Abande is a solid little stacker

I recently posed a question with the Abstract Nation on Facebook asking what were three games players preferred on an 8x8 checkerboard.

Not surprisingly there was a lot of commonality in answers and IMHO a few gems missed.

So over the coming weeks I’ll offer a few short reviews of what I see as the best games to be played on an 8x8 checkerboard with the added constraint you have only two sets of 24 pieces – basically you buy two matching common checker sets.

This is #16.

So, a few reviews back I noted how easily our 8x8 games can be used to play a game needing a 6x6 board, (it was India), going as far as to mark the board with a thin black felt marker to define the smaller area.

Now that the 6x6 area is defined without really taking away from the overall look in IMHO, we can use the points to play 7x7 games just as we use the full board to play 9x9 games such as Renpaarden and Fianco already part of ‘Project 8x8 & 48’.

The first 7x7 offering is Dieter Stein’s 2005 creation Abande.

Abande is a versatile little gem that also plays fine on a 37-space hexagonal board, and other configurations too.

Each player starts with 18 stackable pieces held initially off-board.

Players in turn enter new pieces on the board or move pieces already placed to capture opponent pieces (thus building stacks).

The trick here is that pieces on the board must always be connected -- adjacent to other pieces.

When all pieces are placed and both players pass their turn in sequence, points are collected for pieces and stacks.

In Abande pieces are placed on the intersections of the lines, so a perfect fit here.

Initially the board is empty.

Players take turns to;

• enter a new piece on the board, or
• move a stack already on the board on top of an adjacent opponent stack, or
• pass the turn, which is possible only if you have no more pieces in hand.

The game ends if both players pass their turn in sequence.

You may enter a piece as “long as you have pieces in your hand and you do not wish to or cannot move a stack on the board, you must enter a new piece on an empty space connected to the band,” notes the designer’s game page.

Instead of entering a new piece you may also move a stack under your control on the board. As in most stacking games, the top most piece determines the owner of a stack.

Stacks – a single piece is a ‘stack’ which moves one space into any direction, they cannot be split.

Stacks capture by moving on top of an opponent stack. They cannot move to an empty space or on top of a friendly stack.

Stacks cannot grow larger than three pieces high.

Moving is allowed only after Black has entered the second piece, which means Black cannot directly capture White’s reply to the initiative.

The game is over when both players pass their turn in succession.

When scoring, players may remove all stacks not connected to an opponent stack, because each stack not connected to a stack controlled by the opponent is worth zero points.

All other stacks count towards a player’s score:

• Add 1 point for every single piece of your colour
• Add 2 points for every double stack you control.
• Add 3 points for every triple stack you control.

This is a tricky one because making a stack of two makes it an immediate target for the opponent to control a three high stack, and you can’t add to a stack you control. There is a real element of ‘chicken’ here, to see who makes that first move to create stacks.

Once a three stack is made you immediately look for how you might isolate it so it does not count at game end.

A real nice option for this little project.