ECKE

Copyright (c) 2004 Charlie Foxtrot

This game is played on the following 8x8 square board:

 

PIECES - There are four different pieces. Each one slides any number of empty cells in the allowed directions which are: 1s - North and east 2s - North and west 3s - South and west 4s - South and east I used numbers to relate the pieces to the four quadrants of a Cartesian plane. That way, it's easier to remember the different move ranges. TURNS - At each turn, each player may: Move a stone. Spawn (i.e., drop) a new stone on an empty cell from an existing stone The spawned stone must be in the moving range of the existing stone and 1s spawn 3s, 2s spawns 4s, 3s spawns 1s and 4s spawns 2s. GOAL - A player loses if he cannot move.

 

An example The next player has a winning move. He spawns a 3s from the 1s at a2. After that there's no valid move in the board.

My opinion is that 8x8 board is too big for the standard rule-set. Games with more tactics than strategy should avoid taking too long to keep the players interest. I would say that a 6x6 board should be enough to appreciate the fine points of this game. 

There is a ZRF to play Ecke with Zillions. It includes some nice NIM-ish variants, like the following: Start with one 3s at the top-right cell (and 3s can only spawn 3s). Wins the player that made the last move. Here is one puzzle:

An example Next player wins in 8 moves.