Well that was an inspiring list. What about combining a flicking game with a chess-like game. In fact, it could be a "rps" game with flicking pieces. That's intriguing, but there's a problem with what to do with various pieces that are knocked hither and yon. However, there is a solution for that problem: make an app. I like the flexibility of Oak Games.
Do players take turns moving a piece? The pieces (nine per team)
could have a one-minute delay before they can move again, so they have
a more or less even rate of movement.
I think of this as a space war game. The edges of the board would be
dealt with by ..
Anyway, back to a physical game. Maybe that could work.
Here's a neat idea: Use your table, like your dining room or kitchen table,
as the board on which to flick wooden crokinole pieces. With the extra space the problem of different pieces being knocked around is less of an issue. A nice mix of abstract tactics and nailbiter physical moves.
The goal of the game is .. bases? golf-like holes?
But there's still the awkward business of piece A hitting piece B,
but what happens if piece C and maybe piece D are hit, and what are we to
do about the edge of the "board"?
I tried out this "Space War" game using light plastic Reveri/Othello pieces. Good news, good news. It will make its way to the Handmade page some day. The emphasis is more on flicking than abstract tactics. It could be played as a team game, two on two. It is brief. I was expecting it to turn out like Calvinball, with a lot of unresolved issues, but the rules are actually clean and simple. Much of the thrill of the game comes from risky moves, which can turn out nicely or make things a mess. Have you ever seen the scene in The Simpsons where Homer slides through the facility and winds up in Mr. Burns's office?
The game starts out with each side having a square of nine pieces,
numbered two to ten. A piece, "the base", with the number one is behind.
Once the base is hit, you lose. The base can move, although in practise
it doesn't move much. This worked out better than I thought: You take
turns moving your pieces from one to ten, in order, making everything fluid.
I tried this game - now called Chase the Base - and was excited about it, but I've since cooled toward it. You flick your pieces back and forth and capture pieces, you take turns knocking each other over the head, then someone wins. It's very brief, the pieces are canalised with no outflanking, and there is minimal chasing of bases. In spite of appearances you don't get thinky tactics.
What about a bigger table? A bigger table is just a bigger table. What about using the floor? Now we're getting somewhere. Some brief experimentation showed that pieces get spread out in separate struggles.
I'll post a link to a work in progress page for Chase the Base.
Photos will be slooww.
I like the light plastic Reversi/Othello pieces. I'll work with my
friend to figure out getting white numbers on black pieces. These pieces
can be stuffed in a little bag and given to someone as a present, with rules
printed out and/or obtained from the website.
When a piece goes off the table that piece is out of the game.
With the game being played on the floor .. well it turns out there will be
Calvinball after all.
Matsimus, a British Army veteran, is very much Canadian now. If you're interested in military matters the whole channel is worth looking at, and perhaps supporting.
He has video regarding armoured tactics. Tactics have always interested me, but they are surprisingly hard to come by.
I did not know that.
Mr. Bourdain has other videos regarding Canada. He was especially fond of Quebec.
Will somebody get this big walking carpet out of my way?
black duck