Andantino

Andantino

Deconstructed by: William Avery

Andantino is an abstract strategy game that appears to be a fusion of "Go" and "Connect Four", with a few miscellaneous rules tossed in here and there. It can be played on an actual board or very easily on paper, the only downside to the latter being that the hexagons drawn by human hands are significantly more confusing that the normal game piece.

Goal: The goal of Andantino is simple: win one of two ways. First, the player can either line up five hexagons of their color in a straight, undisturbed line, or second, the player can completely surround a hexagon of the opponent's color on the board.

Action: Players my place/draw only one hexagon (of their color, either black or white) onto the board per turn.

Space of the Game: On a board, the space of the game is entirely dependent on the size of the board purchased; on paper, the space of the game is nearly infinite, depending on how large the hexagons are drawn.

Objects: Hexagonal pieces/drawing; unlimited in number.

Attributes: Color of the hexagon, either black or white depending on the player playing the piece.

State: Empty space (starting state), unconnected tile (end of first turn only), adjacent to two or more tiles (a majority of moves in the game; the only legal move), five in a row (first winning state; if "true", whichever player owns the row's color is the winner), surrounded tile (second winning state; if "true", whichever player owns the tiles that have surrounded a tile of the opposing color is the winner)

Rules: Andantino is played by two players who take turns placing a single hexagonal tile onto the game board once per turn. The first tile, which will always be played by the player whose color is "white", may be played anywhere, and the second tile, always played by the player whose color is "black", must be placed adjacent to one of the sides of the first piece. Each player's pieces played thenceforth must be adjacent to at least two other tiles. Victory is attained by the player who either lines of five of his or her pieces in an undisturbed row or surrounds a tile owned by the opponent.

Skills taught by this game: In my experience with the game, there's only so much that proper planning and strategy can really get you, as both of the methods of victory are very easy to predict and disturb. There is also a massive handicap placed upon the player whose color is "black", as statistically the player who goes first wins 92.5% of the time. Really, victory is attained by either besting your opponent in the ability to pay attention to the strategic positioning of every piece on the board as it grows larger and larger, or distracting them.