Abalone

[Skybird]

Here is another strategy game that i always admired for the visual concept and beauty of the board and pieces, the simple elegance of the rules, and the depth of strategy it neverthless keeps hidden in its depths.

It meanwhile is available with four-coloured marbles and play of 2-4 players.

I do not play it much at all, I lack a partner, and I always forget that there is an app for it that I even own. Its just that I do not like playing on smartphone or tablet, no matter what it is.

This is the analysis of the final of a world championship match. The video below that illustrates the basic rules (maybe watch that first, its just 2 minutes...). There are not many rules, the game is very easy to learn - but very hard to master. And boy, does it look stylish!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jFWsGRVZdc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUCe1ilichA


The orioginal starting position, just two fronts, is nowadays seen as beeing unbalanced, thats why they use alternative starting positions now, mostly the socalled "Belgian Daisy" formation that you see in the championship footage. It allows - even commands - more dynamic.


Setup for 4 players (never tried it myself):
https://i.postimg.cc/L6k12ZwZ/abalone4.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

[Platapus]

It is a fun game.


It is a combination between Chinese Checkers and Sumo Wrestling. :up:

[Eichhörnchen]

I think I could do that - the rules are logical so would be easy to remember, but you can see how complex and exciting the game itself could become

If we used acorns could we call it Squirralone? :D

[Skybird]

I have seen several Abalone programs over the past 20 years, there is a modern one for Android and PC (Steam, 6 coins), and since I only occasionally play it, I am not really in the depth of it and for me that software is good enough. Steam gives it even scores from people. I also have a small board version of. There is some strange satisfaction in the tactile feel and the sound when pushing and clicking the marbles, the normal board is bigger than mine and so it probably feels even better, heavier. Just in the recent few days I have started to play it more again.

I just wish for videos they would replace the black marbles for red ones, its sometimes diffiocult to see especially when they are so smart to set it up against a black table surface.


If anyone goes for it, just do yourself a faovur and do not use the original setup from the rules. All tournament play is done wioth for exmapel the Belgian Daisy setup, because the default setup easily leads to non-moving, marble-grinding non-event-matches. AFAIK practically nobody in the game uses the default setup.