Breakthru (board game)

Breakthru

One of several possible start positions
Genre(s)	Board game Abstract strategy game
Players	2
Random chance	None
Skill(s) required	Strategy, tactics, observation
Modern game based on historic Tafl games.

Breakthru is an abstract strategy board game for two players, designed by Alex Randolph and commercially released by 3M Company in 1965, as part of the 3M bookshelf game series. It later became part of the Avalon Hill bookcase games. It is no longer in production. The game has been compared to Fox and Hounds, although it shows more characteristics of the Tafl games of the Middle Ages, such as Hnefatafl. As in Hnefatafl, the game features unevenly matched teams with different objectives. The 3M game set includes a board marked with an 11x11 square grid of spaces, twenty silver-colored pieces, a gold-colored "flagship" and twelve gold-colored "escorts". The game is played out as a naval battle analogous to the siege gameplay of Hnefatafl.

The rules of play are as follows:

One player has a gold fleet consisting of one large flagship and twelve escorts, with the objective of evading while breaking through his or her opponent's blockade to transport the flagship to the perimeter of the board. The other player has a silver fleet of twenty ships, and forms a blockade to trap the gold flagship and destroy the gold fleet's escorts with the objective of capturing the flagship.

The "gold player" is determined arbitrarily or by coin toss, and the other player becomes the "silver player".

Gold player places the flagship on the center square of the game board, and positions the rest of the ships anywhere within the boldly ruled central area of the board.

Silver player then positions the silver ships on twenty squares in the lightly ruled peripheral area of the board.

Gold player chooses who goes first. Players move alternately by making two moves or one capture anywhere on the board. When the flagship is moved, only one move or capture is made (thus only the flagship).

A player may move two of the smaller playing pieces any number of vacant squares either horizontally or vertically on the board (as a rook in Chess, except that no captures can be made with this move), although if the flagship is moved, the gold player may not move another playing piece.