The game section hosts a collection of classic board games and their variations.

Many games can be played with the same set of boards and figures.

Games to add

Go
Dame
Wolf und Schafe
Hnetafel Family

chess

_{Notes on western chess}

Chess is believed to originate in the 7th century in India. The rules of modern western chess were modified and adopted around 1200 and grew into a sport during the 19th century.

Goal

The goal of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king. This happens when the king is put into check and cannot get out.

Three ways to get out of check:

move out of the way
block the check with another piece
capture the piece threatening the king

Setup

Chess is a game played between two opponents on opposite sides of a board containing 64 squares of alternating colors. Each player has 16 pieces: 1 king, 1 queen, 2 rooks, 2 bishops, 2 knights, and 8 pawns.

Players are allowed to move one piece per turn. White always begins.

  | a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h |
8 | ♜ | ♞ | ♝ | ♛ | ♚ | ♝ | ♞ | ♜ |
7 | ♟ | ♟ | ♟ | ♟ | ♟ | ♟ | ♟ | ♟ |
6 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
5 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
4 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
3 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
2 | ♙ | ♙ | ♙ | ♙ | ♙ | ♙ | ♙ | ♙ |
1 | ♖ | ♘ | ♗ | ♕ | ♔ | ♗ | ♘ | ♖ |

Figures

King	König	1	Can move 1 field in any direction
Queen	Dame	9	Can move multiple fields in any direction
Rook	Turm	5	Can move multiple fields in a straight line
Bishop	Läufer	3	Can move multiple fields diagonally
Knight	Springer	3	Can move in an L-Shape in any direction
Pawn	Bauer	1	Can move forward two fields from start position, otherwise only one field at a time. Captures diagonally.

Special Rules

Pawn Promotion

A pawn may be promoted to a knight, bishop rook or queen when it reaches the other side of the board. The figure it is promoted to does not have to be captured.

En Passant

If a pawn opens with two steps forward, jumping over a field that is attacked by the opponents pawn, the opponent can capture the pawn in the next round by moving to the skipped field.

Castling

The king is moved either two fields left or right and the rook jumps over the king from the side the king moved towards. Only possible when:

it is the king's first move
it is the rook's first move
there are no pieces between the two
the king is not in check or passing through check

mills

_{Nine Men's Morris}

Mills is a strategy game dating back to at least the Roman Empire.

It is played on a board with 24 intersections. Each player places nine pieces on the board and creates mills to remove capture pieces from the opponent. A player wins by reducing the opponent to two pieces or leaving them without a legal move.

Phase 1: Placement

Players take turns placing a piece on an empty point. If a player can place three pieces in a straight line, they form a mill and can remove a piece from the opponent. An opponent's mill may only be broken if there are no other pieces available.

Phase 2: Moving

When all pieces have been placed, players take turns moving one piece per turn to an adjacent, vacant point, continuing to form mills and capture opponent's pieces.

Phase 3: Flying

When a player is reduced to three pieces, they are no longer bound to adjacent intersections, but can jump to any vaccant point.

The Board

+-------------+-------------+
|             |             |
|    +--------+--------+    |
|    |        |        |    |
|    |    +---+---+    |    |
|    |    |       |    |    |
+----+----+       +----+----+
|    |    |       |    |    |
|    |    +---+---+    |    |
|    |        |        |    |
|    +--------+--------+    |
|             |             |
+-------------+-------------+

backgammon

_{Scoring the gammon}

Backgammon is a two player game, where each player has 15 pieces that move between 24 triangles according to the roll of two dice.

It is one of the oldest known board games, dating back nearly 5,000 years to Mesopotamia.

Goal

Each player's goal is to move their own 15 pieces off the board, called bearing off.

Players move their pieces in opposing directions.
White starts at 1 and moves their pieces towards 24. Black starts at 24 and moves their pieces to 1.

