Beeline

Beeline is a 1968 game by Winston N. Allen, published by Good Games Inc.

This is a connection game where players use hexes marked with different 'roads' to make a path.

The game is played on this hexagonal board (the blue hexes are the home bases): 

Each player has 36 hexes with lines (marks), and another six filled hexes (the nodes) with the two players' colors at each side. The 36 hexes are made of three groups of 12 hexes sharing the same type of lines.

The rules:

• Initially, each player drops a node on his home base
  
• On his turn, a player drops two friendly marks and/or nodes on an empty hex (the exception is the first turn, where the first player only drops one piece)
  
• Marks are played as continuations of a line (the hex directly in front of last played piece, and where the player must move next, is called the rut)
  
• Nodes can be played on any empty valid square (see more restrictions below) not adjacent to another node or at the player's ruts
  
• Nodes can also replace any piece previously played in any line, except the last piece of the line. The replaced piece is then played at the end of the line in a way that the opponent's rut is free to continue his line expansion
  
• A node can replace a line of either color (remember that nodes are pieces with one different color per side)
  
• If a player's rut is occupied by the adversary line, the player must remove all pieces back to the nearest node, and play his next turn from that node (the removed pieces go back to the player's reserve)
  
• The darker hexes can only be used by the player owning the opposite home base (eg, the South player is the only who can use the northern dark hexes)
• The green hexes cannot be used by either player.
  
• The player that first connect his home base to the adversary home base, wins the game.
• If both players use up all their pieces without achieving the goal, the game is a draw
  

There is also another restriction: the players divide their marks into four groups of three pieces per type. Each group must be played before moving into the next group.

The rules show an example of a valid match:

1. Black plays one sharp.
1. Red plays two sharps.
2. Black plays an angle and a straight.
2. Red plays an angle and a straight.
3. Black plays a straight and an angle.
3. Red plays two angles.
4. Black plays a sharp and an angle.
4. Red plays a sharp and a NODE.

5. Black plays a straight and a sharp. (Black has used all the pieces from his first group of 9 and takes a second group to play in his subsequent turns.)
5. Red plays a NODE, Black up, to replace a sharp in Black's line. He plays it on the end of the line. He cannot leave Black's line in this condition because Black's RUT is not free for additional play, so he replaces the straight with another NODE and that NODE then becomes the end of Black's line. He plays the straight on the NODE to complete his turn. Red has turned Black back through his own line but has used two of his NODES and taken a turn in which to do it.

The ruleset includes the remaining example match, extra notes and clarifications.

The game is filled with rules, some quite ad-hoc. My feeling is that there is a better, more elegant game trying to come out of the official version. 

§

Having said that last sentence, I browsed Cameron Browne's book Connection Games (2005). On page 85, he describes a more recent iteration, from 1984, also called Beeline and designed by John Brassel, that uses just two types of tiles:

Tiles must be dropped adjacent to an edge of an already placed tile.

A player wins by either establishing a path that (a) connects two opposite edges, (b) three alternating edges, (c) surrounding at least two hexagons of the opponent's color.

Jeux de Patineurs

Jeux de Patineurs is a game I discovered at the Flicker account of patricia m, during my web searches.

photo by patricia m

Each player has six pieces that are placed in the middle six intersections of the player's respective first row.

• Each player, in her turn, slides a friendly piece over one of the available lines at its starting position; the player may stop sliding when she desires
  
• The sliding piece can capture an enemy piece it encounters, and may continue its movement
• Only one capture is allowed per turn
• Pieces cannot move over friendly pieces
• The goal is to capture all the adversary pieces.

I don't quite understand the last line stated in the board: tous les pions peuvent revenir sur leurs pas et passer plusieurs fois au même point [all pieces can return to their starting point and may pass over the same point multiple times]. If this refers to going back to positions passed through in previous turns, it seems redundant to write. Another interpretation would make sense if the ice skaters could, during their slide, bounce at the edge and continue, but in this case, it would seem strange not to give more details about it, since it is a type of movement rarely seen in board games.

The text in the picture:

Règle du Jeu. Ce jeu se joue à deux. L’un prend les pions rouges et l’autre les jaunes. Au début, chaque joueur pose un de ses pions à l’extrémité d’une des six lignes verticales qui divisent le jeu, les rouges en haut et les jaunes en bas du jeu. L’objectif de chaque joueur est de capturer tous les pions de son adversaire. Chaque joueur, à tour de rôle, fait avancer un de ses pions sur une des lignes verticales, horizontales ou diagonales sur lesquelles il est à cheval; tout pion peut, en patinant pour ainsi dire, avancer, reculer, aller à droite ou à gauche, jusqu’au bout de la ligne sur laquelle il s’engage, ou seulement jusqu’au croisement de lignes qui lui convient. Dans sa marche, si un pion rencontre un pion adverse, il le capture et continue sa route. Un pion ne peut jamais en prendre plus d’un en un seul coup. Les pions d’un même camp ne peuvent jamais passer les uns au-dessus des autres ; tous les pions peuvent revenir sur leurs pas et passer plusieurs fois au même point.

