YORKTON - Recently, this space reviewed a neat little offering from Kanare Abstract, a cloth board and pieces which come in a tiny box, allowing multiple games to be played and the added convenience of taking it almost anywhere.
Well, there is an equally interesting set from Kanare with the same small box but this time packed with a dual-sided hexagonal board, a bunch of pieces, and rules for several games.
As in the square board box, this one has a very nice cloth board folded neatly inside with a 5X5 board on one side and a 6X6 on the reverse, which of course opens up the door to some other games beyond those where the rules are provided. Here the Internet is your friend with lots of game rulesets available to print for self-use online.
The little box – again the tiny package is important because it can go anywhere, a business trip, coffee shop, pub, the lake, (although outdoor play will need to be generally wind free given the board is cloth and the pieces small), also includes a package of white disks and another of black.
The little box of goodness also included several rule sheets but unlike the square version where the rules covered well-known public domain games such as Konane – a great checker-esque game of Hawaiian origin, and vintage classics Fox and Hounds, Halma, Tafl and Turkish Checkers – this one has several rule sets but they are all for original games from game designer Kanare Kato in Japan.
So you end up with games including;
Stoic
Starting with an empty board, each player places a piece of their own colour on an empty hex on each turn. At this time, you cannot place a piece in a position where two of your piece’s sandwich one of your opponent’s pieces.
However, you can place your piece between two of your opponent’s pieces that have already been placed. You can also place your piece so that two of your piece’s sandwich two or more of your opponent’s pieces in a row.
Stride
All pieces move only by jumping over one adjacent piece (either colour) and landing on the hex immediately following it. There is no continuous jumping.
The hex it lands on can be an empty hex or a hex with pieces of any colour. If there is a pieces of friendly colour on the hex where it lands, stack the moving piece on top of it. There is no limit to the height of the stack.
If there is a piece of the enemy colour at the landing hex, the enemy piece is captured and removed from the game. If there is an enemy stack, the entire stack will be captured.
When you move a piece from your stack, you move only one piece on the top of the stack. You cannot move the entire stack at the same time.
Squish
On your turn, you move one of your pieces to an adjacent hex. You must move it so that it is close to a friendly piece on the same line. If there is no friendly piece on the same line, the piece cannot move on that line.
If there is an enemy piece on the move, the enemy piece is captured and removed from the game. It cannot move into a hex containing a friendly piece.
Unlace
On your turn, you move one of your pieces to an adjacent hex. However, it must belong to a larger group than the one before it was moved.
If there is an enemy piece on the move, the enemy piece is captured and removed from the game. It cannot move into a hex containing a friendly piece.
Node
Place a piece (anchor) of their colour on an empty hex in the outer area.
Next place a piece (node) of their colour on one of the empty hexes in the inner area that is on the same line as both the anchor you just placed and one of your other anchors.
The player who connects two of their anchors placed on opposite sides of the outside area with an unbroken line of their own pieces (nodes and/or anchors) wins immediately.
Since there are so many games that the set allows, it allows a ton of exploration and variety, and the take it almost anywhere packaging means lots of opportunity to do just that.
Check it out at kanareabstract.games
