Game Overview: Pantareï, or One-Dimensional Checkers

French publisher Cosmoludo first previewed its line of abstract strategy games at the FIJ game fair in Cannes in 2019, and at that show I had the pleasure of interviewing designer Claude Leroy, who is responsible for most of the titles in the Cosmoludo line-up, some of which are reprints and some of which will be new.

At SPIEL '19, I met with Cosmoludo editor/graphic designer Tom Delahaye, and everything seemed ideal for launch of the line in the near future, then things went south in 2020 and the games debuted in France only in Q1 2021. I love abstract strategy games, so when I found out that Cosmoludo lacked distribution in the U.S., I put Delahaye in contact with BGG Store product manager Beth Heile, and now we have three titles for sale in the BGG Store: Hokito (link), Mana (link), and the subject of this post: Pantareï (link).

One-dimensional checkers is a simple (and somewhat accurate) way to describe the game, but here's an overview in more detail:

Quote:

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!

I've played four times so far on a copy from the BGG Store, and the game is as straightforward and entrancing as I had imagined from the description. Rather than talk more about it, let me present the initial layout of pieces in a game where I chose to have the black tiles:

The number of pieces gives you lots of options, but not an overwhelming amount — and if you're like me, you act somewhat intuitively and impulsively and say, well, if things go wrong, ideally you'll learn from it for the next playing. After two moves by each player, we have this:

The rules don't address whether players can look through stacks to see which tiles are where, but we've been playing that you have to remember the location of tiles as best as you can. If you mess up, well, ideally you'll learn from it for the next playing. I find myself saying that a lot about many such things, games being only part of the picture.

After three more moves — two by white, one by black — we're here:

How should I respond? What's my path forward to prevent white from capitalizing on that 4-stack or to create a threat of my own?

Every game is a series of tiny challenges, with the first move by a player creating momentum that must be responded to in some manner, action and reaction like waves in a pool — or in a strange river that flows backward and forward at the whim of larger beings who can toy with bits of the world.

The only thing missing from this design is a drawbag for travel given that the game consists of only 19 tiles, but I have plenty of options for such things at home. For more thoughts on the game, including how it compares to similar abstract strategy games, specifically Focus and DVONN, check out this video: