Dameo

Dameo

Designer: Christiaan Freeling
Publisher: MindSports
Type: Abstract
Status: Free
BGG entry: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/24698
Available from: http://www.mindsports.net/Arena/Dameo/

From the designer:

'This game owes its existence to Croda, invented by the Croation mathematics professor and Draughts master Ljuban Dedic, and the writing of Draughts Dissected. That investigation was sparked off by what I considered the obvious superiority of Croda to other forms of Draughts. I didn't intend to invent Dameo, it was suddenly there when I realized linear movement was an option here.

Linear movement fuels Bushka. In the process of inventing that game I had considered it as a vehicle for movement in a draughts game. In International Draughts, differences in pace derive from one source only, namely captures. So bringing in a bit of flexibility in these strategic concepts wouldn't hurt. Apart from that it's not hard to see that it would open up a new range of tactics. The reason I didn't do it, is that Draughts is drawish, and introducing linear movement doesn't have any effect on that. Besides it's rather crammed in the opening and I could see forces grinding into interlocking positions, because the direction of movement and capture are the same. This however is not the case in Croda and that makes a big difference in terms of linear movement, because it counteracts, even eliminates, this tendency. That's how Dameo happened, quite unintentionally. It's rules fell into place in less than a minute.

'I consider Dameo to be the most modern and the most rewarding of all draughts variants, because of its use of linear movement, and the additional grounds pointed out in Draughts Dissected.