The game of Lines of Action: Rotational Colour Symmetry Variation

 

Much of the excitement about playing abstract connection games with kids has come to me from a simple game called Lines of Action (or LOA). It is a fine thing to see somebody take a culture artefact — a standard draughts board with pieces — and transform it into something else both traditional and elegant that combines the gravitas of Go with a flavour of Renju.

A characteristic property of LOA is that it is a converging game, since the initial position consists of just 24 pieces and during the game the number of pieces usually decreases. Paradoxically, these physical boundaries within the game itself lead to a number of meaningful gameplay variations without changing game mechanics. 

Since its invention LOA has been completely playable on larger boards. Some players prefer the standard board with the Parachute variation by placing one of the opponents pieces anywhere on the board. Also, there is the Four Handed LOA variation, and so on. Unfortunately, it doesn't solve a problem the original setup potentially has, namely the possibility of fixed opening routines -- those that have been identified as "best play" by the strongest players or programs. 

The following variation which we invented is based on the well known Scrabbled Eggs variation where black and white pieces alternate all around the board. 

The Rotational Colour Symmetry Variation is not only inexhaustibly interesting but it is also more challenging introducing broad-ranging regularities across the initial layout where the starting position of the pieces is randomised. 

The following pictures show some examples of starting positions in which the pieces are placed In a symmetrical shape, one-half is the mirror image of the other half. 

In spite of the first impression, this type of setup is well balanced; rotational ,aka ‘radial’ symmetry means that when you rotate something, nothing changes.

Interestingly,  some layouts may put players, yearly in the game, in a position where they have to decide between several conflicting interests, strategies, or tactics.

Should this ever be implemented at littlegolem.net or at boardgamearean.com, I'l be back there playing LOA.

The most common method of simple randomisation is flipping a coin or rolling a dice. If you are a Linux user, you might want to use the following bash script which I wrote a couple of years ago. You can download it by copying the link below…

Rotational Colour Symmetry Setup Generator

The detailed rules of Lines of Action can be found at 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lines_of_Action

We hope that this variation will inspire tons and tons of active playtime. Have a quiet and interruption-free place to play this wonderful state-of-the-art game of balance and observation. Doing that you'll have moments of artistic pleasure and satisfaction.

Afterword