P U N T-M A T C H

[Fred Horn words]

In the late seventies of the last Century I did start to invent Games more organized. I took some Idea and looked at Material which I possessed and then tried to make a Game out of it. This Game was concocted in that way and I wanted a game:
1) where capturing was not an advantage
2) with simple Rules and Goal
3) which could be played with the 30 (black and white) cone-shaped pointed-caps I had bought
4) where advantage in tempo should give a winning strategy.

Out of these conditions later I also developed my game FIANCO, which was published in Hans van Maanen’s book “Geen wolf en zeven geitjes” , and now-a-days in a by myself published version with plastic bottle-caps as pawns.

The game is played on a 7x7 square board, where each player has 14 stones occupying their respective first two columns.

The goal is to get as much Pawns as possible upon your ‘end-row’.

• White begins, then Turns alternate. 
• In his Turn a Player must move one of his Pawns or ‘controled’ piles. 
•   A Pawn or a pile can move forwards or sideways (but cannot be moved backwards) crossing not occupied squares in a straight line. 
•   A single Pawn can be moved 1; 2; or 3 squares. 
•   A pile of 2 Pawns can be moved 1; or 2 squares. 
•   A pile of 3 or more Pawns can only move 1 square. 
• When the square to end on is occupied by a Pawn or a pile of Pawns, the Player’s Turn ends by lifting his played Pawn or pile from the board and putting it over the now ‘captured’ Pawn or pile. The color of the Pawn on top indicates the Player that ‘controls’ it and can move this pile. 
•    N.B. A Player is allowed to ‘capture’ own Pawns and ‘controled’ piles.
• When reaching the opposite end-row with a Pawn or ‘controled’pile, these stay put and cannot be moved again. 
• When one of the Players cannot make a move in his Turn (all piles or Pawns are on the end-row and on the other squares on the board there are no own Pawn or ‘controled’ piles) play ends immediately. 
• Each Player now counts ALL the Pawns on his end-row. Player with the highest sum is the Winner.

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So far for the old game from that long ago.

When I was preparing and testing the game of REVERTELLO, a REVERSI-variant on a hexagonal board, one of my friends mentioned this old, almost forgotten by me, game PUNT-MATCH as a possible other feature for the board we were playing on. When we had a try, it even worked out as a more tactical and strategic game compared to the old one. There was also the possibility to play the game on this hexagonal board with 3 Players and that too was fun and strategy!

Thus here is my “new” 2013 version:

PUNT-HEKS-MATCH 

A strategic board-game for 2 or 3 Players
© Fred Horn 10 August 2013

The game is played on a 5 hexhex board. There are 14 white and black "pointed-cap" pawns plus 11 red pawns (for the 3-player game).

Goal and Rules are identical with the Game on the square-board (Punt-Match), except for both games also counts:

• Moving forwards gives now TWO possibilities instead of ONE.for game with 3 an additional start-rule: White begins, then Turns go ‘clock-wise’.