Owlman provides a enjoyably different game experience

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 #6

If you want to truly experience the potential of an 8x8 checkerboard with only two sets of 24 pieces then I highly recommend you give Owlman a try.

Created as recently as 2010 by Andrew Perkis Owlman lets you delve into an asymmetric board game experience.

Asymmetric games have unequal forces and have been around as long as board games have been most notably through games such as hnefatafl, and bagh chal.

Now Owlman might not be up to the level of those games, but it’s a fun one just the same.

Of course Owlman is not balanced, nor of course is it supposed to be.

Which side has the usual advantage I’ll leave up to players to discover with a few playthroughs.

Now if you Google this one suggestions have using pieces from both a checker and chess set, but checkers are really all you need.

In terms of set up the dark squares on the board represent the trees of Mawnan wood; pieces move between the trees on the light squares.

On one side you have Doc which can be represented by the white chess king – but a stack of two checkers works perfectly well, and his helpers are the 12 single white checkers.

The other player has the Owlman which can be played as a black knight – since he makes a 'swoop' move from corner to opposite corner of a 4x2 rectangle- a kind of elongated knight move – but a single black checker or stack of two works just as well.

The Owlman's main objective is to frighten all of Doc's helpers out of the woods.

By contrast Doc aims to reach the Owlman's lair, along with one of his helpers.

Doc’s side plays first.

All pieces (both white and black) may make a 'step' move to any adjoining white square- the move of a King in Chess and many checker variants.

When the Owlman makes a swoop it may move over other pieces. 

Owlman can also make a 'super swoop'.

Owlman can only generally capture helpers, and can only do so with a step move, not a swoop move. Whenever Owlman advances by making a step move towards a helper, he instills such terror that the poor helper immediately runs out of the woods and plays no further part in the game.

There is an exception you will find if you check out the full rules at https://owlmanthegame.blogspot.com/

One other method of capture is possible for Owlman, and that is by super swoop. A super swoop may only be made when Owlman is placed on Doc’s starting spot (the church tower). From here he may super swoop to any square occupied by a helper. The helper is then captured and removed from the board. From the tower Owlman must make a super swoop move; other move types from the church tower are not permitted. 

The game ends as a win for White if Doc reaches Owlmans start position and has also moved a helper to next to him. Doc also wins (though this happens but rarely) if a trapped Owlman is unable to move on his turn of play. Owlman wins if he either captures Doc or all of Doc's helpers.

This is a game most may not know, even abstract strategy fans, but one that fits this ‘list’ so well, it deserves greater exploration.