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Crossbars |
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Involvement in discussions in the BGG Forum had a narrowing inluence on my thinking and I had to get back to basics. My basics are characterised by working alone, at least where inventing is concerned. Of course I work with Ed, without whom my efforts would be fruitless, but that's another matter. Discussions at BGG tend to influence my way of thinking towards starting with a goal and finding a mechanism. Nothing wrong with that, but it should not interfere with other possible approaches. So I took some time off and then Crossbars happened, initially without capture, back to basics and all. But the nature of the game is that once a lead has been established, the player holding it could focus on blocking, and probably successfully. And I like placement with capture, all the more if it appears to be necessary. Since Crossbars is all orthogonal in its goal, a modest diagonal capture mechanism looked elegant and effective. Besides, translating it to orthogonal would immediately give problems because if a player then blocks the potential growth of an opponent's bar, the blocking stone could be captured unless preceded by preparatory placements, giving rise to cumbersome tactics. So I like the diagonal capture rule a lot. Enschede, August 2021 christian freeling |