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: