100 Strategic Games [Paperback]

Walter Joris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 28, 2002

For all those who thought Tic-Tac-Toe or Battleships & Cruisers represented the outer limits of pen and paper games. This collection of 100 games will fill serious hours for years to come.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Walter Joris is an illustrator with a penchant for puzzles. He lives in Antwerp in Belgium.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Carlton Books (October 28, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1842227270
• ISBN-13: 978-1842227275
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 7.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,452,140 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best games bargain I know of, January 27, 2004

By 

dissembler (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 100 Strategic Games (Paperback)

This book just came today. I haven't read through all of it, but I can definitely say that it delivers what it promises. 100 strategic games for pen and paper. Only 1 or 2 rely on players hiding information from each other (such as a "Battleship" game, which isn't included here), and another 1 or 2 where the opponents have unequal powers (like "fox and geese", a version of which is included). The rest will appeal to players of PBEM abstract strategy games. Pen/Paper versions of Lines of Action, Fanorona, Halma, Blobs, Mancala and Connect 4 are all included, as well as many variations of Dots and Boxes--I've seen none of these anywhere else. And at the current price, it works out to a dime a game.

I agree the writing suffers from poor sentence construction. Worse, there are a handful of instances where the rules are not explicit enough. However, the gaps are so minor that you can come up with your own rule easily enough. What's important is the idea--that so many games can be played with paper and pen, with no erasing. Some of the original games might even be adapted to board play. Sid Sackson would have been happy to read this book, I think, and there should be more like it.

And if you're still not satisfied, it even comes with a few pages of graph paper.

5.0 out of 5 stars High creativity and many good ideas, July 22, 2011

By 

Ed Pegg "Math puzzler" (Champaign) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 100 Strategic Games (Paperback)

I've collected thousands of books on math, games, and puzzles, and this book is one of the best.

I've always loved playing with grid paper, so perhaps that's one reason I strongly like it. I keep a Moleskine Square with me, and try to jot down new ideas for puzzles or games constantly.

This book has a grid on every page, and a good idea on every page. For getting inspirations for a new puzzle, this is one of the books I turn to.

Sample Game (39 - Collector): 6x6 grid. Dot vs Circle.
Each turn, a player puts their mark, and also marks X in one of the 8 neighboring squares. A player must do both. Winner is the one with the largest connected group, including diagonal connections.

Thats a fairly good pencil game, and just one of 100. Highly recommended.

3.0 out of 5 stars Good ideas poorly presented, February 25, 2009

By 

Adam vanLangenberg (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 100 Strategic Games (Paperback)

This book contains some fantastic games. I have used quite a few in my high school classes and the kids really enjoy them. I particularly like the fact that as exercises in logic, pattern recognition and planning they are great in the maths class, but are not obviously "maths games".

My main complaint is that the instructions are very poorly written. There were quite a few games that left me completely confused. After reading a few I started to get the hang of the author's sparse language but it took a while.