Setup

1 - 6 is Black's home row
19-24 is White's home row
|13 14 15 16 17 18  | 19 20 21 22 23 24 |
| ●           ○     |  ○              ● |
| ●           ○     |  ○              ● |
| ●           ○     |  ○                |
| ●                 |  ○                |
| ●                 |  ○                |
| ----------------- | ----------------- |
| ○                 |  ●                |
| ○                 |  ●                |
| ○           ●     |  ●                |
| ○           ●     |  ●              ○ |
| ○           ●     |  ●              ○ |
|12 11 10  9  8  7  |  6  5  4  3  2  1 |

Both players roll the dice. The player with the higher total begins.

For each number on the dice, two pieces must be moved. The same piece may be moved twice as long as two moves can be made sepparately and legally.

The piece may land on an unoccupied point, on a point occupied by one or more of the player's own pieces or or on a point occupied by exactly one opposing piece. In this case, the piece has been hit as is placed in the middle of the board on the bar. All pieces on the bar must re-enter the game though the opponent's home board before any other move can be made.

Bearing off

When all of a player's pieces are in their home row, they may start removing them. The number rolled by the dice determines the point from which a piece can be borne off. If all of the player's pieces are on lower points than the number, the player must bear off from the highest occupied point.

The first player to bear off all fifteen of their own pieces wins the game. If the opponent has not yet borne off any piece when the game end, the winner scores a gammon(double the stakes). If the opponent still has pieces on the winner's home board or on the middle bar, the winner scores a backgammon (triple the stakes)

halma

_ἅλμα

Halma is a game invented in 1883 by George Howard Monks and Thomas Hill.

It is played by two or four players on a checkered board with 16x16 squares.

The player wins that transfers all of their pieces to the opposing corner.

Each turn, a player either moves a piece to an adjacent square, or jumps over one or more pieces in sequence.

Setup

Four players play in teams of 2 vs. 2.

Setup for 2 players                 Setup for 4 players
|○|○|○|○|○|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|  |○|○|○|○|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|◍|◍|◍|◍|
|○|○|○|○|○|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|  |○|○|○|○|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|◍|◍|◍|◍|
|○|○|○|○|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|  |○|○|○|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|◍|◍|◍|
|○|○|○|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|  |○|○|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|◍|◍|
|○|○|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|  |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|  |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|  |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|  |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|  |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|  |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|  |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|●|●|  |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|●|●|●|  |◓|◓|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|●|●|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|●|●|●|●|  |◓|◓|◓|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|●|●|●|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|●|●|●|●|●|  |◓|◓|◓|◓|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|●|●|●|●|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|●|●|●|●|●|  |◓|◓|◓|◓|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|●|●|●|●|

Rules

A random players starts (or the youngest) and proceeds clockwise around the board.
Pieces can move or jump orthogonally or diagonally.
Pieces can be move to an adjacent, empty square or
Pieces can make one or more jumps over adjacent pieces, if there is an empty square on the opposite side.
Once a piece is in the opposing camp, it cannot leave the camp.

halatafl

_{Fox and Geese}

Halatafl is a game first mentioned in th islandic Grettis Saga.

It is a game for two players, where one plays the fox o and the other plays the geese x.

Setup

    x x x
    x x x
x x x x x x x
. . . o . . .
. . . . . . .
    . . .
    . . .

Rules

The person playing the geese starts by moving one of their figures left, right, or straight to a vacant field.

The fox can move the same way, but has the ability to catch a goose by jumping over it (straight, not diagonally), if the field behind it is vacant.

The geese win when they manage to circle the fox so it can't move anymore.

The fox wins when there aren't enough chicken left to circle it.

Variations

The game can be played with 20 geese instead of 13 where diagonal moves are also legal.

        x - x - x
        | \ | / |
        x - x - x
        | / | \ |
x - x - x - x - x - x - x
| \ | / | \ | / | \ | / |
x - x - x - x - x - x - x
| / | \ | / | \ | / | \ |
. - . - . - o - . - . - .
        | \ | / |
        . - . - .
        | / | \ |
        . - . - .

