Agon

Opening Position

Alternate Names

Queen’s Guard, Queen's Guards, Royal Guard, Guard, Advance and Retreat, Tournament

No. of Players

Two

Equipment

An Agon board, one each of black and white “queen” counters and six each of black and white “guard” counters are required for play.

History

Agon may be the oldest board game played on a hexagonally-celled board, first appearing in France as early as the late eighteenth century. One source states that Adam Vaugeois may have copyrighted this game around 1780. The game reached its greatest popularity a century later in the Victorian era when it was embraced it for its blend of simple rules and complex strategy.

Objective

The winner is the first player to attain the position of black’s counters shown below: the Queen in the center hexagonal cell, surrounded by her six guards.

A Victory for Black

Play

Counters are placed in the opening position shown above. Each player moves one of her own counters per turn. Any counter may move to an adjacent vacant cell. Any movement, however, must be sideways to a cell of the same color or inwards to a cell of the opposite color, but never backwards toward the perimeter. Only a queen may obtain the center position. Counters may not jump or pass other counters.

If a counter moves to a cell where there is a single opposing counter between it and a friendly one and all three counters are now in the same ring, then the enemy counter is trapped. A trapped guard counter must, on the next move, be placed on any empty cell in the outer ring whereas a trapped queen counter must move to any vacant cell on the board. The player whose counter is captured must use his next turn to relocate the captured piece. A player cannot relocate a counter and move a counter in the same turn.

If a counter moves between two enemy counters, it also gets trapped (in some versions of the game’s printed rules, this move is not allowed). It is possible that a player may capture more than one opposing counter in a single move by moving into a position that simultaneously traps multiple counters. Must they be in a straight line, or just adjacent along a hexagonal ring, i.e. can three opposing counters be captured in a single move that "round a bend"?

If more than one counter becomes trapped as a result of their enemy’s move, that player must then take two turns to move both trapped counters back to the outer ring. If the Queen and a Guard are trapped at the same time, then the Queen must be moved first.

A player forfeits the game if he leaves the center hexagon empty but surrounds it with all six of his guards, as neither player may now obtain the objective.

Variations

Instead of using the opening position described above, players can enter their counters one at a time to any vacant position on the outer ring of board before commencing normal play. Here, the queen must be entered first and sometimes the rules state the the queens must be entered at exact opposite ends of the board.

Sources

1. Provenzo, Asterie Baker and Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr. Play It Again, Historic Board Games You Can Make and Play. Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1981. ISBN 0-13-683367-5

2. Botermans, Jack. The Book of Games: Strategy, Tactics & History. Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., 2008. ISBN 978-1-4027-4221-7