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Titel: Dvonn Ontwerp: Krim Burm Tekeningen: Producent: Don & Co NV Aantal spelers: 2 Leeftijd: 9+ Speelduur: 30 minuten |
Dvonn
Spelmateriaal: 1 spelbord, 23 witte stukken, 23 zwarte stukken, 3 rode stukken. |
Introductie: Probeer zoveel mogelijk stukken te controleren door ze op elkaar te stapelen. De speler die de meeste stukken controleert wanneer er geen zet meer mogelijk is, wint het spel.
Voorbereiding: De speler die mag beginnen krijgt 2 rode en 23 witte speelstukken. De andere speler krijgt 1 rode en 23 zwarte speelstukken. Het spel bestaat uit 2 fases. De eerste fase is het opzetten, de tweede fase is het stapelen.
Fase 1: Om beurten plaatsen de spelers een stuk op het nog lege bord. De spelers moeten eerste de rode stukken plaatsen en daarna de stukken van hun eigen kleur. Een stuk moet altijd op een leeg veld geplaatst worden. Deze fase is voorbij, zodra het hele bord is gevuld en de spelers (dus) geen stukken meer over hebben.
Fase 2: De speler die fase 1 begon, begint ook fase twee. Om beurten voeren de spelers hun beurt uit. Als een speler geen zet kan doen, moet hij een beurt overslaan.
Een spelbeurt: Om beurten verplaatsen de spelers een stapel stenen. In het begin zijn alle stapels 1 hoog, maar dit verandert in de loop van het spel. De stapel moet altijd in een rechte lijn worden verplaatst en wel precies zoveel velden als het aantal stenen dat zich in de stapel bevindt. Een speler mag alleen een stapel verplaatsen waarbij zijn eigen kleur bovenop ligt. Een rood stuk kan dus alleen verplaatst worden als het zich ergens onderin een stapel bevindt. Tevens mag de stapel niet volledig omsingeld zijn door andere stapels. Dat betekent dat bij aanvang alleen de stukken aan de rand van het bord verplaatst kunnen worden. Een stapel mag nooit op een leeg veld eindigen, maar moet altijd bovenop een andere stapel gaan staan.
Verloren stukken: Alle stapels moeten in contact blijven met de rode stukken. Stukken die niet meer in contact staan met een rood stuk, worden direct van het bord verwijderd.
Einde: Het spel eindigt als geen van beide spelers meer kan zetten. De spelers tellen nu alle stukken in de stapels waarvan het bovenste stuk van hun eigen kleur is. De speler met de meeste stukken wint het spel.
Waardering: Dvonn maakt deel uit van de Gipf serie. Het spel zit weer ingenieus in elkaar. De regels zijn simpel, maar het is erg lastig om te winnen. Er komen ontzettend veel aspecten kijken bij de strategie van dit spel. Als je van abstracte spellen houdt, mag dit spel zeker niet in je verzameling ontbreken. Top.
Opmerking: Dit is het eerste spel uit de serie dat niet een zeskantig bord heeft. Het bord lijkt op een uitgereikte zeskant. Hier was ik in eerste instantie enigszins teleurgesteld over, maar na eenmaal het spel gespeeld te hebben, vergeet je dat direct.
Als je het spel voor de eerste keer speelt, zal fase 1 niet zo belangrijk zijn. Je kunt het in feite willekeurig opzetten als je er maar voor zorgt dat beide spelers ongeveer evenveel stenen langs de rand van het bord hebben. Naarmate je het spel vaker speelt, blijkt fase 1 een belangrijk onderdeel van het spel te vormen.
Strategie: In de Gipf discussielijst heeft Alan Kwan een aantal voorstellen gedaan voor terminologie ten behoeve van strategische discussies. Hieronder volgt zijn engelse tekst. Inmiddels zijn er diverse op- een aanvullingen gedaan. Wellicht dat er in de toekomst een complete lijst zal verschijnen. De terminologie geeft goed aan wat er belangrijk is in het spel.
