Life In 19x19

Does anybody here play (or, well, know at least) a game called Akron?

I tried it at a juggling convention where some guys were playing experimental/alternative board games, and this one struck me because of its simplicity and elegance. Of course, playing only a few days I couldn't really gauge it's depth, but it definitely didn't seem trivial.

Since the game isn't sold anywhere (that I know of) you pretty much have to craft it yourself. Here's a little website that offers information:

http://members.optusnet.com.au/cyberite ... kron-1.htm

The objective of the game is connecting a line of balls from the two opposing edges of the board that correspond to your color. The fun thing is that at some point you become able to play in another plane, and then another, because 4 stones in a square are able to support a fifth one on top. Those overhead connections "disconnect" whatever enemy balls were below, and connect yours. There is the possibility of moving a ball too, which often triggers a cascade of falling balls (which due to the geometry of the game is never random) so careful reading is often necessary to predict the result.

Let me know if you like it or know more about it than I do =)

Very cute game!

Looks like an interesting game. From the rules:

The moving piece may step up or down one or more levels per move, but it may not take the place of a dropping piece or use a piece that has dropped this turn as a support piece.

Either player may call a draw if the same position recurs two or more times on the same players’ move (one repetition is allowed).

It sounds like they're trying to figure out how to handle the Akron version of a ko. But they haven't quite hit on the elegance of the global ko rule (not allowing the same board position twice).

The reviews are mixed on boardgamegeek.com. It has a few people who think it's great, and a few who aren't so impressed. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10889/akron is the link.

Personally, my favorite connection game is Pointe del Diavolo. It's very fun, and amazing in the way that the rules are nothing like go, but a lot of the strategic concepts carry over.

Then again, Go only gets a 7.76 there, and very few games seem to top 8.0. Given that, I think 7.09 for Akron is pretty good.

I created an account and rated it 10