Fox and Chicken

    x x x
    x x x
x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x
. . 0 o 0 . .
    o o o
    o o o

The goal of the chicken is to get at least 9 of them to the pen o. Two foxes try to prevent that.

rubiks cube

_{Solving the magic cube}

Algorithms

Ri Di R D
Ui Li U L U F Ui Fi
U R Ui Ri Ui Fi U F
F R U Ri Ui Fi
R U Ri U R U U Ri
R Ui Li U Ri Ui L

Instructions

Create a cross on the white side, where each edge piece aligns correctly with the middle pieces layer 2.

Use Alg.1 and align the corner pieces to finish layer 1.

Turn the cube around so the yellow side is looking up.

Use Alg.2 to move the edge pieces of layer 3 to the left edge of layer 2 or Alg.3 to move them to the right edge of layer 2. Repeat until layer 2 is finished.

Rotate layer 3 to a position where one yellow edge piece is facing the same way as the blue side and one facing the same way as the red side. Use Alg.4 to create a yellow line on the yellow side. Rotate layer 3 until another yellow edge piece faces the same way as the blue side and the yellow line on top points to the red side. Use Alg.4 again to create a yellow cross.

Rotate the cube to look straight at the yellow side. Rotate layer 3 so either left and right edge pieces align with the middle pieces of their respective sides, or the top and right edge pieces align with the middle pieces of their respective sides. Use Alg.5 once or twice to make the edge pieces align with all the middle pieces of their respective sides.

Rotate the cube until a correctly positioned (not necesarily rotated) corner piece of layer 3 is on the bottom left. Use Alg.6 to correctly position the the other corner pieces. Repeat until all corner pieces are in their correct position.

Pick either red, blue, orange or green side and keep it facing towards you until the cube is finished. Chose a side that has a corner piece on the bottom right that needs rotation to fit. Use Alg.1 either twice or four times to correct the rotation of the corner piece. Now rotate layer 3 counter-clockwise until the next corner piece that needs rotation is at the bottom right. Repeat until all corner pieces are correctly rotated.

sinpin

_{A gravity based dungeon crawler board game}

Sinpin means 'inside' in Toki Pona and is a board game I developed together with my son. It is a board game for 2-4 players.

The goal is to reach the exit, grabbing as many gems as possible on the way out. The player with the most gems by the end wins.

The game can be played on a single sheet of squared DIN A4 paper. The page is split into 3x3 squares grid, each representing a single field.

Players take turns rolling a die and moving through the dungeon.

Setup

Each player choses an avatar and receives 6 movement point cards, valuing from 1 to 6.

A level contains up to 16 gems, 4 hearts and 4 chests and 8 webs that are placed individually by each player in turns.

Movement

Players start at the door marked with an alpha α. The exit is marked with an omega Ω.
The starting player uses one of their six movement cards. The full amount of points have to be moved. The card cannot be reused until all other movement cards have been used.
Choose a direction to move to: left or right.
During a move, the direction can only be switched when bouncing off a wall or moving onto a ladder.
When moving on a field without a ground below, gravity pulls the player down one field after each movement. Falling costs no movement points.
While falling, players keep moving in their direction until no movement points are left.
Players can jump up one field when on the ground (costs one movement point).
After a jump, players can move a field to the side before gravity kicks in.

Health

Each player starts with 3 health points.
If all healthpoints are lost, players either return to the start or pay 3 gems to recover a single health point.
Picking up a heart recovers one health point.

Special Fields

Whenever players pass a special field, an action is immediately triggered.

Ladders: Climb up or down. Lets players change direction on entering. Direction is continued until the end of the move.
Spikes: Loose 1 health point and stop.
Blades: Roll a die. If the number is lower than 4, loose one 1 health point and stop. If the number is higher, subtract the number by 3 and move the resulting points in forward.
Spring Board: bounces players one field up. Is also triggered when starting on the field. An upward jump can be added.
Chests: Stop movement. All further movement points are lost.
Teleporters: teleports to a destination of the players choosing. Movement continues at destination.
Exit: First player through the exit receives the amount of players as gems, second one less, third one less, fourth one less. Additionally reveices the amount of health points in gems.