Melee - There are two primary aspects to the strategy of DVONN. One is "melee", the mobility race. It involves mainly the
neutralizing and blocking of the opponent's young (low and mobile) stacks, and the unleashing of your own. In the early stage of phase 2, when there are lots of young stacks on the board providing lots of move options for the players, melee is usually one's primary strategic concern; in this stage, old (tall and less mobile) stacks are often not as useful as young stacks, since the stacks are still quite likely to change hands in the future. One's objective in melee is to eliminate the opponent's "melee strength" (mobility) while preserving his own. Marked success in melee may lead to a "melee victory".Settlement - The other aspect to DVONN strategy is settlement.
As play progresses and mobility is lost as young stacks either age or get neutralized, the settlement aspect gains growing importance since there are fewer possible moves and the end-of-game positions become more predictable. When this happens in one part of the board around a DVONN piece being more or less isolated from the rest of the board, this is called a local settlement; the last few moves of the game is called the global settlement. From the perspective of settlement, it is the control of older stacks at specific locations which is most important. A local settlement is vulnerable to intrusions, so the player has to stay on guard. One's objective in settlement is to end up with better payoff - that is the victory condition of the game!Payoff - The "payoff" of a settlement refers to the relative
count of the number of pieces in the forseen end-of-game position. For example, if white stacks contain 12 pieces and black stacks contain 7 pieces in a local settlement, it gives white a +5 payoff. The payoff of the global settlement is the victory condition of the game.Melee Strength - A synonym for "mobility". The movement
options open to your stack(s), and the usefulness of those moves, especially towards neutralizing your opponent's melee strength. (Yes, this is a circular definition.)Coastal Stack - A stack with at least one adjacent space vacant.
Inland Stack - A stack surrounded on all six sides. Such a stack
cannot move until unleashed.Young Stack - A low stack with many useful possible moves,
providing good melee strength.Old Stack - A tall stack with few or no possible moves,
providing good settlement payoff for the player who controls it. In the melee stage, it is often better to disarm or immobilize an old stack (while neutralizing a young stack with the same move), than to take it over (and age a young stack of yours into an old stack).Unleash - To enable an inland stack to move by vacating one of
the spaces adjacent to it.Control - The concept of control over a certain stack includes
both its current ownership and the availability of stacks which can move onto it. (This is similar to the concept of controlling a square in Chess.) Control over old stacks is the key factor in settlement. However, having more control than your opponent over a tall stack doesn't necessarily guarantee that you're going to score its payoff: if you have fewer moves than your opponent, you may be forced to waste all your controls before your opponent plays his.Local Dominance - To have much stronger control within a local
region than the opponent. The opponent should avoid moving things carelessly into the region, because that can often lead to unfavorable payoff. Local dominance around a DVONN piece can be a useful advantage. OTOH, having your local dominance eliminated by cut-off is often disastrous.Neutralize - Landing on top of an enemy stack, so that your
opponent gets one less stack to play with. The predominant move in DVONN.Blockade - To shut out a certain edge section of the board, so that
you lock a number of enemy stacks (especially young ones) inland behind a line of coastal pieces of yours. This way, it becomes harder for your opponent to unleash those stacks. The "depth" of a blockade refers to the difficulty of unleashing the blocked stacks (which is usually from another side). Keep in mind that single DVONN pieces can be used to make up part of a blockade line (since you can't move them). Beware that a blockade (or encirclement) can become useless if it is too far away from a DVONN piece, because it can be threatened by cut-off ...Encirclement - To completely encircle a group of
enemy stacks inland, so that they can't move at all until you unleash them (or he is able to breach the encirclement), which is sometimes never. A complete blockade of maximum depth. Massive encirclement is hard to achieve against a good player, but it can easily happen if an experienced player plays to the best of his ability against a novice, leading to a clear melee victory ...Breach - To break through a blockade or encirclement by
taking over one of the coastal blocking stacks. The breach can be successful if the opponent cannot neutralize or immobilize the breaching stack without unleashing one of the blocked stacks.Intrusion - To leap a stack onto a critical spot over from another
