Cubulous

Cubulous is a 1987 game by Benedict Einstein, and was self-published.

Cubulous is a board game using dice as pieces, and not as random generators. The top face of the die determines its moving range. And the dice move to the next square by flipping to their next face.

The game is played on a 9x9 board, with eight dice per player, plus two shields and one master:

the game's material (not the setup, check rules below) 

Here are the official rules: 

Mastergame

Mastergame is 1982 uncredited game published by Invicta Games.

It is played on a 8x8 board where squares are marked by card suits. Each player has eight pieces also marked with suits (two pieces per suit).

Rules (adjacencies are orthogonal and diagonal):

• The pieces are placed initially on the board (see review below)
• On his turn, the player moves one friendly piece to any adjacent empty square
• However, a piece cannot move to squares marked with their own suit
  
• Wins the player that makes a 4 in-a-row with friendly pieces but all with different suits

There's the saying that "a theory should be as simple as possible, but not simpler". I'm afraid the latter is the case with Mastergame. Anyway, the square-piece restriction is a nice touch, trying to make it a bit more difficult to make a 4 in-a-row with such mobile pieces.

This is a review from Science & Vie #781 (October 1982):

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)