Fox Games: part 1

Fox Games is a term to refer to classic games based on the idea of asymmetric forces. One side needs to encircle/block the adversary, while the other needs to escape or capture all enemy pieces.

Perhaps the oldest game in this family is Hnefatafl played in medieval Scandinavia, where one player with the central player tries to escape to the edge of the board.

The Ballinderry Halatafl-Board

Alea evangelii (Game of the Gospels) in a 11th century manuscript

A more well-known modern game is Fox and Geese where, instead of escaping the board, the Fox needs to capture all the Geese (by jumping over one piece at a time, checkers-like), while these can only try to block the Fox. The next board uses one fox against 13 geese (or hens, in this case),

Nouveau Jeu du Renard (The New Game of the Fox)
board from Collection de Jeux Anciens

Another variant is The Game of Assault (Le Jeu de Assaut), with more pieces, making the board more crowded: there are two defenders against 24 besiegers:

Collection de Jeux Anciens

This previous board, c.1860, is from the game The Siege of Sebastopol (Jeu de l'Assaut de Sébastopol). The theme is based in the War of the Crimea

 

Assault games had several war motives over the 19th century; check the excellent blog Collection de Jeux Anciens for more examples. 

 

The next board is older, c.1814, again with a (rather abstract) military theme,

Two other games with foxes (renards in French),

 

 

patricia m, Flickr

This one has a sports-based theme:

 

A simpler version of this family was mathematically analyzed at Winning Ways, the bible of Combinatorial Game Theory (chapter 20 is dedicated to Fox Games),

This more abstract setup is older than Winning Ways, since it appears in 1938, published by Spear Spiele, and named 4 Gegen 1 (1 against 4).

 

Concours International de Créateurs de Jeux de Société

The Concours International de Créateurs de Jeux de Société (International Contest of Designers of Society Games) is an annual event organized by the Centre Ludique de Boulogne-Billancourt. The event started in 1977 and still occurs nowadays.

There are many awarded games (check their archive), and some became quite well known, namely Abalone, Quarto, Gygès, and Quits. Unfortunately, there is almost no information available about most of the board and rules of the submitted games over the years, including the awarded games!

Of the few there are board and rules available (in French), these seem to be within the blog's interests:

• Alpha, rules, GaalN (2001)
  
• Gadis, rules, Gérald Saiveau (1987)
  
• Court-circuit, rules, Max Gerchambeau (1983)
  
• Palanquée, rules, Ludovic Robillard (1988)
  
• Tchag, rules, Jean Georges (2003)
  
• Tor, rules, Alain Couchot, Bernard Klein (1996)
  

Of the ones where the board is known but not the rules:

• Dooble, Jean-Luc Hipeau (2000)
  
• Joséphine, Philippe Battesti (1999)
  
• Le Labyrinthe, Claude Fagret (1986)
  
• Pionmor, Bernard Tavitian (2000)
  

There are lots of other games in their archive without online information.

Ra

Ra is a 1981 game by Marco Donadoni, published by International Team.

It is played on the following hex board,

Each player has nine stackable pieces, that are initially set on stacks of size three around each player's Ra area (the black hex in the picture).

• Stacks move in straight lines. The player might decide to move just part of stack.
• A stack of size 3 moves one hex, a stack of size 2 moves two hexes, and a stack of size 1 moves three hexes.
• Captures are by replacement, but a stack cannot capture an enemy stack with higher size. Captures are not mandatory.
• The moving pieces may land on a friendly stack, increasing its size (up to the maximum size of 3)
  
• Stacks cannot move over other stacks.
• Unimpeded moves must be completed (eg, a stack of size 1 must move exactly three hexes, not less). 
• Obstructed moves occur if a stack reaches the board edge, captures an enemy stack, reaches a friendly stack, or lands over the adversary Ra area.
• Wins the player reaching the adversary Ra area or captures all enemy stacks.

The rules also include scoring: the player wins 1 point if a stack of size 1 arrives at the Ra area; 3 points for a stack of size 2, and 6 points for a stack of size 3. If a player wins by capturing the adversary army, it wins 3 points.

Players may decide the number of points needed to win a match (the ruleset suggests more than 6 points, with an advantage of at least 2 points). 

Some advice from the ruleset:

Ra is a game based on attack; playing only defensively often means losing the game.

It is important to carefully calculate the timing of moves: the winner is the one who enters first, not the one with the highest number of pieces. Losing a game by one point, with the advantage of starting first in the next round, can often provide the opportunity to attack and gain more points.

In case of a risk of heavy losses, try to minimize the defeat by threatening your opponent, if possible. One of two things will happen: they will enter immediately, or you will.

Some spaces play an important role: conquering them means gaining an advantage.

The Italian magazine Per Gioco, in May 1985, mentioned the game and published some matches: