 Basilinda board game | |
| Manufacturers | E.I. Horsman |
|---|---|
| Designers | George Howard Monks |
| Publication | 1890 |
| Genres | Board game |
| Players | 2 |
| Skills | Strategy, tactics |
Basilinda is a board game that was created by George Howard Monks, the author of Halma. Basilinda was first published and manufactured in 1890, by E.I. Horsman, a toy manufacturer from New York. [1] The game originally sold for $1.00 when it was released. [2] [3]
The game consists of a board, a movable partition and movable pieces. Each player has eighteen men, three cannons, and one captain or king. The game board is divided into two parts by the movable partition that is placed across the middle of the board. On each side of the partition, the board is divided into nine spaces, each of which corresponds to a similar space on the other side. The game is played by two people; although three or four may participate.
The game board is placed on a table with the partition in the middle. Players sit on opposite sides of the table, so neither player can see their opponent's side. Each player then arranges six of their men and three cannons in the spaces that belong to them. The individual cannons must occupy a space alone and be pointed towards the partition. The six men are arranged in the spaces not occupied by the cannons. The men may all be placed in one space or distributed accordingly. A signal is given when "all is ready", and the partition is removed. Any men that are found to be in positions that are opposite of the cannons are now considered dead and removed from the board. If the number of men in any one space are less than the number in the opposite space, then those are also declared dead and removed. A cannon opposed to a cannon results in the pieces remaining where they are. Likewise, if the number of men in one space is the same as those in the opposite space, the pieces remain. [4]
Cannons are never removed from the board. After all the dead men have been removed, the partition is again placed on the game board and the process is repeated. Players must always have six men in play, and at the end of each battle, they replace the men who have been eliminated by their opponent, until all of their men are dead. The number of men on the board on each side never exceeds six, but when a player has less than six, he must use all that they have left. When either player loses all their men, they are obligated to use their captain in the men's place. The captain always occupies a space by himself. When the partition is removed, and the captain has been placed opposite the other player's cannon, he is considered dead and the game has been won by the player with the cannon. However, if the captain is not eliminated by the other player's cannon, then he can kill those men who are opposed to him, and gameplay continues until one of the player's captains is killed. [4]
Sternhalma, commonly known as Chinese checkers or Chinese chequers, is a strategy board game of German origin that can be played by two, three, four, or six people, playing individually or with partners. The game is a modern and simplified variation of the game Halma. "Complexity: requires no counting or spelling; even young children can play."
Stratego is a strategy board game for two players on a board of 10×10 squares. Each player controls 40 pieces representing individual officer and soldier ranks in an army. The pieces have Napoleonic insignia. The objective of the game is to either find and capture the opponent's Flag or to capture so many enemy pieces that the opponent cannot make any further moves. Stratego has simple enough rules for young children to play but a depth of strategy that is also appealing to adults. The game is a slightly modified copy of an early 20th century French game named L'Attaque. It has been in production in Europe since World War II and the United States since 1961. There are now two- and four-player versions, versions with 10, 30 or 40 pieces per player, and boards with smaller sizes. There are also variant pieces and different rulesets.
Mak-yek is a two-player abstract strategy board game played in Thailand and Myanmar. Players move their pieces as in the rook in Chess and attempt to capture their opponent's pieces through custodian and intervention capture. The game may have been first described in literature by Captain James Low a writing contributor in the 1839 work Asiatic Researches; or, Transactions of the Society, Instituted in Bengal, For Inquiring into The History, The Antiquities, The Arts and Sciences, and Literature of Asian, Second Part of the Twentieth Volume in which he wrote chapter X On Siamese Literature and documented the game as Maak yék. Another early description of the game is by H.J.R. Murray in his 1913 work A History of Chess, and the game was written as Maak-yek.
Parcheesi is a brand-name American adaptation of the Indian cross and circle board game Pachisi, published by Selchow & Righter and Winning Moves Games USA.
Sorry! is a board game that is based on the ancient Indian cross and circle game Pachisi. Players move their three or four pieces around the board, attempting to get all of their pieces "home" before any other player. Originally manufactured by W.H. Storey & Co in England and now by Hasbro, Sorry! is marketed for two to four players, ages 6 and up. The game title comes from the many ways in which a player can negate the progress of another, while issuing an apologetic "Sorry!"
