More or Less

No. of Players

One or Two

Equipment

A More or Less board and 25 counters are required for play. The counters are reversible and show black on one side and green on the other.

History

Created by Arthur Blumberg

Objective

A player wins by having, at the end of their move, either more than 18 or less than 7 counters of their color (their color is facing up) on the board.

Play

One player is Black the other is Green. The game commences with a placement phase. The first player places a counter with their own color facing up at the central position on the board. The second player then places two counters of their color at any two vacant positions on the board. After this, turns alternate with players placing two stones with their own color facing up at any vacant intersection on the board until all counters are placed. Note that the first player will have places 13 stones and the latter will have placed 12 stones.

After all stones are placed

From Kadon Enterprises:

MORE OR LESSTM

...created by Arthur Blumberg

Another brilliant innovation of strategy: having "More" is not the only goal. Win by having more than 18 or less than 7 of your color on top. Jump your piece over others — every jump reverses the pieces jumped over (either player's). Sometimes it pays to reduce your own holdings and go for the "Less" goal. Intense! Striking 17" handcrafted wood board is engraved with intricate decagonal matrix of intersections, an artwork in its own right. 25 reversible wood counters. Two square see-through markers slide along the game name to track turns, a maximum of 12 per game. One or two players, ages 10 to adult.

$65

Movement Phase:

After all stones are placed, opened the second player (the only 12 stones has, in contrast to the first player with 13 stones) the second phase of the game: moving the pieces on the board. For this, "jumps" and jumps, he jumps with one of his stones in the following manner:

Jump train:

given he hops with one of his stones on a stone or an entire series of tiles, as it is from the drafts known: each behind the skipped stone has to be an open field, and can in any direction of the jump then (Directional change is permitted, but only after the stone has been rebuilt); Skipped stones may belong to the opponent or the player!

The double strategy - instead of especially many better to have very few own playing stones - is conditional, that sometimes it is useful to skip even own stones.

Below the target stone:

Each skipped stone unturned-it will therefore change its color, is now no longer the former owner, but the respective other players. This means that a skipped stone belongs to the opponent! In contrast to the dame game, this game technique is related to the famous Othello game.

No jump compulsion:

Unlike the drafts you are not obliged to jump, or you can end the series jump anywhere, even if more jumps are possible. In this way, a very free selection of the gimmicks and thus an individual game strategy is possible.

Field return:

It is permitted to occupy in the course of a train a field several times, but not more than twice!

Sliding train:Besides the possibility of jump-train you can also choose a sliding train to initially achieve the target stone you want to skip. In the case of a sliding train, you can move up to the target stone (red line) along the empty fields in a straight direction and come to a standstill on an empty field adjacent to the target stone (see figure on the right).

Now, in the same turn, the target stone is skipped in any direction, and the game block is placed on the empty field directly behind it (blue line).Also here the skipped stone is now turned over and thus changes the owner! Thus, the sliding train is terminated: no further train continuation is permitted, ie no "forwarding" or jumping!

Warning: up to special rather "theoretical" positions, at least one of the two possible moves should always be present, ie a stalemate-like case in chess is extremely unlikely!(Consider it as a thinking puzzle to build such a position on the board where one of the players can not bet).

Note: When you jump-train any number of jumps allowed, but always with an empty field between the stones. In the case of the sliding train, any number of empty fields are permitted in front of the target stone, but only one jump is permitted. In both cases, the pull direction can change in the meantime: in the case of a jump train after each partial jump, in the case of a sliding train after the "sliding" operation!

Marker (meter):

If a player has his train stopped, he moved his small square "marker" one space in the chain "MORE OR LESS" (beginning with "M").

Match-end:

If no one reaches the game goal before both players have occupied the last place with their markers, the player who has fewer pieces of his own color on the board wins! In other words, a game finishes at the latest with the 12th turn, so the players may have to switch their strategy very early on to this goal, or to prevent the opponent from doing so.

Others:

    • Bounce trains are prohibited along the edge of the board, since this is not a straight line.

    • The game practice shows that changing the target "parameters" 18 or 7 tiles does not make the game more interesting.

Notes on Strategy:

Try to occupy the border fields if you target is located on the "More": in which case the opponent can not skip! Set your stones so that they do not block themselves, so you always have a free choice of train. Always check whether the opponent can win directly after your move, whether it is by a sufficient number of moves, or by one of the possible glide trains. It helps to always have the number of own stones in the head.

Rules translated by Kate Jones and Frank Rehm.

We thank Frank Rehm for his gracious help in editing this translation.

Strategy

Variations

Sources

  1. Kadon Enterprises, Inc. Rules (in German). http://www.gamepuzzles.com/mlgerman.htm