Agon Now Has Print-and-Play

Tuesday, 1st July 2014

Agon is a rather time-consuming game to make, given its use of hexagonal playing spaces instead of nice, easy-to-draw squares. So I've made it easier for you by providing a print-and-play file. The board is split into three pieces to allow printing on A4 or US Letter printers. I recommend printing on paper and gluing to a backing board.

The game is from the late eighteenth century. It is one of the earliest games to use a hexagonal grid, though in the nineteenth century this type of game was more common than people realise. In Agon, players race their pieces to the centre of the board not using luck, but strategy. Enemy pieces are thrown out to the edge of the board when captured, to start their journey again.

As pieces converge upon the centre of the board, scuffles will inevitably break out. The players must organise their approach so that their pieces guard one another, or else they will be easily picked off by the enemy. A great deal of forethough is required here, and a player who tries to race their queen to the centre ignoring the guards will generally get nowhere.

If this sounds like fun to you, take your browser to http://www.cyningstan.com/download/938/agon-print-and-play and download the file. See also the other Agon links on this page for more information about the game.