Awithlaknakwe

Awithlaknakwe, aka,  The Stone Warriors, is a traditional board game played by the Zuni in the area of New Mexico. The game was mentioned by Stewart Culin in his book about traditional games from Native American tribes [1].

The game is played on this 12x12 board, with extra slots to place the player's six pieces (for two or four players):

The rules, as described by Culin, are not completely specified:

• Pieces move one step diagonally forward
  
• Captures are custodian: if a piece moves into a square, forming a line of friend-enemy-friend pieces, the enemy piece is captured [the capture is not said to be diagonally, orthogonally, or both]
  
• In the first capture, the player replaces the captured piece by a 'priest', i.e., a piece that moves like the Chess-king (except it still cannot move backwards)
  
•  Wins the player that first moves his [remaining?] pieces to the adversary home

Some reconstructions also include the number of captured pieces (by adding some scoring into the winning condition). However, it seems to be enough to consider the race element. Letting a piece be captured can be seen as a sacrifice to gain tempo, by having less pieces to move into the enemy's home base.

[1] Stewart Culin, Games of the North American Indians, University of California Libraries (1907)

Pentana

Pentana is a 1978 game by Larry Yoos, published at Pentana Enterprises.

The game is a moku variant played on a 4x4 board, with four pieces per player.

Rules:

• Initially, the pieces are placed on each player's first row
• On his turn, the player moves a friendly piece to any adjacent empty square (orthogonally or diagonally)
• Wins the player that makes a 4 in-a-row with his pieces (except at the row where his pieces begin) or by placing the pieces in the four board corners.
  

The game seems too simplistic to work properly. If a player places three pieces in a main diagonal (excluding the adversary row), the adversary only has one way to win, which is to make one column, and that column can easily be blocked by the player's fourth piece.

Not sure why the name has the root 'penta' in it, since that means five. Perhaps it as something to do with the success of Pente (published at 1977).

A game ad at Games #24:

Quadringentesimus Quadratum

Quadringentesimus Quadratum is a 2002 game by Martin Schlegel, published at Spielbox magazine #4.

Each player has 17 pieces, and there's an extra neutral stone that starts at the central marked square.

Rules

• Players alternately drop their pieces on empty squares, following these rules:
• The first player drops one piece.
• The second player then drop two pieces; the second must be directly east or west of the first.
• The first player then drops two pieces; the second must be directly north or south of the first.
• Play continues in this alternating double-placement pattern, with the required adjacency constraint depending on the previous opponent’s move.
• Pieces cannot be placed on the square occupied by the neutral stone.
• Pieces cannot be placed on a square that lies directly between two opposing pieces in a straight orthogonal line (unless that line is interrupted by the neutral stone or one of your own pieces).
• If a player cannot drop their required second piece, they place only one. 
• Passing is not allowed if a legal placement exists.
• The game ends when all pieces are placed or no further legal placements are possible. 
• For scoring, count all empty spaces that lie between two of your pieces in an uninterrupted orthogonal line. The player with the higher total wins the game.

Interaction

Interaction is a 1978 uncredited game, published by Waddingtons.

The game is played on the following 9x9 board without the four corners, with a middle row made of 'pockets':

Each player has two pieces (the cue balls) and there are ten neutral yellow pieces. The pieces are placed in any symmetric position.

Rules:

• On her turn, the player 'sends' a friendly cue balls in any one of the eight directions. The ball will travel, eventually bouncing the edges, until it hits another ball (of either color, or neutral). 
• If the ball hits a row of balls, only the farthest one starts moving
  
• The energy transferred to the new moving ball is the number of squares the previous ball has traveled
• A neutral piece landing or moving over a pocket is captured by the player
  
• The player's initial move is only valid if it hits at least one ball
  
• Wins the player that captures five neutral stones
  

A review from Games & Puzzles:

Confounded

Confounded is a 1977 uncredited game, published at Lionshare.

The game is played in a 3x9 board divided in three equal sections,

Each player has nine pieces, three labelled 1, three labelled 2, and three labelled 3, which start at the board (check setup below). Pieces move forward, and the label defines their moving range. There are three different possible ways to win the game: (a) by partial traversal, (b) by stalemating, (c) by capturing.

Here are the official rules:

 

An abstract game with too many winning conditions usually is a sign that the rules do not play well together, which I think it the case here. The same happens with the remaining ruleset: instead of going back to simplify and make the core rules work, the way was to add more special cases and different ways of capture...

I'm afraid it is not, in fact, the most intriguing game in centuries...

Crosso and Chains

Crosso and Chains are two games by C.S.Elliott, published at Games and Puzzles magazine #42,

Here is the excerpt that introduces both games:

Torno

Torno is a game which I don't know the author and its date (but it is older than 1900). The game was  published by Villard et Weill in France.

The board and the initial position of each of the nineteen pieces per player:

Rules (here adjacency means orthogonally or diagonally, so a square has eight adjacencies):

• On his turn, the player picks a friendly piece and either:
• moves it to an adjacent empty square
  
• jumps over an adjacent piece (of either color) and lands in the next square (that must be empty)
• jumps  can be multiple and change direction; the only restriction is that a piece cannot stop its jump sequence in its initial square (so the board must change position at each move)
• jumps do not capture enemy pieces
• Wins the player that first occupies the adversary starting position

This is a direct variant of Halma, which was published in 1884. Chinese Checkers, another variant of Halma, is from 1893.

Here are the accompanying rules in French:

The original text:

TORNO

Ce jeu nouveau et très intéressant se joue à deux sur un plateau divisé en carrés et au moyen de deux fois 19 pions de deux couleurs différentes. Aux extrémités du plateau, 19 carrés sont entourés d'une ligne de séparation. Les carrés marqués et compris dans les lignes de séparation sont appelés camps.

RÈGLE DU JEU

On place le plateau de manière que chaque joueur ait en face de lui son camp de 19 carrés. Chacun garnit le sien avec des pions de sa couleur.

Le but du jeu est, pour chacun, de faire sortir les pions de son camp et de les faire arriver, le plus vite possible, dans le camp opposé. Celui qui y réussit le premier, gagne. Il faut, pour atteindre ce résultat, de 60 à 80 mouvements.

Il y a deux sortes de mouvements :  

Le premier, le pas, par lequel on fait passer un pion d’un carré sur l’un des 8 carrés environnants. (C’est la marche du roi aux échecs).  

Le second, le saut, par lequel on fait sauter un pion par-dessus un autre, quelle qu’en soit la couleur, placé sur un carré voisin pour retomber sur un carré vide, et l’on continue ainsi, ce qui fait partie du même mouvement, dans n’importe quelle direction, tant que la disposition des pièces le rend possible et avantageux. Mais, dans ce cas, le pion ne peut sauter que sur un carré de la couleur que celui d’où il est parti.

On ne peut faire qu’un pas par mouvement, on peut faire un nombre illimité de sauts. Avec le pas, il est facultatif d’aller d’une couleur à une autre. Avec le saut on doit toujours rester sur la même couleur. Chacun, à tour de rôle, a droit à un coup, pas ou saut, au choix. Contrairement à ce qui se fait pour le jeu de dames ou celui des échecs, les joueurs ne se prennent pas leurs pions.

Le jeu se divise en trois parties, savoir :  

1° La marche en avant des pions. — Il faut avoir soin de se ménager des échelles, afin de faire arriver ses pions le plus loin possible par un seul mouvement. On peut quelquefois, par ce moyen, faire sauter un pion d’une extrémité à l’autre du plateau. On cherche, naturellement, à entraver, de temps à autre, la marche de son adversaire ;  

2° La mêlée. — C’est l’encombrement qui a lieu, tôt ou tard, quand tous les pions se rencontrent au centre et se bloquent de telle sorte que, pour avancer, le seul moyen, souvent, est de faire un long détour ;  

3° L’arrangement des pions dans le camp opposé. — C’est la partie la plus difficile. De la façon dont on dispose ses pions dès l’entrée dans le camp adverse, dépend tout le succès.  

Il faut éviter de laisser encombrer les abords de ce camp, et, autant que possible, échelonner en tous sens des pions qui aident à arriver aux extrémités.  

Un seul pas bien calculé peut épargner toute une série de mouvements.

Recently, the new database of French boards games, Histoire en Jeux, went online and provides more pictures of the game,

Les Crocs

Les Croks is an uncredited game that appears in Patrick Carpentier rule's collection. Unfortunately, the document is very sparse with information. The only date we can deduce is that the game is older than 1995-2000, the years where the collection was written.

