DVONN

Deep abstract game who gets better after playing more games. This game has more strategy than other games from the GIPF series. I own a HUCH version and, also, I made a [url=https://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/5985939/dvonn]homemade version[/url] using a Flax board and the TZAAR pieces (also three red LYNGK pieces). [i]Handicap house rule: after setup, the stronger player removes a few rings in his color from the outer edge of the board.[/i]

Even more claustrophobic than TZAAR, but with different rules. It's the way pieces can move exactly X spaces, so it's very easy for them to get stuck, and the board shrinks super fast. But controlling the red pieces to keep stacks alive is really cool, and I love how a big stack could easily become the enemy's. Maybe the latter is too easy to read, but I do love the red tokens. I still like it a lot, just not quite as much as the shrinking board of TZAAR (and YINSH is amazing).

My beginner's perspective is that I have ~no idea what to do at the very beginning, but at some point an ever-narrowing path to victory begins to resolve. I especially don't grasp setup, and this sort of drafted setup makes me uncomfortable when I don't know why I want to do certain things. I like trying to "see" first, I like the dramatic swings the game can take, and I like that it isn't too long. I love the victory condition: "each player puts all of the stacks he controls on top of each other. The player with the highest stack wins the game."

Such an incredible game, a pure abstract and one of the best. The component quality isn’t quite what I was hoping for, but it’s crazy to me that this themeless, arguably dull-looking game is so exciting to play. I love the ease of setup and teardown, and the fact that games are so quick. Multiple games in a row are possible even on weeknights. This is also an abstract that we both love and are both equally skilled at, something I can’t say for all our abstracts. DVONN is going on our shelf of fame, and I foresee a ridiculous number of plays in the years to come.

I find this game utterly strange and fascinating. I’m really no good at it, but that won’t keep me from wanting to play it. The old cover art informs my mental image of what’s going on: a rocky landscape breaking up, rivers of lava running between; two players, definitely aliens, send pieces of terrain floating back and forth, building up towers for some reason; the planet is melting and crumbling into itself, but we need to build, we need to climb higher. I don’t know WHY, but I feel the need to do it anyway, and that’s part of what makes this game so interesting to me.