From: sos@oz.plymouth.edu (Steffan O'Sullivan)
Subject: Re: Commercial Abstract Games
Organization: Plymouth State College - Plymouth, NH.
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 01:20:07 GMT

peter@techbook.com (Peter Sarrett) writes:
>>
>>4th Dimension
>>Arcadia
>>Icehouse
>>King's Table
>>Plateau
>>Scoozie
>>Timeline
>>Void
>
>I've never heard of any of the above games.  I'd love to see descriptions of
>them and, where possible, prices and addresses where they can be purchased.

A tall order, Peter!  And me sick, too . . .  I'll try it, a little at a
time, okay?  I already posted a description of Timeline, here's Scoozie:

Scoozie is to American football as chess is to war.  This is an
abstraction of football, simplified.  I like the game very much - there
is no luck, and quite a bit of strategy, but it's a much quicker game
than chess.  I hate football, BTW, and when I've played Scoozie with my
football-loving friends, they tend not too like it - too much thinking
for them.  But then, these are not also folks who love abstract games.

Each player plays the offense, one after the other, to constitute a
round.  You can decide in advance whether to play a certain number of
rounds, or to a certain point-total (or time limit, but each player has
to play offense the same number of times).  The defender has only one
type of piece: eleven tackles.  The offense has two kinds of pieces:
eight blockers and three ball-carriers.  The ball-carriers all have
little pins on their heads (how appropriate!) that a wooden ball (with
hole) fits onto, so you know which one has the ball at the moment.

All the pieces are wooden, BTW, as is the board - a very nice set.

The board is unique - patented, in fact.  Basically you have two
different boards interlaced.  The tackles and blockers live in the same
world - they move on the little diamonds in between the circles.  The
ball-carriers move from circle to circle.  Since the diamonds overlap
the paths connecting the circles, any tackle controls certain paths
just by sitting there: a ball-carrier cannot move over a path
controlled by a tackle.

Blocking is the key piece of tactics in the game.  To block a piece
(either side can do it), you move into its space, and both pieces are
moved off of the path into the little triangles formed by the paths
running down the center of a diamond.  Whoever instigated the block
decides which piece goes onto which triangle - there are always two.  A
blocked piece is permanent - it cannot move again until the sides are
switched.  An active tackle controls five paths - a blocked tackle only
controls three.  So the defender must try to keep key tackles active,
and block on his own terms, so he decides which three paths get
obstructed for the remainder of the half.  Likewise, the offense tries
to block the tackles so as to create holes in his line.

The ball can be carried or passed, which counts as an action.  (Each
turn you get two actions - moving a piece one or two spaces counts as
an action, as does passing the ball.  You may not move the same piece
twice in the same turn.)  Passing is only along straight paths, and
only to another ball-carrier, but can go the whole length of the board
if you can arrange it - very exciting!  A tackle can pull a
ball-carrier off of a circle, which would block him if he didn't have
the ball, and end the half if he did.  Points are scored depending on
how far downfield the ball is carried - anywhere from 0 to 15 points
are possible each half.

While this may sound complex, it's not.  If you have the board in front
of you, it becomes much clearer.  The rulebook is well written, and not
very long, with lots of illustrations.  You can play a full round in
half an hour, roughly.

As far as I know, it is *only* available from the designer:

Rich Meiers
RR 2, Box 730
Sugarloaf, PA  18249
$39 + $4.00 postage in the USA - write for rates to other countries.

----------

Thanks for the description of Octiles - I've often wondered about it.
Let me know what you think of Proteus - I'm tempted by that one, too!

I'll give a description of another game maybe tomorrow - anyone else
who owns one of these is free to jump in and save me some typing!

-- 
  - Steffan O'Sullivan		         sos@oz.plymouth.edu