DVONN is a two-player strategy board game in which the objective is to accumulate pieces in stacks. It was released in 2001 by Kris Burm as the fourth game in the GIPF Project. DVONN won the 2002 International Gamers Award and the Games magazine Game of the Year Award in 2003.
Feudal is a chess-like board wargame for 2–6 players on two or four opposing sides. It was originally published by 3M Company in 1967 as part of its bookshelf game series, and was republished by Avalon Hill after they purchased 3M's game division. The object of the game is to either occupy one's opponent's castle or to capture all of one's opponent's royalty. There are six sets of plastic pieces in three shades each of blue and brown. Each set consists of thirteen mobile figures with differing methods of movement and attack, and a stationary castle piece. The play area consists of four plastic peg boards depicting empty, rough, and mountainous terrain.
Nard is an historical Persian tables game for two players that is sometimes considered ancestral to backgammon. It is still played today, albeit in a different form. As in other tables games, the playing pieces are moved around a board according to rolls of dice. It uses a standard tables board, but has a different opening layout and rules of play from that of backgammon.
Yari shogi is a modern variant of shogi ; however, it is not Japanese. It was invented in 1981 by Christian Freeling of the Netherlands. This game accentuates shogi’s intrinsically forward range of direction by giving most of the pieces the ability to move any number of free squares orthogonally forward like a shogi lance. The opposite is true of promoted pieces which can move backward with the same power.
Hasami shogi is a variant of shogi. The game has two main variants, and all Hasami variants, unlike other shogi variants, use only one type of piece, and the winning objective is not checkmate. One main variant involves capturing all but one of the opponent's men; the other involves building an unbroken vertical or horizontal chain of five-in-a-row.
Judkins shogi is a modern variant of shogi, however it is not Japanese. Credit for its invention has been given to Paul Judkins of Norwich, UK, prior to April 1998.
PÜNCT is a two-player strategy board game. It is the sixth release in the GIPF project of seven abstract strategy games, although it is considered the fifth game in the project. It was released in 2005. PÜNCT won the Games Magazine Best Abstract Strategy game for 2007.
Plakoto (Πλακωτό) is a tables game for two players that is popular in Greece. The object is for the player to bring all 15 pieces around to his or her own home board and then bear them off. The player who bears off all 15 pieces first wins the game. This game is usually played along with two other variants, Févga and Pórtes. Together these three games are called Távli, and are played in sequence usually one after the other. Game is three, five or seven points. A Middle Eastern version of this game is Mahbusa, and the Bulgarian version of Plakoto is known as Tapa and also as Tsillitón (Τσιλλιτόν), in Cyprus. Parlett places Plakoto in the same group as the popular mediaeval game of English, as well as the French games of Tieste and Impérial, the Italian game of Testa and Spanish Emperador.
Banqi or Half Chess, also known as Dark Chess (暗棋) or Blind Chess (盲棋), is a two-player Chinese board game played on a 4×8 grid, or half of the xiangqi board. Most games last between ten and twenty minutes, but advanced games can last for an hour or more. Banqi is a social game, usually played for fun rather than serious competition. A more formal version of Banqi may have evolved into the games Jungle and modern Luzhanqi.
Tock is a board game, similar to Ludo, Aggravation or Sorry!, in which players race their four tokens around the game board from start to finish—the objective being to be the first to take all of one's tokens "home". Like Sorry!, it is played with playing cards rather than dice.
Jacquet is a tables game played on a backgammon-like board and which was once very popular in France and several other parts of Europe. It probably emerged around 1800, but is attested by 1827. In the 20th century it replaced the classic French backgammon equivalent — the game of Trictrac — until Jacquet itself was superseded by Anglo-American games in the 1960s.
Luzhanqi is a two-player Chinese board game. There is also a version for four players. It bears many similarities to Dou Shou Qi, Game of the Generals and the Western board game Stratego. It is a non-perfect abstract strategy game of partial information, since each player has only limited knowledge concerning the disposition of the opposing pieces. Because of the Chinese nature of the game, terms used within the game may vary in translation.
Chase is a board game published by TSR in 1985.
The following is a glossary of terms used in tables games, essentially games played on a Backgammon-type board. Terms in this glossary should not be game-specific, but applicable to a range of tables games.
Long Nardy, also just Nardy, is a Russian tables game for two players. It is also played in Armenia as Long Nardi or Nardi. It probably originated in the historical Persian game of Nard. It requires a tables board, 15 men apiece and two dice.