Agon (game)

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Agon game board with initial setup. In this illustration, guardians are marked as circles, queens as hexagons and the throne as a star.

Agon (also known as Queen's Guard , Queen's Guards , Royal Guards ) is a strategy game for two players and is played on a 6³ hexagonal playing field.

It is possible that Agon is one of the oldest board games played on a hexagonal playing field. The game first appeared in France in the late 18th century. The game was best known a century later in Victorian Great Britain, where it was popular for its simple rules and yet complex strategy.

Style of play

Each player has a queen and six guardians. Both players agree on whoever starts, after which the game continues alternately. In each round it is possible for a player to move one of his game pieces. The aim of the game is to move your own queen to the central space (the throne) and surround her with her six guardians.

Trains

The game board can be thought of as a series of concentric rings made of hex squares (marked by alternating colors). Each pawn moves one step per round. The movement can either take place sideways in your own ring or on the next ring and thus closer to the throne. To do this, the field that is to be entered must be empty. The throne field can only be entered by the queen.

Hitting the game pieces

A playing piece is considered captured when it is surrounded on both sides in a straight line by opposing pieces. The player of the captured piece must then use his next move to move the captured piece:

  • If the captured figure is a guard, the player must place the figure on a free space of his choice on the outer ring.
  • If the captured piece is the queen, the player must place it on any free space with the exception of the throne.

If more than one piece is captured within a turn, the respective player must move all pieces within a turn. If one of the captured pieces was the queen, it must be moved first. Defeated guards can be moved in any order.

Further rules

  • If a player surrounds an empty throne space with his guards, no player is able to win the game, so that this player loses the game.
  • It is not allowed to move a pawn to an empty space if the target space is surrounded by two opposing pawns in a straight line.
  • If a player touches one of his pieces, it must also be played. Otherwise the train is discarded.

Variations

In one variant, the game begins with only two queens on the opposite corners of the playing field. The players then place their guardians one after the other on any free space (with the exception of the throne). As soon as all twelve guards are placed on the field, normal game rules continue.

Publications

  • Eugene Provenzo's book Favorite Board Games You Can Make and Play contains detailed gives detailed plans for making Agon sets. Versions of Agon are published by Waddingtons Games , House of Marbles and Kruzno.

See also

Remarks

  1. ↑ Another rule is described in The Way to Play : The owner of the captured queen must place it on a free space of the opponent's choice (page 35).

literature

  • Bell, RC: Board and Table Games From Many Civilizations . Ed .: Oxford University Press. 1st edition. tape 2 . Dover Publications Inc, London 1969, ISBN 0-671-06030-9 , pp. 61-63 .
  • Bell, RC: The Boardgame Book . Exeter Books, 1983, ISBN 0-671-06030-9 , pp. 40-41 .
  • Parlett, David: The Oxford History of Board Games . Oxford University Press Inc., 1999, ISBN 0-19-212998-8 , pp. 146-147 .
  • Ruth Midgley: The Way to Play . Ed .: Diagram Group. Paddington Press Ltd, 1975, ISBN 0-8467-0060-3 , pp. 34-35 .
  • Provenzo, Eugene: Favorite Board Games You Can Make and Play . Dover 1990, ISBN 0-486-26410-6 .

Web links