Opponents in Blokus block us with blocks used for blocking usable spaces which will be locked from use.
An abstract strategy game is a specific type of Strategy Game built around two main features:
- Abstract: The game has a simple, abstract ruleset from which its complexity emerges. There is little to no theming. While visual flair is allowed, the setup is, at most, an Excuse Plot to contextualize the game itself.Elaboration
- Strategy: The game is largely or entirely dictated by players' plans and decisions. This usually involves the following traits:
- Perfect or near-perfect information. Features like simultaneous actions (which would require you to predict your opponent's action) and hidden information (which you could bluff about) are absent or downplayed. However, note that even perfect information games can still have some level of prediction and bluffing, usually in the form of misdirection (For instance, the poison pawn
in Chess).
- No Dexterity Challenges.
- No challenges that specifically revolve around reflexes (e.g. Jungle Speed). However, it is okay to time the players' turns to keep things moving. This is true even if the timer is so strict that the game revolves around the ability to make good moves fast. (Especially popular in Chess.)
- No in-game information that becomes hidden and needs to be memorized.
- Little or no randomness. If randomness does exist, the game emphasizes how you react to it (Azul, Backgammon), not playing the odds (Blackjack).
- The game being designed for two players, which means no multiplayer politics. Multiplayer examples still exist, however.
- Perfect or near-perfect information. Features like simultaneous actions (which would require you to predict your opponent's action) and hidden information (which you could bluff about) are absent or downplayed. However, note that even perfect information games can still have some level of prediction and bluffing, usually in the form of misdirection (For instance, the poison pawn
Please note that some sites use a stricter definition of the term, especially regarding randomness.
These games appeal to the competitive side of the Casual-Competitive Conflict because they focus on deep gameplay, and randomness has very little or no influence on the outcome. On the other hand, the casual side can easily perceive them as dry due to the lack of variance and substantive theming.
Compare Euro Game and War Gaming for other genres associated with the "hardcore" side of the Casual-Competitive Conflict, but which allow for more theming and complicated rules. Contrast Ameritrash Games for games with an emphasis on theme and randomness instead of deep strategy.
Examples
Real-Life Games- Abalone: You control the black or the white marbles on a hexagonal board. Your goal is to push six of the opponent's marbles off the edge of the board.
- Amazons: Players take turns moving pieces in a straight line on a plain grid, then block off a square that piece could otherwise to. The goal is to out-strategize the competition and be the last player to have a legal move.
- Arimaa: A chess variant designed to be hard for computers to solve while still being intuitively simple and interesting for humans. The theme of animals trying to shove each other around and throw each other into pits in an effort to get their bunny rabbits safely across the field is an Excuse Plot.
- Azul: Players take visible tiles from a shared pool, attempting to collect the best combination for their grid while preventing their opponent(s) from doing the same. Though themed to Portuguese tiling, said theme is light enough to interchange with chocolates seamlessly, and randomness is limited to which set of tiles appear at the start of each round — something very easy to react to.
- Backgammon: A racing game that does have Roll-and-Move, but emphasizes how you react to it.
- Blokus: Players take turns placing pieces of their colour, aiming to control as much of the board as possible.
- Checkers: You have a set of identical playing pieces that move diagonally and can capture opposing pieces by jumping over them.
- Chess: Play is set on a plain grid as players alternate moving pieces in a pre-defined manner. Though pieces bear a slight resemblance to kings, castles, and such, the theming is overall very light.
- Chinese Checkers: Six players race to move solid-colored pieces from their side of the board to the opposite side. A kingmaker scenario, while possible, is minor compared to using pre-defined movements to form optimal paths while denying the same opportunities to opponents.
- Connect Four: Players alternate placing solid-colored disks into a plain grid, trying to outmaneuver the other to create four-in-a-row in any direction.
- Go: Playing pieces are black and white stones on a plain grid. The game always starts on a blank board, with players placing stones, one at a time, on any legal intersection.
- Gomoku and its variants have players take turns placing stones where they wish on a large board, with the winner being first to create five-in-a-row.
- Havannah: On a hex board, players either connect three non-corner edges, two corners, or form a ring containing at least one cell (which may be filled by either player).
- Hex: Players attempt to connect opposite sides of a rhombus-shaped board made of hexagonal cells.
- Hive: A game where you control insects with varying abilities, and try to surround the opponent's queen. The theming is ultimately gratuitous.
- Homeworlds: Pyramid-shaped pieces represent spaceships and stars. You lose if your homeworld is destroyed or left undefended.
- Nim: Two players take turns removing objects from distinct heaps/piles. On each turn, you can remove any number of objects from the same heap, though you must always take at least one. The goal is either to take the last object or avoid taking the last object. Probably more notable for its role in combinatorial game theory than as a game to be played.
- Nine Men's Morris: You aim to place and then move your nine pieces so that you get three in a row, which lets you remove one of your opponent's pieces from the game. When you're down to three pieces, they gain the ability to jump to any vacant spot. Lose another, and you lose.
- Onitama: The setup is randomized - each player is given two move sets to show which moves are available. When a moveset is used, it's exchanged with the one between the two players.
- Othello (a variant of Reversi): You take turns placing disks on an 8x8 board. If any of your opponent's disks are caught in the straight line bounded by the disk just placed and another disk of your color, these opposing disks are turned over to your color. You want to have as many disks as possible once the board runs out of space.
- Patchwork: You try to build the best quilt on your 9x9 game board using the in-game patches. The only randomness is in the initial setup.
- Shōgi: Japanese equivalent of Chess, where players alternate by either moving a piece in a pre-defined manner, or placing a captured piece onto an empty square. Though the pieces are named for war-related things like generals and knights, the theming is extremely light.
- Tafl: The various Norse board games known as tafl (table) games may use theming to explain the two sides (in Tablut, a Sápmi game where the rules are still known, they're "Swedes" and "Muscovites") but actual gameplay is abstract.
- Tic-Tac-Toe: Players alternate placing X's or O's into a 3x3 grid, trying to outmaneuver the other to create three-in-a-row in any direction.
- Xiangqi: Chinese equivalent of Chess. Though the pieces are named for war-related things like generals and cannons, the theming is extremely light.
Fictional Games
- Amphibia: Flipwart is an In-Universe game resembling Chess. While we don't know the exact rules, we do know it's a game for smart people and no chance elements appear when played on-screen.
- The Shockwave Rider had a fictional game known as Fencing, a futuristic version of Dots and Boxes. The objective is to claim points on the board, and then create triangles that do not enclose dots owned by the opponent. The game has a hidden information aspect, as the player also claims a concealed point along with a visible point. It's claimed that perfect play is a guaranteed win for the first player.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation: Strategema, seen in the episode "Peak Performance" is a highly complex strategy game that consists of a holographic projection of coloured squares. Gameplay changes the colour of the squares, and the object is to get the entire field your colour.
