EPAMINONDAS 

Copyright (c) 1963 Robert Abbott

This game began life as "Crossings". Invented in 1963, the rules were first published in Sid Sackson's "Gamut of Games" in 1969. At that time, the was played on an 8 x 8 checker board. When the game was revised & published in 1975, the board was increased to a 12 x 14 grid. [...] The game is named after Epaminondas, the Theban Leader who invented the phalanx. He used the formation to defeat the Spartans in 371 B.C. [taken from www.members.iex.net/~rfinn/gameshlf/abstract/espnim/epanim.htm]

Epaminondas is a two player game played on a 12x14 square board. This is the initial setup:

 

PHALANX - A Phalanx is an unbroken line of one or more friendly stones on any orthogonal or diagonal direction. A Phalanx may have friendly or enemy neighbors, there are no restrictions on its adjacent cells. MOVE - Stones move on phalanxes forward or backward along its length. The move range is up to the number of stones on the Phalanx. Phalanxes never move sideways! A single stone is a Phalanx of size 1, and so can move to any adjacent cell. CAPTURING - If a Phalanx encounters, while its moving, a smaller enemy Phalanx, the latter is captured and removed from the board. The capturing Phalanx stops on the cell where was the first enemy captured stone. GOAL - Wins the player that at the beginning of his turn, has more stones on his last rank, than the opponent has.

 

Some examples Black has two major Phalanxes, one diagonal and one horizontal. If Black moves to cell [2] (preparing a stronger attack against the White diagonal), he can suffer an attack from the stronger horizontal White Phalanx on the right (and so loose all 3 stones). He then must move the lower stone to [1] in order to defend his position.

There is a ZRF to play Epaminondas with Zillions Epaminondas can also be played at Richard's Rognlie's game server. Check here! There is an hexagonal variant called Heximinondas.

There is also a similar new game (July 2000) called Force, designed by Chris Huntoon. When reaching last rank, the stone is promoted and the goal is to reduce the opponent's army to less than two stones, or promote two of his own stones. There is a ZRF to play Force with Zillions.

A mix with Abalone is Abanondas:

Like Epaminondas but phalanxes may also make 1-step orthogonal/diagonal sideslips//orthogonal sidesteps, provided all target cells are empty. Diagonal phalanxes can only make orthogonal sideslips.

Game sample:
                               ooo          xxx
. . o o o o o o . . . .  1. g1.g2 - g4    l14.k15 - l12
. . . . . . . . . . . .  2. g3.g4 - f3    l12.l13 - k11
. . . . . . . . . . . .  3. f1.f4 - f3    j14 - k13
. . . . . . . . . . . .  4. f3.f6 - e3    k11.k15 - j10
. . . . . . . . . . o .  5. e2.e6 - d3    j10.j15 - j7
. . . . . . . . . x o .  6. k1.h1 - f1    j7.j12 - i6
. . . . . . . . . x o .  7. d2.d7 - c3    i6.i11 - i2:2
. . . . . . . . . x o .  8. l2.j2 - i2:1  b14.c15 - a13
. . . . . . . . . x o .  9. l1.k2 - i4:1  i5.i7 - i4:1
o . . . . . . . . x . . 10. i2.j2 - k2    i3.i6 - j4
o . . . . . . . . . . . 11. g1.h2 - j4:1  j5.j7 - j10
o . . . . . . . . . . . 12.    k2 - j1    j8.j10 - i9
o . . . . . . . . . . . 13. j1.j4 - j5    i14.i15 - i12
x . . . . . . . . . . . 14. c2.c8 - b3    b15 - c15
. . x x x x . . x x . . 15. b2.b9 - a10   i9.i13 - j9
                        16. a1.a10: a13:3 b14.h14 - a14
a b c d e f g h i j k l 17. ...(capturing 6 times )
                        23. i4.j4         g15.h15 - j15
                        24. j8.j4 - k9   j9.j13 - j6
                        25. b1.f1 - g1   resigns  

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