Cosmoludo's Abstract Strategy Games — As Easy As 1, 2, 3...Fish

In Hokito, you want to dominate the opponent's pieces — and possibly your own! — to create valuable towers that will score for you at game's end.

Each player has 18 pieces — six each with 1, 2, or 3 marks — with one player taking black pieces and the other white. Gameplay takes place on a 6x6 board, and to set up, you each spread your 18 pieces at random on your half of the board. The black player begins.

On a turn, choose a piece or a stack of more than one piece that you control — and you control a piece/stack if your color is on top — then move that piece/stack so that it lands on a something of the same type, i.e., a single piece needs to land on a single piece and a stack on a stack. You move the piece/stack orthogonally 1-3 occupied spaces, with the number of moves matching the number of marks on the topmost piece. You can move the piece/stack at a 90º angle when crossing an occupied space, so a piece/stack that moves 2 can move orthogonally to the second occupied space (as long as it's occupied with a piece/stack) or it can make a single 90º turn as it passes over the first occupied space.


As more spaces become empty, fewer movement options remain open to players, and as soon as any one player cannot move, the game ends. Each player then scores for the pieces and stacks they control. The value of a piece/stack is the number of marks on the topmost piece multiplied by the number of pieces in that stack, which means a piece on its own is worth only 1-3 points. Whoever has the higher score wins.

Your challenge in Pantareï is to be the first player to create a stack of seven pieces, but the more the game progresses, the more limited your choices become. Try to ensure that your choices will be better than the opponent's!

Each player has nine pieces, either black or white, with three pieces each of 1, 2, or 3 markings. The game includes one neutral piece. Shuffle the pieces with the markings hidden, then place them in a wiggly snakelike row, then reveal the markings. One player chooses the color they want, then the other player takes the first turn.


On a turn, choose a stack that you control — that is, that has one of your pieces on top — then move the topmost piece of that stack or the top two pieces of that stack left or right a number of spaces equal to the number of markings on that piece. As you create gaps in the row, you can squish the stacks closer to one another to create a shorter snake. Instead of moving a piece or a stack of two pieces, you can choose two stacks that you control and swap them. (You cannot swap stacks if the opponent swapped stacks on their previous turn.) The neutral piece can be landed on, and it becomes part of a stack.

As soon as someone creates a stack of seven pieces, they win!

Your goal in Mana is to capture the opponent's Daïmio, but sometimes getting captured yourself will prove to be the best plan of attack.

Each player has six pieces — one Daïmio and five ronin — with these pieces, either white or black, set up on the back row of a 6x6 game board. Each square of the board has 1, 2, or 3 markings in it. The starting player (black) moves one of their pieces, moving it 1-3 squares depending on the number of markings on the piece's starting location; a player can move a piece orthogonally in any direction, making 90º turns if they wish. A piece cannot move through other pieces, but if it ends its movement on an opponent's piece, that piece is captured and removed from the board.

After the first movement, the player looks at the number of markings of the square where their piece landed, then they take the neutral mana bird from the side of the board and place it on an unoccupied square that has the same number of markings. The next player must move one of their pieces standing on a square that has the same number of markings as the square where the mana bird is located — moving that piece a number of squares equal to that number — then they'll move the mana bird in a similar manner based on where that piece lands.


If the opponent places the mana bird on, say, a 2 square and you have no pieces on a 2, then you can either (a) move any of your pieces a number of squares equal to the markings on its starting location or (b) reintroduce one of your captured ronin on any unoccupied square of the game board. If you can't move a piece on the appropriately numbered square since they're all blocked, then you can move any of your pieces.

Whoever captures the opponent's Daïmio first wins!

To set up Kamon, shuffle the game's 37 tokens and fill the hexagonal grid with one token on each hex. The tokens consist of one blank token and 36 tokens in six colors and six symbols, with each combination appearing once. (In earlier versions of the game, tokens were valued 1-6 in each of six different symbols, with one hex being left empty.) The blank token fills space and serves only as a barrier.

To start, the black player places one of their pawns on a perimeter space that touches only one side of the hex. The token on this space, e.g. the red fish, indicates where the white player must place one of their pawns on the next turn, either on a red token or on a fish token, and the white player's pawn constrains where the black player can next place a pawn.


Players continue taking turns in this manner, and the game ends immediately when one of three victory conditions are fulfilled:

—A player connects two opposite edges of the grid with their pawns (as in Hex).
—A player surrounds one or more hexes with a loop of their pawns without regard as to whether those hexes are empty or occupied by the opponent's pawns.
—A player prevents their opponent from placing a pawn, e.g. by occupying the yellow mountain when no more yellow tokens or mountain tokens are available.