Akiba (game)

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Akiba
Starting grid
Starting grid
Game data
author Serge Cahu
publishing company Fun connection
Publishing year 1994
Art Strategy game
Teammates 2
Duration 20 minutes
Age from 8

Akaba (also Cuba) is a strategy game for two players, which has structural similarities with Abalone and Überbord ( Over Board ). It was developed by Serge Cahu. The Fun Connection publisher launched it in 1994 as a competitor to Abalone (for which the publisher no longer had a license).

Style of play

Is played Akiba with colored glass beads on a abalone-like game board. In contrast to these, the Akiba board is square and has 7 × 7 fields. The board is constructed in such a way that the balls - which lie in round recesses - can easily be pushed individually or in a row to the left or right or forwards or backwards, but not diagonally.

In the starting position there are 8 white, 8 black and 13 red balls on the board. The black and white balls are in groups of four diagonally opposite in the corners. One player owns the white balls, the other the black ones. In the middle are the 13 red balls that you have to conquer for yourself. A ball is considered captured if it was pushed over the edge of the field during a move. The winner is the one who has captured the most red balls.

The pull and push rules are:

  • The players take turns pushing.
  • If someone has captured a red ball, it's their turn again.
  • Only balls of your own color are pushed directly. As a result, however, up to six more balls can move with it.
  • The following applies: The field behind the ball to be pushed must always be free, unless it is on the edge anyway. Unlike abalone, it doesn't matter how many more balls are pushed and what color they are. For example, your own ball can push two red and three opposing balls, these can be mixed up. Your own balls can also be anywhere in the row.
  • Your own balls may not be pushed out, but opposing balls can.
  • If a player's balls are pushed out, they do not count as captured, but are taken out of the game and weaken the playing strength of the corresponding player.
  • If a player pushes a row of balls, the opponent may not push the same row back in the immediately following turn.

reception

The Akiba game was regularly seen as an alternative or an "imitation" of Abalone in the reception , although the way it is played differs significantly from it. It was published by Fun Connection shortly after it lost the distribution rights to Abalone to Schmidt Spiele . According to Knu-Michael Wolf in the spielbox , however, the allegations are unjustified: “Oh yes, and the similarity to Abalone? In fact, they are only external. Even if, like here, balls are pushed over the board and pushed off the edge of the board: Akiba plays completely differently. "

Bernhard Fischer writes on spieletest.at : «Akiba [is] a good alternative to Abalone, especially [for] infrequent players and parents who like to play with their child [...]. However, real tacticians are not offered long-term fun with Akiba, as there are very few strategies that can be developed and [...] becomes quite boring from a certain "level of experience". »

Harald Schrapers writes on gamesweplay.de that Akiba is “a very fast and entertaining game” and starts immediately, “without a lengthy starting strategy. Every mistake can lead to defeat. Because who pushes a [...] ball out, can continue immediately. There are quickly five balls out there […]. So the game is very fast at the beginning. If, on the other hand, both sides act very evenly, there are very few balls left on the board in the end. It can go up to a six to six - then it all depends on one ball. This phase of the game is then a bit tiring. "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.aeiou.de/index.php?nummer=314
  2. ↑ http://www.spiele-check.de/5052-Akiba.html
  3. ↑ jeuxsoc.fr/jeu/akiba.0.1
  4. ↑ a b http://gamesweplay.de/akiba.html
  5. ↑ Rules of the game at www.spielanleitung.com
  6. ↑ Knut-Michael Wolf: Akiba: The square of the hexagon ?. spielbox 4/94, 1994; Pp. 40-41.
  7. ↑ http://www.spieletest.at/spiel.php?ID=232

Web links