The game is played on an initially empty 6x6 board. Each player has ten pieces (les croks, i.e., the fangs) all marked with a direction (e.g., an arrow).

Rules:

• In a first phase, players take turns dropping a friendly piece on an empty square. 
• Here's a board example after the end of this phase:

• In the second phase, each player picks a friendly piece and can either:
• move it to an adjacent empty square
• move it twice in its forward direction
• rotate it one quarter left or right
  
• capture by replacement in its forward direction, unless the enemy piece is faced towards it
• in the previous board, d6 can capture d5, but e6 and f7 cannot capture each other
• Wins the player that captures all enemy pieces

There is a related game at the same collection, quite probably by the same unnamed author, called La Saga des Croks.

• Here players only drop six pieces each, the other four stay in reserve.
• The capture is changed to emulate reproduction: it is only possible to attack from behind.
• The 'jumped-over' crok is not removed from the game. 
• On the next turn, the attacking crok slides to an adjacent orthogonal empty square without changing orientation, and the player places a new crok from the reserve on any empty square. 
• This new Crok must not be in a 'capture' position.
  
• Wins the player that drops on the board his four pieces initially in reserve.

This second game was also described at Jeux et Stratègie #28 by Michel Brassinne:

Orbit

Orbit is a 1975 uncredited game, published by Clipper.

The game is played on a 15x9 board, Each player has eight tiles and one pawn.

Rules

• Each player places their pawn on one of the starting spaces (marked by the star) at the edge of the board.
• The player who starts can either (a) move their pawn, (b) place a tile on board, (c) remove a tile
• A pawn can advance horizontally or vertically by one square.
• Tiles can be placed on the board, except on: 
• The starting space
• The center squares
• The squares on the finish line
• Players can place their pawns on their own tiles, but not on the opponent's tiles.
• A confined (or trapped) pawn can no longer advance for three turns (check figure 3 below). 
• The pawn must then restart from a starting space. 
• The winner is the one who first places their pawn on the last line

The original rules in Dutch and French:

  

King of the Castle

King of the Castle, aka Montana, is a 1975 game by Mordecai Meirowitz, and published by Hasbro, among others.

The game is played on this board with six concentric circles (the Castle), having eight paths (or stairs) going from the bottom circle to the top circle (the levels):

Rules:

• Initially, players receive eight pieces, and place them in stacks of two, in alternating fashion
• The pieces can move upwards or downwards from one path to the next or sideways to adjacent paths on the same level.
• Pieces of any color can be stacked to form stacks (towers) of any height.
• A tower can only be moved by the player whose piece is on top. Using this "capture tactic," a player can block the opponent’s pieces or move them to a lower level.
• On his turn, a player moves a single piece, or an entire tower with a friendly piece is on top. 
• In the case of a tower, the move consists of as many steps as there are pieces in the tower.
• The entire tower is lifted, and the bottom piece is placed first, followed by the next, and so on until the top piece is placed. For example, in a tower of three pieces, the bottom piece can be moved up one level, the next piece can be moved down, and the top piece can be moved sideways, or any other combination of steps on adjacent paths (notice that a player can move enemy pieces that belong to the moving tower).
• Each move can be made to an occupied place, placing that stone on the top of the other pieces standing there. 
• Only one piece can be placed at the top circle, per turn.
• A piece on a top circle can no longer move.
  
• If a player cannot make a move, he must pass his turn.
• Individual pieces or towers cannot be captured on the bottom or top levels.
• Wins the player that first moves his eight pieces into the center circle (the highest level of the Castle).
• Each player can only occupy four of the eight places in the top circle, and at least two of these must be adjacent.

This is a little game with lots of rules. Some rules are just exceptions, or addendums, that seem to exist to compensate for the lack of overall design. Even so, it would be nice if the rules explicitly stated if pieces can move over stacks of any size. The rules seem to assume so, but I wonder if forcing a size restriction could introduce extra tactical depth to the game.

Here's a review from GAMES #2:

Connex'Oh

Connex'Oh, aka Connexion, is a 1992 game by Sébastien Sjoholm, and published by Carlit.

The game is played on a 6x6 board. There are 36 tiles each divided into a dark triangle and a light triangle, and each player owns six pieces of his color. 

