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Breakthrough (board game)

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Abstract strategy board game This article is about Breakthrough, the board game. For Breakthru, the board game, see Breakthru (board game). For other uses, see Breakthrough (disambiguation).
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8a8 black pawnb8 black pawnc8 black pawnd8 black pawne8 black pawnf8 black pawng8 black pawnh8 black pawna7 black pawnb7 black pawnc7 black pawnd7 black pawne7 black pawnf7 black pawng7 black pawnh7 black pawna2 white pawnb2 white pawnc2 white pawnd2 white pawne2 white pawnf2 white pawng2 white pawnh2 white pawna1 white pawnb1 white pawnc1 white pawnd1 white pawne1 white pawnf1 white pawng1 white pawnh1 white pawn8
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Initial position.

Breakthrough is an abstract strategy board game invented by Dan Troyka in 2000 and made available as a Zillions of Games file (ZRF). It won the 2001 8x8 Game Design Competition, even though the game was originally played on a 7x7 board, as it is trivially extensible to larger board sizes.

Rules

The board is initially set up as shown on the first diagram. To play the game on a different-sized board, just fill the two front and two back rows with pieces; the board need not be square.

Choose a player to go first; then play alternates, with each player moving one piece per turn.

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8b6 black crossc6 black crossd6 black crossc5 white pawnf3 black pawne2 white pawnf2 white pawng2 white pawn8
77
66
55
44
33
22
11
abcdefgh

A piece may move one space straight or diagonally forward if the target square is empty. In the second diagram, the white piece on c5 can move into any of the marked squares.

A piece may move into a square containing an opponent's piece if and only if that square is one step diagonally forward. The opponent's piece is removed and the player's piece replaces it. For example, the black piece can capture either the white piece e2 or the one on g2; it would replace them if it chose to capture. Note that capturing is not compulsory, nor is it "chained" as in checkers; a player can only capture one piece in a turn.

The first player to reach the opponent's home row — the one farthest from the player — is the winner. If all the pieces of a player are captured, that player loses. A draw is impossible because pieces can only move ahead (or be captured), and the piece closest to the opponent's home row always has at least one forward diagonal move available.

Strategy

Although the rules are quite simple (and were the simplest rules in the 2001 8x8 Game Design Competition), the strategy is complex and sophisticated. Generally, an effective offensive strategy is to recognize and attack "pivotal" pieces which are in positions to block multiple routes to victory. An effective defense is to arrange multiple blocking pieces in a blocking pattern (since a single defending piece can not effectively block a single attacking piece).

Game Solving

Smaller variants of the game have been solved:

  • 6x5 : second player win
  • 5x5 : second player win
  • 3x7 : second player win

References

  1. ^ Arneson, Erik. "Breakthrough - Designed by Dan Troyka." About: Board / Card Games
  2. ^ Handscomb, Kerry. "8x8 Game Design Competition: The Winning Game: Breakthrough ...and two other favorites." Abstract Games Magazine, Issue 7, Autumn 2001.
  3. Saffidine, Abdallah. "Solving Breakthrough with Race Patterns and Job-Level Proof Number Search"
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