Another year is about to pass into history.
So as is the tradition in columns like this, I took a quick peek at the 50-plus games covered here in 2015, and have gleaned the top-three for a short review.
The first offering, sliding in at number-three, is Zombie In My Pocket (ZIMP).
The first is that ZIMP, created in 2007 by designer Jeremiah Lee, is a print ’n play offering, which means anyone can give it a try with a bit of crafting.
You can download the rules, and game components to print and use at www.boardgamegeek.com searching the game name. The components can be simple paper print-outs, or you can be creative in mounting the play pieces and giving the game more permanence in your collection. Just don’t go to elaborate in the sense as the name implies this is a game that is supposed to ‘fit in your pocket’ so you can take it to the coffee shop easily.
The components are nine cards, best sleeved and backed with an old playing card for strength, and 16 tiles (at least heavy construction paper is recommended).
Fashioning PnP games is great fun on its own as it takes your mind to a different place. As evenings grow dark earlier, and the weather chills more, it’s a great diversion.
And a second reason it made this list, ZIMP is a solitaire offering.
There are not hundreds of games you can play alone (board games at least), so finding one that is fun is a bonus for those nights the better half is watching some love story on TV, and your buds are too busy to game.
The rules are simple enough, based on pulling tiles and cards and following straight forward rules. Re-play comes from the random lay out of the tiles as they are played out.
At number two, the best checker game in the world today (I envision this being spoken by a wrestling announcer in my mind).
Dameo, which starts with each player having 18 pieces, has dramatic movement in that there are literally dozens of options on a turn.
A man moves one square forward, either straight or diagonally. The diagonal move of a man is the only diagonal move in the game. All other moves, whether capturing or non-capturing, are orthogonal only.
If a man ends its move on the opponent’s back rank, it promotes to king. This marks the end of the move.
On a move, a player may shift a linear group one space as well. This linear movement drastically alters what can be done in Dameo.
Men, whether single or linear, move forward only. A king moves queenwise, as indicated.
In Dameo one can open with any man so there are 26 unique opening moves white has at his disposal. For each of these there’s a symmetric one. Black, on his first move, doesn’t face a symmetric situation, so he actually has a choice of 52 answers. Thus after two moves, 1352 different positions are possible.
A king moves any number of unobstructed squares horizontally or vertically, like the rook in Chess. Kings may not move diagonally.
The flying king, which is used in traditional draughts games such as Turkish Checkers can be devastating, and really spices up end game play.
Capture takes precedence over a non-capturing move. Only if the player to move has no capture to make, may he move a single man, or a line of men, or a king.
Men may capture forwards, backwards and sideways by the short leap.
Kings may move queenwise, but they capture only rookwise, by the long leap.
If a piece makes a capture and is now in a position to make another one, it must do so. Thus multiple captures may be made in the same turn.
Dameo is certainly the best of the checker variants, far outstripping the old base game.
In fact, I’d put Dameo in the top-10 abstract strategy games among the hundreds out there, because the rules remain simple, the game is easy to play with available checker boards and anything for checkers, and has tons of depth and re-playability. Love the game. It gets the highest recommendation.
And at number one, and this was not a hard choice at all; crokinole, in part because it is Canadian.
“The game of crokinole appears to have developed in rural Canada in the 1860s,” noted www.crokinole.com.
“The earliest known crokinole board (with legitimate, dated provenance) was made in 1876 (not 1875 as previously reported) in Perth County, Ontario, Canada. Several other home-made boards of southwestern Ontario origin, and dating from the 1870s, have been discovered within the past 10 years, suggesting confirmation of this locale as the probable ‘cradle’ of crokinole’s birth. Earlier Canadian written sources detail the game from the mid-1860’s. Several years after that time, a registered American patent suggests 1880 as the time when commercial fabrication began - first in New York, then Pennsylvania.”
The next reason I love the game is that it is one where skill wins out.
Crokinole is simpler in that sense. It is not a game pushing you to out think an opponent. Rather it is a game of physical skill, the ability to shoot wooden discs with accuracy to score points. I like that -- a lot.
“The object of the game is to position shooting discs on the playing surface in such manner that they remain within the highest scoring circles by the end of the round. A crokinole shot is accomplished by firmly holding the end of your index or middle finger against the thumb and then flicking or snapping it against the disc in order to propel the disc across the playing surface. Each player seeks to make a “20” (centre hole) score whenever possible. At the same time, each player - in turn - will attempt to make such scoring opportunities difficult for his opponent. The game is played to 50, 100, or more points, as determined by all players in advance,” details www.crokinole.com
I’ve loved crokinole since I was old enough to start flicking, and five decades later it’s still the best.