All tiles and pieces are initially placed as in the following diagram:

 Rules:

• On his turn, each player can either:
• Slide a friendly piece along a path made of empty adjacent triangles of the same color (two triangles are connected if they share one edge)
• note: the moving piece cannot jump over other pieces, nor stop on an occupied triangle
  
• Rotate a tile, whether it has pieces on it or not, by a quarter-turn or half-turn in either direction
• If the rotated tile made new connections of the player's color, then neither one of these tiles can be rotated next
• The game has a red token to identify the last rotated tile (cf. next picture) and its adjacent connections

 

• Wins the player that moves his army out of the board from to the player's opposite side
• To exit a piece from the game, the path it is on must be connected to the opposite side of the board; this requires the last triangle of the path to touch the edge of the game frame
• Once a path is connected to the exit, all pieces on that path are immediately removed from the game without waiting for the next turn. This rule applies regardless of which player connected the path.
• If a tile rotation causes both last pieces of both players to exit the board, the player that rotated the tile loses the game.
  

The rule of any number of pieces immediately leaving the game when a path is open to the board's edge, seems a way to allow the game to quickly converge to its end, but at the cost of loss of uniformity: it is a rule quite different in nature with regards to the regular move of just one piece per turn.

There is a 4x4 version of this game named Connexo published in 1995.

Red White Blue

Red White Blue is an uncredited game, c.1938, which was offered to customers by the firm Perry & Co [1].

The game is played on a 8x8 board, where one player has fourteen blue and seven white pieces, and the other player has fourteen red and seven white pieces. The white pieces are marked red or blue, to identify its owner.

The rules based on the text from Fred Horn (adjacency and movement are assumed either orthogonally or diagonally):

• On his turn, the player moves a friendly stone to an adjacent empty square
• When a player makes a red-white-blue pattern, he removes those three stones and scores one point (the white piece can be from either player)
  
• The game ends when it is no longer possible to make the pattern
• Wins the player with more points
  

This is a very interesting game. The ludeme of piece removal, after a pattern is made, is quite original as far as I can tell.

The color pattern comes from the flag of the Netherlands 🇳🇱.

[1] Fred Horn, Great Finds, AGPC Quarterly vol.17 [3], (2015).

Hinck

Hinck is a 1973 uncredited game, published by Interbero.

Each player has 40 pieces, which are initially placed in the players' first four rows, plus the four rightmost columns of the central row, leaving the 9x9 board's center empty.

Rules

• The first move (called a hinck) must go toward the free central square, in a horizontal direction.
• Each player, in her turn, selects a friendly piece and uses it to jump over an adjacent piece (of either color), landing on the next square, which must be empty. 
• The jumped piece is captured.
• Only orthogonal jumps are allowed (so, no diagonal jumps)
• A single capture takes precedence over a multiple capture, but once you begin a multiple capture you must complete it.
• When one player does not have more moves, the game ends. The player with less stones on board wins the game.

The single capture precedence is intriguing. Usually, a Checkers-like game making it optional the maximal-capture rule is bad design, because it prevents players to produce forced move sequences, which is one of the best things this family of games has. But here there's still a mandatory aspect to the ruling, which feels quite original.

Also, capturing your own stones is curious, but runs the risk of reducing player's interaction and making more of a race game. 

Realm

Realm is a 1973 game by Phil Orbanes Sr, and published in Gamut of Games and at nestorgames. 

It is played on a 12x12 board, where each army has 14 squares (the bases), nine triangles (the enforcers), and four circles (the powers). This is a game of capturing based on blocking pieces.

The rules are quite complex for an abstract game, and I will not write them here. Please check the rules written by nestorgames (which includes several variations).

The game was reviewed and explained in Abstract Games Magazine #9, and is playable at AbstractPlay.

Also, here's an older review from GAMES #47:

Kage

Kage is a 1986 game by Jay Myers, published by TSR. 

The game, played on a 8x8 board, comes with one red 'bird', one blue 'bird', and 48 white walls.

The rules:

• Initially, the birds are placed at d5 and e4
  
• Then, on his turn, a player can either:
• Move his bird to an orthogonal adjacent empty square (if there's no wall in-between)
• Drop a wall in-between squares, or at the board's edge
  
• Wins the player that encloses the adversary bird in a connect chain of walls (the cage), 
• Note that the edge itself is not a wall; if the cage includes the board edge, then those squares also need walls.
  
• The player wins even if his own bird gets enclosed at that same turn
• If after placing all walls, neither bird is enclosed, the game is a draw
  

Some tips from Chris Okasaki:

Be sure to pay attention to how your opponent can use the toothpicks you place against you. This is especially true in the endgame, where it is common to see one player place a toothpick intending to threaten the other pawn, and then the other player suddenly wins by placing a toothpick that encloses both pawns simultaneously.

An advanced tactic is to use your pawn to block your opponent from escaping your enclosure. It is dangerous, however, because to do so you must be close enough to risk being enclosed yourself.