pasta is a 1956 game by Alvin Paster, published in Computing News magazine, issue #73.

The game is a stacking Checkers, from the family of Bashni and Laska.

The original source seems to be lost, but I found an article about the game from the 1970s magazine Popular Computing #12, edited by Fred Gruenberger,

The game is also mentioned by David Parlett's The Oxford History of Board Games (pg.139) and Stephen Addison's 100 Other Games to Play in a Chessboard (pg.57).

The evolution of stack-based Checkers starts at 1875's Bashni, going next to 1911's Laska (a variant of Bashni) and usually the next mentioned game is 1960s' Stapeldammen (going then into modern times with games like Emergo). Pasta is a link we can place between Laska and Stapeldammen, despite being not that original.

Thrall

Thrall is a 2005 game by L. Lynn Smith, published online.

The game is played on the following hexagonal tiling:

Each player has one piece, and there are enough wall pieces on reserve.

Rules:

• Initially, players drop their respective pieces on an empty hexagon
• On his turn, first the player slides his piece over a line of empty hexes, then places a wall piece on an empty triangle
• pieces cannot move between two occupied adjacent triangles
• Wins the player that stalemates the adversary
  

In the following position, White is winning because he enclosed the black piece is a smaller area, comparing with the area his piece is confined.

There is a ZRF to play Thrall.

Dioxoid

Dioxoid is a 1982 game by Ken Totten, published at Tau-10 Games.

The game is supposed to represent an oxygen molecule (O₂) where the large circles are the nuclei of the two oxygen atoms.

The rules:

• Setup: each player places his eight pieces (called electrons) in the marked double circles.
• On his turn, the player moves a friendly electron to an empty circle.
• If an electron moves or bounces to a circle adjacent to two other electrons, those must bounce away from the first (moving to adjacent empty circles in the opposite direction).
• If an electron moves or bounces to a circle adjacent to another electron that cannot bounce (e.g., is at the edge or near a nucleus), then it is the first electron that must bounce away in the opposite direction.
• These bounces might produce a chain reaction, bouncing more and more electrons until all stabilize.
• Ko rule: a move cannot repeat the position of the moving player's previous turn.
  
• The player that first move his electrons to the adversary's double circles wins the game.
• However, if the other player can finish in the next turn, while also being the player that started second, then the game is a draw.
  

note: the rules are not specific to where the bounced electrons should go to. But considering the chemical metaphor, and the rules stating that a piece at the edge cannot be bounced, I assume the bounce must be in the opposite direction of the moving electron.

NoGo

NoGo is a 2005 game by John Moore.

This is a game using the concepts and rules of Go, with some simplifications.

Rules:

• On her turn, the player drops a friendly piece on an empty intersection such that all existing groups of pieces (of either color) have, at least, one liberty (so, no captures or suicides are allowed)
• Wins the last player to move

Black moved last; there is no valid drop left,
so Black wins the match

This is a game that can be analyzed by the tools of Combinatorial Game Theory. The game can be split in a sum of games, when parts of the board no longer interact. For example, using a one-dimensional NoGo, the game o..xxo..xx can be split and simplified by two (in this case equal) subgames: o..x and o..x; this type of property is crucial to computing large game positions.

Moore initially called the game Anti-Atari Go at Sensei's Library. The name No Go meant, back then, another different go variant: After a player has made a move, his opponent may refuse it, and he must make another one. The opponent may not object to this second move (this variant is now known as Forced Takeback Go at Sensei's Library).

There's a ZRF and a Ludii to play the game.

Megiddo

Megiddo is 1985 game by Steve Baldwin, associated with several different publishers.

The board is made of six concentric rings under a central six-point start. There are 36 pieces of three different colors (the third color is for the three-player version):

• Each player, on her turn, drops a friendly piece on an empty circle.
• Captures are custodian: if a piece is dropped, and there are two enemy pieces and then a friendly piece, all in the same direction, then the two enemy pieces are captured, and replaced by two friendly pieces.
• The allowed directions are (a) in the same circle, (b) in the same line, (c) making a spiral on concentric circles (cf. next example)

• Captures can occur in multiple directions at the same time
• Also, captures create a chain reaction: the new pieces that replace the captured ones might produce new captures, and so on. But notice that first all multiple captures must be executed before considering chain reactions.
  
• Pieces are always captured in pairs.
  
• Wins the player that either (a) captures six enemy stones, or (b) makes one of the three winning six-piece patterns, named radial, circular, and spiral:

The rules propose a multi-match game until one player reaches 36 points:

• Winning with a winning pattern: 6 points
• Any extra winning pattern: 12 points
• Each captured piece: 1 point
  

The rules also mention a 'Cleopatra' variation: the typical custodian capture does not apply if a player drops a piece between two enemy pieces, rule which the game follows. In Cleopatra, dropping a piece inside will capture the pieces on the extremes:

Here are some tips from the original rules:

The game is a variant of Pente (which itself is an iteration of Gomoku-ninuki). The fact that there are three very different types of direction (radial, circular and spiral) removes clarity to the game. Unless players are attentive, they will miss captures and even winning patterns.

