Cascades

Cascades

Designer: William Chang
Type: Abstract
Status: Free
BGG entry: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/27724
Available from: http://www.di.fc.ul.pt/~jpn/gv/cascades.htm

This 2-player game is played on a special hex board, which is described on the games website, along with the initial setup. You will need plenty of stones for each player.

On a player's turn, a stone is dropped on an empty cell, next to and below a stone of the same color. The first player drops one stone on the first turn, then each player drops up to two stones or passes. The player who has the most stones on the bottom row and game end wins.

Some words from the author: For some time now [Apr 16, 2001] I have been toying with the idea of trying to model/abstract the flow of water carving out a mountainside. A related geometric pattern is the fractal on certain seashells. [...] The image in my mind is a root-pattern forming or tributaries of a river. [...] The game generalizes to any MxN board. Without more experience playing and "figuring it out" I don't know how M and N affect playability. My intuition suggests 8x8 (really 8x15 if you measured it at the bottom) is already nontrivial and 10x10 might be "tournament".

This game can also be played online at Super Duper Games.