section of the board, so as to turn around the payoff of a local settlement or to breach a blockade or encirclement, or even to do a lifting move. Sharpshooting is often a pre-requisite.Sharpshooting - The concept of manipulating the height of a stack
so that it can land precisely on a critical space. It's a matter of counting and one-digit addition. Notice that this doesn't necessarily mean putting your own stacks atop one another - the best sharpshooting moves are moves which also neutralize. To counter a sharpshooting move is called "spoiling".Evacuation - The concept of preventing an opponent's stack from
making a certain move by moving your stack away from the target space which it can land on.Disarm - A disarmed stack is one which can move only onto friendly
stacks; such a stack loses most of its melee strength. Disarming is the melee tactic of rendering an opponent's stack less useful by evacuating all your stacks from the spaces it can move to. This is useful, but not as good as immobilizing the stack entirely or cutting it off, as it can still contribute some control to settlement, or it can help in sharpshooting. A disarmed stack is especially vulnerable to cut-off threats: moving it away before it is removed often does its owner little good. It is sometimes advantageous to sharpshoot your aging stack at an inland enemy stack, because the inland stack can't evacuate; you can then neutralize the enemy stack as soon as your opponent unleashes it. The primary reason that you should avoid placing too many of your pieces together in phase 1 is because they are easily disarmed that way.Immobilize - An immobilized stack is one which cannot legally move
because all target spaces are vacant. Immobilizing is the tactic of rendering an enemy stack unable to move by evacuating all spaces it can move to. An immobilized stack provides no melee strength, although its ownership gives a small edge in settlement.Overload - To spoil a move or prevent a lifting move by moving
atop the enemy stack. Even if the opponent has enough control to retake the stack, he cannot move it because it has become taller.Cut Off - To cause a stack or stacks to be removed by cutting off
their connection to the DVONN pieces. As mentioned in the rules, sometimes massive cut-offs are possible.Lifting - Causing a dramatic change to the board position in connection with the cut-off rule by moving either a DVONN piece, or a stack close to a DVONN piece. Watch out for intrusions against low DVONN stacks or adjacent stacks; try to keep some control over those spots.
End Trap - A situation like diagram 4 in the rules, where a player is forced to make a lifting move which hurts his own payoff.
One-Man Show - The situation in the endgame where one player runs out of moves early and his opponent gets to make a series of moves. A result of a melee victory.
Melee Victory - Winning the game by excelling in melee against your opponent, so that you end up with significantly more melee strength than your opponent. This allows you to run a one-man show, leaving your opponent no chance to play for settlement. In extreme cases, a wipeout victory can result.
Wipeout Victory - Winning by wiping out all enemy stacks. An "N-to-zero" win. Usually the consequence of a large melee victory. Not unusual if a good player plays to the best of his ability against a novice ...
Conflicting Stacks - Two coastal stacks in opposing colors of same height spaced as many spaces apart as their height. Thus, the stack which moves first can go atop the other. This can be a key move in some cases.
Waiting Game - A settlement situation where the player who can wait longer (and thus make the last moves) will be able to get better payoff. Because in DVONN you can aggressively eliminate enemy mobility with your moves, unlike Othello, the waiting game does not necessarily occur every game, nor does it occur until a very late stage, so (until then) make every move count! (As we know, GIPF project games are typically very 'aggressive' and don't favor 'leisure moves'.)
Enkele aanvullingen door ontwerper Kris Burm:
Weak Stack - a disarmed stack that risks to get cut off.
Weak Cluster - A group of stacks without a DVONN piece that risks the get
cut off.Amputation - A move you make through which you lose one of you own stacks or
through which you clearely lose more stacks yourself than your opponent. Most of the times an amputation concerns just one weak stack that is linked to other stacks with only stacks of your own color. At a certain moment you may want to amputate that weak stack, rather than jumping with it atop of one of you own stacks and, by doing so, weaking its melee strenght. When amputating a weak cluster the reasons may be: (a) that your opponent - in spite of having fewer stacks in the cluster - has local dominance, (b) to immobilize an opponent's stacks that contains a DVONN-piece (i.e. to prevent him from moving it to the cluster), or (c) to avoid unfavorable payoff, (i.e. to avoid that you must move an old stack to another area and onto a stack that is controled by your opponent).