Abalone
Shove six of your opponent's marbles off the board before they do it to you.
Who it's for
Two people who like a clean abstract game with no luck, such as chess night with a physical, tactile board. Looks lovely on a shelf, too.
Not for you if…
You want a themed game, a group game or anything with chance. This is pure two-player positional pushing.
Vibe's take
A quiet tug of war where one careless move near the edge costs you a marble. Pushes are simple to see, but the position slowly tightens until someone cracks.
About this game
Abalone is a duel on a hexagonal board of glass marbles. Two teams face each other, and on your turn you slide a line of one, two or three of your own marbles one space in any of six directions. If your line is longer than the opposing line it meets, you shove it along, and push six of the enemy marbles off the edge to win. That is the whole game, yet it plays like a slow wrestling match: you build solid columns, hunt for weak edge marbles, and keep your own formation tight. It won a French game design award in 1988 and still looks great on a table.
Get it
Categories
By the numbers
Players
Duration
30 min
Ages 8+
Complexity
2.1 / 5 — LightBGG Rating
6.2/10
Rank #2,191
8.5k ratings
Published
1987
Designed by
Laurent Levi, Michel Lalet
Published by
asmodee, Hasbro, Korea Boardgames, Rebel Sp. z o.o., Lifestyle Boardgames Ltd and 29 more
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