Early Strategy Games
by Bruce Whitehill
Games, besides being used for education and moral teaching, have been a source of recreation and social interaction for thousands of years. Many of the earliest games were strategy games, usually pitting only two competitors against one another, in a mode of play that benefited little from luck. The classic strategy game of MANCALA, or WARI, which re-emerges every so many years having undergone a change in style or title, is considered to be one of the first board games, around 7000 years old. The game of SENAT, a strategy game whose rules are still being re-invented, was found in 1922 in the tomb of King Tut and is known to be from about 3000 B.C.
The origin of games can be traced back to many countries and continents. CHECKERS, called DRAUGHTS in England, dates back to the 12th century; CHESS was said to have originated either in India in 600 A.D. or China before 200 A.D.; and BACKGAMMON, a variation of a game called TABULA (known in Iceland as CHASING THE GIRLS), goes back to the 1st century. DOMINOES, one of the most widely-played games in the world, is probably Chinese, its origin being between the 1st and 12th centuries; DOMINOES are actually “flattened dice–the early sets of DOMINOES and Oriental versions of the game do not have any blank halves. MAH-JONGG, with its various spellings and different names, had been the favorite game in China for centuries before it was introduced into this country around 1922. The name, “MAH-JONGG,” means “sparrow of a hundred intelligences,” and the game, like DOMINOES, was meant to be played with noisy abandon as players purposefully slapped the hard tiles against one another and against the table top.
A European favorite that at various times had a following in the United States was FOX AND GEESE, which had its origin either in the 12th century or around the year 1300, possibly in Iceland. In this excellent strategy game in which the two competing players have different numbers of playing pieces, the fox must capture enough geese so they cannot surround him, while the sixteen geese try to trap the fox so he cannot move. A good example of how games tell us something about the society from which they emerged is borne out by North American Indians playing this game with pieces representing a coyote and chickens.
It’s not really a strategy game, but because of its history and popularity for centuries, it’s probably worth mentioning here. The GAME OF GOOSE, sent by Francesco de Medic in Italy to King Phillip II of Spain in the 16th century, became one of the most popular games in Europe. Its principles of virtue rewarded and vice punished fit in well with the moral attitudes of the period. The GAME OF GOOSE originated in Europe around 1500, and the earliest known American GAME OF GOOSE was printed in 1851. The morality teachings of this game were mirrored by the earliest American path games, including the MANSION OF HAPPINESS, games of ERRAND BOY and MESSENGER BOY, and the better known SNAKES AND LADDERS, which evolved into the classic CHUTES AND LADDERS of today, losing it’s morality content in the process (the spaces on which the player lands allowing a move ahead or forcing a move back no longer list the vices and virtues responsible for such progress or descent).
Many popular American games can be traced to Africa and to the Orient. The oldest board showing the game of NINE MEN’S MORRIS, a strategy game popular throughout the world for centuries, was found in Egypt. The game, also known as MILL or MORELLES, requires players to first place pieces in succession onto the gameboard, and then to move them into a winning alignment. Another alignment game, GO-BANG, known in Britain also as SPOILS FIVE, was taken from GO-MOKU, which originated in Japan. The game may have been played in the United States long before it received a U.S. patent in 1882. GO, an ancient game still popular in Japan, was introduced to Europe and the U.S. around the 1880s.
PICK UP STICKS was played by European and American children in the 1880s, though the game was then known as JACK STRAWS; the earliest sets often had pieces shaped like farmer’s tools–hoes, rakes, shovels, even wheel barrows–and some sets were made of bone or ivory rather than the usual wood. PICK UP STICKS was one of the first classic “skill and action” games, requiring dexterity in addition to the more-limited strategic thought required to determine which sticks to pick up when. One of the earliest dexterity games, JACKS, the game with a ball and star-shaped metal pieces, was played over 2000 years ago in Greece; it was called KNUCKLEBONES, because the “jacks” were the knuckle bones of sheep.
The GAME OF INDIA, one of the most widely-played games in the world, can be traced to the Korean game of NYOUT from the third century, though it took is present form in India over 1200 years ago. Milton Bradley and a company called McLoughlin Brothers produced the game in the United States around the turn-of-the-century, while in 1896 a similar version was being played in England under the name LUDO. The most famous GAME OF INDIA, however, was patented in this country in 1874 under then name PARCHEESI, and it’s still one of the most popular games today.
Hundreds of games are introduced into the marketplace every year, but most of the games never see a second year of production. Nearly all of them are touted as being “new,” and yet many are nothing more than revisions and variations of games that have been around for ages. One of the most striking examples concerns the popular game of OTHELLO, which won an award for the “best new game” in 1976, yet was in vogue in the United States in the 1950s under the name of REVERSI–the same name it had when it first appeared in the U.S. (via England) in the 1880s.
Early Strategy Games: Playing the Game
by Bruce Whitehill
FOX AND GEESE conforms to the rule that most of the true classic strategy games are two-player games, making each game a one-on-one contest. FOX AND GEESE is a classic import from Europe. Traditional boards were drawn or etched on slate or stone, or carved into wood. One player has one piece, which is the fox, the other player has seventeen pieces, which are the geese. The object is for the geese to trap the fox so that it cannot move, or for the fox to eliminate enough geese so that it cannot be trapped. The fox may move in all directions along the paths, and may jump over one or more geese, removing them from the board; the geese may move in every direction except backwards, and cannot jump over the fox.
GO is a classic strategy game the object of which is to form a straight line (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally) of five adjacent playing pieces by placing the pieces on the intersections of lines. Most desirable versions are played with actual stones on a high quality wood board. Though invented in China, the game has become a favorite with Japanese; traditional Japanese and others are attracted to this game as much for the visual appeal formed by the varying designs of the black and white stones as they are by the intricate strategies involved.
HALMA (see sidebar) is played like CHINESE CHECKERS, but with a maximum of four people. On a checkerboard of 256 squares, pieces are placed on the thirteen squares in each of the four corner areas, called “yards,” or, in a two-player game, the 19 squares in two opposite corners. Players may move a piece one square (called a “step” or “shove”) in any direction, or may jump over a piece of any color, then jump again, as often as the opportunity to do so exists. The first player to get all of his or her pieces in the opponent’s yard is the winner.
MANCALA is one of the oldest games in the world. It’s traditionally played on a wooden board with hollowed out compartments, and with seeds as implements. The object is to capture as many seeds as possible. Three seeds are placed in each of the six holes along both rows (one row belongs to each player). A player removes all the pits from any one of his or her six holes, then sows the pieces by placing one in each hole going counterclockwise around the board. In MANCALA, the end holes (one for each player) are used to sow seeds, whereas in WARI, a common variation, the end holes are merely used for storage of captured seeds. If the last seed sewn by a player is sewn on that player’s side, the player gets another turn. If the last seed is sewn on the player’s own side in an empty pit, the player captures all the seeds in the opposite pit, belonging to the opponent. Captured seeds are placed in the player’s end pit. The game is over when a player has no more seeds in the six pits on his side of the board.
MILL (NINE MEN’S MORRIS) is an alignment game. Traditional patterns of three attached concentric squares were drawn or etched on slate or stone, or carved into wood. The object is for a player to line up three pieces in a row, entitling that player to eliminate one opponent’s piece. Players alternate placing pieces of their color anywhere on the vacant intersections until each has placed nine pieces. Players can then move pieces to adjacent unoccupied spaces. The player who can remove all opposing pieces is the winner.
