Board games are strange things in many ways.
While you can read about a game all you want, it is never completely clear what the game will be like until you open the box and play it.
Settlers of Catan is in the same boat. Get past a few high school locker room-influenced quips and jokes, and the game bores rather quickly.
Of course there were opposite cases too.
Hive comes to mind.
I initially balked at the game because of the insect-themed game pieces which had me thinking it a bit too kid-oriented.
When I finally took the plunge and got my hands on the game I found a winner, one of the top-10-15 games of its genre this century.
And that brings me finally to this week’s game Epaminondas.
If you have not heard of Epaminondas don’t feel too bad. This is very much an unknown game even though it was initially released back in 1975.
The game is by designer Robert Abbott who has a number of games to his credit, although I would suggest none are close to being the gem Epaminondas is.
Epaminondas is named after the Theban general who invented the phalanx formation he used to defeat the Spartans in 371 B.C.
It is a two player, abstract strategy game so I would have expected I would have been drawn to it ages ago.
Epaminondas is played on a 14 x 12 checkered board, although if you are fashioning your own board, since published copies of this one are a bit of a search to find, you could opt for a board sans alternating colour squares as they are only needed as a visual aid if sorts regarding movement. I would suggest a non-coloured board would look more ‘vintage’ in accordance with the Theban general naming.
As you can imagine the board is an expansive one to range over.
Each player has 28 black, or white pieces.
The objective is to move your pieces across the board onto your opponent’s back rank, the row closest to him, by moving your phalanxes and capturing enemy pieces.
The term ‘phalanx’ is used in the game to describe a connected group of pieces in a straight line, either orthogonally or diagonally. The movement here is as dramatic as the big board and mass pieces. When a phalanx moves, all the pieces in the phalanx move an equal number of squares in the same direction in a straight line. The direction of movement must be either forward or backward along the line of orientation. The number of squares moved by each piece must be equal to or less than the total number of pieces in the phalanx. A phalanx can be split up to move. In this case, the number of squares it can move is equal to or less than the total number of pieces in the moving phalanx. A phalanx cannot move off the board or onto or over a square.
This is a game that really is in the elite of games to explore in terms of abstract strategy offerings.
