Abande

About this board game

Abande is a two-player board game with an approximately 30-minute play time, first released in 2005. Players take turns entering new pieces onto the board or moving pieces already in play.

Every piece on the board must remain connected to another piece through adjacency. This shared connection rule shapes how pieces can enter and move, while captures add another layer to the growing position.

When a piece captures an opponent’s piece, the captured pieces form a stack. Players continue placing and moving pieces until all pieces have been placed. The game then reaches its scoring phase after both players pass their turns in sequence.

• Play is for exactly 2 players.
• The recommended play time is 30 minutes.
• Captures build stacks from opponent pieces.
• Pieces must always stay connected to other pieces.
• The winner is the player with the higher score.

Abande can be played on a 37-space hexagonal board, a 7×7 orthogonal grid with diagonals, and many other board layouts. It can even be played without a board at all, giving the game a flexible physical format.

Once both players have passed in succession, points are collected for pieces and stacks. The player with the higher total is declared the winner. The game also has an expansion, Abande².