Diploe 'stacks-up' well as part of 8x8 Project

 

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 #14.

Dipole, a 2007 release from Mark Steere is basically an annihilation-style game in as much as you win if all of your opponent's checkers are removed from the board.

In Dipole each player starts with a single stack of 12 checkers. If you have chunky checkers like mine it’s a huge stack, but fortunately you will quickly be deconstructing the stack into smaller stacks.

A stack, or a portion of a stack, is moved a distance equal to the number of checkers in the moved stack. So, as an example a three-stack, can be moved a distance of three squares, and the initial 12-stack can’t be moved in its entirety.

Non-capturing moves must be made forward or diagonally forward – in a straight line, no changing direction.

Interestingly, in Dipole stack movement is not obstructed by intervening stacks, regardless of size or colour.

Capturing moves can be made in any of eight directions, but a stack can capture only equal size or smaller stacks.

To facilitate capture as a game continues stacks can be moved onto other, like-coloured stacks. Merging moves can only be made in the forward or diagonally forward directions as well.

This one won’t be mistaken for the best of ‘Project 8x8 & 48’ but is certainly worthy of inclusion with some interesting decisions in terms of building and deconstructing stacks, and limited move options unless capturing.