Unlike Pente, it is easy to start using pieces at the edge, which have the advantage of being harder to capture. I'm not sure if this is good or bad, but it is an important feature in this game. The tips mention 'taboo points', places where a player has a winning threat if the adversary plays there, which is something common in the moku family. Matches will converge into a cold phase, where the first player forced to play in one of those points, immediately loses the game.

A review on GAMES #67:

Intermezzo

Intermezzo is a 1993 game by Reiner Knizia, published in Spielbox magazine.

The game is played on 9x9 or 9x10 board initially empty. Each player has 33 pieces.

Rules:

• On her turn, the player either:
• drops a friendly piece on an empty square
• calls an intermezzo on a friendly piece: then all horizontal and vertical lines of empty squares between that piece and other friendly pieces, are occupied with new friendly pieces
• Wins the player that places all her stones on board

This position was shown in the original article:

after 12 moves, Black makes the first intermezzo on piece [1]

This is a pencil & paper game, no need for physical pieces to enjoy some matches.

The Spielbox article (in German):

The Game of Passo

The Game of Passo is a 1919 game by Leonard Budd Gaylor, which was self-published.

The game is played on a Checkers board, so only the pieces were sold,

Each player has ten pieces and one ball. The pieces are concave on top and can hold the ball.

This is the initial setup:

The balls are placed at e1 and d8.

• The player, on his turn, either (a) moves one friendly piece, or (b) passes his ball to another friendly piece in moving range (assuming it didn't have the ball).
• A piece without the ball can move like the Chess Queen.
• A piece with the ball can move one step diagonally (forwards or backwards) .
• There are no captures.
  
• Wins the player that either moves his ball to his last row, or surrounds the enemy ball such that it cannot be passed.
• If a player blockades all access to his first row, on his half of the board, he loses the game.

I find it interesting that the rules acknowledge an obvious drawish strategy of blocking all ways to pass through. They still leave that possibility in the opponent's area, which seems fair, since it is quite difficult to achieve that. The rules feel quite modern, despite the game is now a century old.

A rule page from that time:

The game was patented as US1363769 in 1920. Here's the visual description of the two types of pieces:

More about the game and the author in AGPI Quarterly volume 8 [1].

Steppe

Steppe, aka Stak, is a 1985 game by David Rea, published in DMR Games and Tactical Studies Rules.

Steppe is a tiling game played on a 5x5 board. Each player has fifteen 1x1 tiles, five 1x2 tiles and three 1x3 tiles (the colors are Blue and White). There's also six 1x1 red tiles, where each player gets three.

In the TSR edition, the white tiles are the neutral ones

Each match consists of three phases, each ending when the board is full:

• On the first phase, players take turns dropping one of their available tiles over empty board squares.
• Each 1x1 tile values one point, each 1x2 values five points, each 1x3 values ten points. 
• Red tiles are not scored, i.e., they are worth zero points.
  
• The second and third phases are the same, but the points are multiplied by 2 and 3, respectively.
• For each phase, the player that places the last tile starts the next phase.
• In any phase, if one player cannot place more tiles, then the other player will continue playing until the board is full or he is unable to continue.
  
• There are also requirements for placing tiles:
• Red tiles are owned by both players, assume the board is made of 25 red tiles; there are no restrictions in placing red tiles, or placing other tiles on top of them.
  
• 1x1 and 1x2 tiles must be placed on top of tiles owned by the current player.
• 1x3 tiles can only be placed if their extremes are on top of tiles owned by the current player; the middle section can be over any color but it cannot be over an empty square.
  
• When the third phase ends, the player with more points wins the game.

The official rules include some strategy tips:

• The first level is your basic foundation. You want to place your tiles into patterns that will allow you to place large tiles on top of them in the upper levels. If you want to place a "five" in a certain location in the second level, you'll need to have two tiles of yours together in the first level. You must think ahead to what you want in the third level, so you need to try to set up the second level by setting up the first level.
• Not only that, but a big part of setting up the second level usually means going first in the second level. Which means placing the last tile in the first level. Which means a move/counter-move situation:
• White goes first and there are 24 spaces to be filled in the first level. So if each player places "ones" on every turn, blue will place the last tile in the first level, and thus go first in the second level.
• If white wants to go first in the second level, he'll have to place a "five" (which takes up two spaces) in the first level. If both players then place "ones" on each turn in the first level, white will place the last tile in the first level. But, if blue places a "five" ....
• Once you get to the second level, you'll want to not only try to complete your planned pattern (so you can place the tiles you want in the third level), but you'll probably want to disrupt your opponent's pattern. That's where red tiles come in. If your opponent has set up a string of three tiles of his color in the first level (so he can place a" ten" on top of them in the second level) you can place a red tile on top of the middle tile (when you're in the second level) to block.

a complete match of Steppe, White wins 151-115

 

The game was mentioned in GAMES #87: