YORKTON - This week we shift back to the well-loved area of abstract strategy games with a look at Slyde.
Slyde, by designer Mike Zapawa and from Kanare Abstract is a game for two players – as most abstract strategy games are.
The game is played on either an 8x8 or 10x10 – both included in the set on a reversible board which is a nice bonus.
Players lay out black squares across the white grid so it starts looking like a common checkerboard. A minor gripe is the board looks messy placing so many pieces on a tightly defined area – and it’s just a tad tedious too.
The checkerboard was actually what led to the creation of Slyde.
“I was playing around with the image of a Chess board, randomly swapping around black and white spaces,” explained designer Zapawa via email. “It immediately struck me that there might lead to an aesthetically interesting game -- if only I find a way to prevent cycles. The “fixing” mechanic I settled on is probably the simplest possible solution to that problem, and at that point the game was basically ready! When designing abstracts, a single ‘eureka’ is often all you need.”
One player will try to create the largest black area the other white.
On a turn you move a black piece and mark it (depending on what your goal is) with a disc which basically prevents future moves in those squares. The second minor grip is the tiny discs. A bit larger would have been nice.
Game play however is straight forward, but every move is interesting because it generally helps you, but often aids the opponent too.
A single move – especially late in game can swing fortunes too – particularly on the larger 10x10 board.
The game ends when there are no more legal moves. The player who controls the biggest group (defined by orthogonal connectivity of like-coloured pawns) is the winner. If the two biggest groups are equal in size, the second-biggest groups are compared, and so on.
“Slyde is a game where players compete to form the biggest patch in their own colour -- with one controlling the black pieces and the other: the white empty spaces,” said the designer. “The task is tricky, since the topology of the board is ever changing, and a promising move often helps your opponent as much as yourself! So there are many layers of strategy and tactics to be discovered.”
Zapawa said he went into the creation of the game with no real expectation,or goal in mind.
“Slyde was my first serious game,” he said. “It was the height of the COVID lockdowns in Poland -- I was temporarily out of work and university, so I just clinged to whatever pastime let me retain a sliver of sanity.
“But after a few online play-tests, I started to suspect that I have something pretty good on my hands. So I finally worked up the courage to reach out to Christian Freeling, whose designs I always admired from afar. He liked enough to host it on his MindSports website.
“From there progress was slow, as I eventually moved on to other projects -- but I’m very grateful for the opportunity to publish and humbled by the positive reviews it got especially among Japanese players.”
The experience for Meeple Guilder Trevor and myself was a good one.
Certainly the larger board offers more opportunities. At 8x8 an early lead is difficult to overcome.
In terms of general feel – while very different in many ways – Slyde ‘feels’ much like Othello to me, with the board dynamic changing often.
Now the Kanare Abstract edition here is one of what might be described as a set of four. The games; Trike, Make Muster, heXentafl and Slyde; all to be reviewed in coming weeks) are not mechanically connected beyond being abstract strategy offerings, and are from four different designers, but packaging connects them nicely.
The boxes are stark white with minimal graphics that has them stand out.
The boards are cardboard but substantial, and like Slyde each offers two configurations to explore – huge kudos for that.
Pieces are wood – and while the disks in Slyde are tiny – generally the pieces are very nice.
More on the other games in coming weeks, but Slyde will never go amiss in the collection of an abstract strategy fan, Check it out at kanare-abstract.com/en-ca
