DVONN is a two-player strategy board game in which the objective is to accumulate pieces in stacks. It was released in 2001 by Kris Burm as the fourth game of the GIPF Project. Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 533 pixelsFull resolution (1713 × 1141 pixel, file size: 1. ... Kris Burm is the Belgian designer of the award-winning Gipf series of abstract board games. ... Rio Grande Games is a publisher of German-style board games in English. ... A strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal, most often winning. Strategy is differentiated from tactics or immediate actions with resources at hand. ... An abstract strategy game is a board game with perfect information, no chance, and (usually) two players. ... A board game is a game played with counters or pieces that are placed on, removed from, or moved across a board (a premarked surface, usually specific to that game). ... Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Kris Burm is the Belgian designer of the award-winning Gipf series of abstract board games. ... The Gipf Project is an award-winning series of six abstract strategy games by designer Kris Burm. ...

Rules

Equipment

DVONN is played on a board with 49 spaces. The board has a hexagonal layout 5 hexes wide. One player has 23 black pieces to play, the other 23 white pieces. There are also 3 neutral red pieces, called DVONN pieces.

Object

The object of the game is to control more pieces than the opponent at the end of the game.

Placement phase

The game starts with an empty board, and proceeds in two phases. During the first phase the players place their pieces on the board, starting with the three red DVONN pieces. Pieces can be placed on any unoccupied space. White starts, and the players alternate. So Black is the first to place a piece of his own color. The first phase ends when all pieces are placed on the board, filling it completely.

Movement phase

The second phase involves the building of stacks of pieces (a single piece is also considered a stack) by moving stacks onto other stacks. A stack is controlled by a player if his color is on top. A stack is immobile if it is surrounded by 6 neighboring stacks. The black player will have the first move in this phase. Any mobile stack of height n (with n>0) can be moved in any one of the 6 directions by exactly n spaces by the player controlling it, if it lands on another stack. Single DVONN pieces can not be moved, but they can be part of a stack. After each move all stacks which are not connected via a chain of neighboring stacks to any stack containing a DVONN piece are removed from the board.

Passing and game end

A player who has no legal move must pass, and a player may only pass when no legal move is available. The game ends when both players have no legal moves. All stacks controlled by one player are collected into one tower. The winner is the player with the higher tower.

Strategy

The very nice thing about DVONN is that the game is very easy to learn. After less then a few minutes of explanation any beginner will be able to play the game. After a few 'learning' games, most people can play the game at a reasonable level. To play a strong game, one should be aware of the basic strategy discussed below. To master the game one needs simply a lot of practice. The main thing about winning is trying to be in control of the game. At the moment the moves of the opponent are moves in response to your moves, you have almost certainly won the game.

Placement phase

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Many beginner players place their pieces at the start of the game without a clear objective. However, placement is as major a factor in winning as the movement phase. Image File history File links Circle-question. ...

Pieces should be placed with three main goals in mind: spaces by DVONN pieces, spaces by the side, and general density. The first objective is to place pieces by DVONN pieces, thereby keeping them safe from potential separation. Keeping at least three pieces by each DVONN piece helps defend them from potential attack. Next, pieces that are surrounded cannot move; therefore, having pieces along the side to start the game is valuable. Such pieces should also be in position to free other pieces on the inside. Finally, lumping groups of one's own pieces together is usually poor strategy. It is desirable to capture on every move, or at least take a DVONN piece; keeping all of one's pieces together often makes this difficult. Spreading pieces out across the board also increases the chance of maintaining a short (and therefore highly mobile) stack into endgame, where it may be moved into position for a crucial capture.

It may also be possible to string a line of one's own pieces across the board up and down. Play almost always separates along this line; pieces on one side of a string that has no DVONN piece are usually doomed.

Having an even distribution of the DVONN pieces over the board is usually recommended for novice players, since this way they will be less vulnerable against groups of stones being lost by a cut off. Having all 3 red Dvonn pieces grouped together near the edge almost guarantees a win for an experiences player playing with white.

Movement phase

The first few moves should correct any place where your position must be fixed: helping or moving pieces that could become isolated and moving outside pieces in order to give inside ones mobility.

Capturing pieces that could capture a DVONN piece can be important, as a moving DVONN piece controlled by the opponent can isolate a large group of pieces. However, mobility is the most important aspect of DVONN; one needs to keep one's options open. Building a tall stack early in the movement phase is a mistake. Most often, the game is won by the player who is capable of making the last move(s). Maintaining some single stones until the end phase is, therefore, very often a good strategy.

A very common mistake among beginners is that they are stacking own stones on top of each other in an attempt to prevent losing stones by being cut off by the opponent. However, since the game is all about mobility, this usually is a bad thing, since by stacking two of their own stones, instead of capturing an opponent's stone, they are effectively losing 2 stones. Only when a really large group of own stones is at risk, or in the end-phase of the game, one should consider placing own stones on top of each other.

Taking a DVONN piece is especially desirable if it is possible to move it toward one's own pieces and away from one's opponent's. However, every capture counts, so big captures and maintaining mobility is more important than just taking DVONN pieces. A similar rule applies here as is the case for placing own stones on top of each other. When a DVONN pieces is taken, the opponent is not losing a stone, which means that effectively you are set back 1 stone in the stonecount compared to the opponent. Therefore, one should only take a DVONN piece if one has a plan with it to gain a larger advantage, or if one needs to prevent the opponent from gaining a significant advantage by moving it.

After move 70 (about 20 moves into the movement phase) the board clears and settles. It becomes much more important to look ahead to see how every move affects the overall situation. Tall stacks are very hard to move, so they should be formed next to (or on) DVONN pieces and out of line of potential captures.

External links

• Official website
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DVONN at BoardGameGeek Screenshot of the BoardGameGeek entry for Settlers of Catan. ...

• DVONN can be played online against other players at BrettspielWelt, Richard's Play By Email Server, LittleGolem or BoiteAJeux (french).