Chess Fever

So, I have to throw some praise in the direction of my friend (and frequent commenter here), FKL. One of the last games I had to play to complete my "play all my board games this year" challenge was one he designed, Proteus.

Nominally, it's a chess variant. In reality, it's really a strategy game with very different elements at play; it just happens to use the movements of chess pieces as an easy access point for the gameplay. You do play on a chess board; each side has 8 pieces instead of 16. Your pieces are six-sided dice with a different chess piece on each side (though a unique piece, "pyramid," is substituted for the king).

You begin with eight pawns. Pieces move as they do in chess. When it's your turn, you must move one die, then rotate a different die to show a new chess piece -- moving it either up one rank or down one rank in value. When you capture your opponent's pieces, you score points according to the value of the piece at that time. (Pyramids can't be captured.)

I really wish I had more occasion to play two-player games, because this one would definitely make it into regular rotation for me if it did. It just has really clever strategy at play. Sudden threats to your pieces can materialize instantly, not only by the standard chess moves you might be used to, but by a sudden morphing of one die into a piece that moves differently.

The game I played (with Sangediver) had a lot of back and forth, with each of us having moments of apparently having a dominating upper hand. Each of us made moves that had the other (and our small crowd of spectators) stopping to say, "wow, that was an impressive move." The game just lends itself to these strategic realizations.

So, thanks for the fun, FKL! Perhaps not coincidentally, it's also the last game I have left to play that I expect to actually enjoy. (Of the few games remaining, it can only be said that I most certainly did not save the best for last.)