Games of Towers

ABANDE

Copyright (c) 2005 Dieter Stein

Abande is either player on a 7x7 square board or on a hexagonal board of side 4:

The board is initially empty and each player has 18 stones in reserve.

STACK - A pile up to three stones of either color.

The top stone's color determines ownership.

Piece, here in, means stone or stack.

ABANDE - There is an invariant that must always be satisfied: all pieces on board must be adjacent so that they form a connected single group.

Adjacency means orthogonal or diagonal for the square board.

SETUP - One player drops a friendly stone on a empty cell. This is called the "initiative".

TURN - On each turn, each player must do one of the following actions.

Insert a friendly stone on an empty cell adjacent to any piece.

Move a friendly piece on top of an adjacent enemy piece (provided that the final stack cannot have more than 3 stones).

Stacks can never be split.

A move that would split the board pieces in two or more groups, is invalid.

Move is only allowed after the insertion of the third piece.

If a player has no more pieces in reserve he may pass his turn, if he cannot or does not want to make a move.

GOAL - When both players pass, the game ends.

Every piece not adjacent to an enemy piece is removed from the board.

The remaining pieces add points to their owners (1 point for single stones, 2 points for stacks with 2 pieces, 3 points for stacks with 3 pieces).

The winner is whoever gets more points.

Keep Abande
White's turn. In this position, White can insert a stone adjacent to any piece on board (the dotted cells). He can also move the stone at d2 to c2. But he cannot move the white stone at c3 since it would split the group in two!

Ending the game
Both players passed, so the game ended. There are two pieces that must be removed, one white and one black, since they are not adjacent to any enemy piece (can you find these pieces?).
Then, each player gets points for each one of the pieces he owns. White wins by 18-15.

Dieter has a very nice webpage where you can learn a lot more about Abande (check also the official rules). Check also http://superdupergames.org for online play.

	Keep Abande White's turn. In this position, White can insert a stone adjacent to any piece on board (the dotted cells). He can also move the stone at d2 to c2. But he cannot move the white stone at c3 since it would split the group in two!
	Ending the game Both players passed, so the game ended. There are two pieces that must be removed, one white and one black, since they are not adjacent to any enemy piece (can you find these pieces?). Then, each player gets points for each one of the pieces he owns. White wins by 18-15.