Full Report for Fanorona by traditional

Rules

Representative game (in the sense of being of mean length). Wherever you see the 'representative game' referred to in later sections, this is it!

Play

Each move, you move a piece one space along a line. Capturing is compulsory, and results under the following circumstances:

Approach After the move, there are one or more enemy pieces directly in front of the moving piece; they are captured.
Withdrawal Before the move, there were one or more enemy pieces directly behind the moving piece; they are captured.

If both of the above apply, choose one.

After capturing, the same piece may move again; so long as each subsequent move results in a capture. During the continuation moves, you may not move twice in the same direction, or revisit the same space.

Goal

Capture all your opponent's pieces to win.

Variant

There seems to be some debate as to whether continuation captures are optional or required. Ai Ai allows you to choose.

Miscellaneous

General comments:

Does not support Zobrist hashing.
Requires accurate responses to threats.

Play: Combinatorial

Family: Traditional

Mechanism(s): Movement,Capture

BGG Stats

BGG Entry	Fanorona
BGG Rating	6.38313
#Voters	206
SD	1.53878
BGG Weight	2.5714
#Voters	21
Year	1680

BGG Ratings and Comments

User	Rating	Comment
kyomi	7
Arcangelurbano	8
rbelikov	5.2	aka fandango
momov	8
miceu	7
fxjohn	N/A	Classic game
Sebchjo	9
Balzaams	6	Palyed a lot via in game game of Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag
bayspiel	N/A	04.02.03.02
metalandi	7.5
dwarf1979	8	Handmade
capsmolet	N/A	Ancient Alquerque
fogus	3	[2015.02.10] The capture mechanic is worth exploring by its own right.
candoo	4	Many more dynamic abstracts out there. The beginning of the game has a lot of pieces being removed. Then the game gets stuck moving 1 space at a time. Then the game goes stale.
wassermn	8
freechinanow	7	For an alquerque variant that is several hundred years old, I'm surprised that I enjoyed this one as much as I did. It just has something very... modern... about it. The way you can remove a player's pieces by moving forward or backward; the additional movement rules for capturing, etc., makes it feel ahead of its time. I'd almost give it a '6' just for being a routine, low-choice abstract, but its peculiarities raise it above the bar. Not a game for all the time, but fanorona deserves to be known by more people, that's for certain!
bengarp	N/A	(version par un artisan)
fuchsundbrunnen	8.1
mafko	7.5
buckshotsward	9	Great game. It is a fairly quick play as well. I really like how the strategy changes throughout the game too. Much more to this game than people might think at first.
cerulean	6	Starts out very tactical, and becomes more strategic as it approaches the endgame.
Rivka	N/A	Part of a 15-game set I was gifted as a child, under the name "Fandango". I will update this once I have replayed it.
jirka bauma	6.5
gunnaronthesaw	3	Boring
JMOFischer	8	Although played on alquerque-style board the way of capturing pieces is unique: if a move ends on a point and the following point or points in an unbroken sequence along the line of movement are occupied by the opponents pieces then they are captured. The same goes for moving away from an opponents piece or pieces. You continue moving the same piece for as long as it can capture pieces. In other words, capture is made by approach or withdrawal. Strategy is paramount: you need to both capture pieces but also think of positioning yourself so as not be vulnerable to the opponent's next move. 30 seconds learn but a difficult game to master.
Paolo Robino	7
Alex Smith	N/A	(Fandango) in The Book of Classic Board Games (Klutz)
VDiaz	N/A	LUDOTECA
davidme	N/A	Own as "Fandango" in The Book of Classic Board Games by Sackson.
grey knight	8	This game has a unique capturing system that I love. The game starts at a fast pace, then slows to a good "position" type of game.
gabriel_k	N/A	PNP
schwarzspecht	7
cookieeemonster	6	My first print and play.
mjf71	N/A	2 20m
PSchulman	7	Homemade
fineasfineas	N/A	p.d. abstract strategy
kazk	7
zwembroek	10
Wentu	7.5	fast, wild, simple, surprising moves. only negative thing i can see now, towards the end the weakest just suffer a slow death without chances to recover
Venga2	N/A	have yet to play
seneca29	8	Interisting abstract game. I'd like to build a nice copy and play it
KnightTim	N/A	In The Book of Classic Board Games In The 15 Greatest Board Games in the World (Fandango)
MikeKn	9	SCA - Excellent 2 player game, although a bit post-period. Unique capture method and tricky to master.
drunkenKOALA	7	Good tactical game.
Pfahrer	9
JPWatts	N/A	Part of my traditional games collection, courtesy of ebay Great historic rule where if during the vela partie the original loser, loses again he has to get on all fours and go 'Baa Baa' or lick the middle of the board. My version came in a different box (see image 342373) but looks like the Northwest Corner edition.
tallike	N/A	*12
Peerchen	7
Picon	2.4	Classic 2-player strategy game from Madagascar. There's quite some depth in the game, if one doesn't mind about the complete absence of the theme.
woodnoggin	6	Plays a bit like Draughts but with a manic start. The board begins full of pieces but they're quickly removed as whenever you capture a piece, you also capture the whole line of pieces behind it and you must keep on capturing with the piece you moved until it can capture no more. This just obliterates the board in the first few turns. I'm sure there's skill to what goes on at the start of the game, but it'll take many plays to work out. The endgame is more traditional abstract fare: slower and more calculating.
schnattlion	5	2
gastgast	7	Self made!
7-Brainbug	7
Magny2	7
scih	5.5	NEP
WinterDragon67	N/A	can someone make something online with a computer?
Geirerik	8
whac3	5.5	not bad but not great
ponsonbybritt	7
Drek_Overlord	6	Some Board games can be learned from computer games because they can be added as a digital adaptation to demonstrate how they were played in those days. In short, I met her in Assassin's creed 3.
nestorgames	9
The Maverick	N/A	Contained in The Boardgame Book. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/7159
lundi	7
dancingdanslc	3	DIGITAL PLAY: iPad Air Abstract game, capture pieces in 2 ways. Move toward or away. I'm not an abstract game fan. Out of my collection
jayjonbeach	5	Neat little ancient ancient abstract First move or two is predictable, then there are a good number of nice moves where multiple kills are possible in a single turn, you need to be very careful here as you can open yourself up to multiple kills by one innocent looking move! The end game comes down to 4 or 5 stones if its close and just a tactical manoeuvre game (actual the whole game is mostly tactical with very little look ahead or setup). After several plays it feels like it should be slightly solvable. The endgame looks like it should come down to a stalemate when only a few pieces are left however I have not seen this and I have won by having only one piece against 7 when all looked lost, one series of domino effect moves killed all the opponents pieces! Kris Burms games are superior but this is pretty cool regardless
Sasteram	7
Raul Catalano	6.5	I proudly own one original wooden board from Madagascar - a really curious and complex game
MobyNostromo	5	Great start; slow, painful ending. An old game that is now outdated.
wolf9545	N/A	# (Fandango)
Playoria	6	Strange and interesting game with original capture mechanism. It looks easy but it takes time to see some depth and play accordingly.
snigfarp	8	This is quite a unique game, despite its resemblance to alquerque. I'd like to see if the second game played under the vela rules is really quite as unbalanced as it appears.
ungeschrieben	9
Loizz_66	8
Erniepaul	N/A	?
trebro	6	I want to play more of this one, it seems like a fun abstract game. End game seems to have a lot going on that needs explored further.
Keshik	10	One of my favourite two-player abstracts. It is actually similar, at least in game-play to draughts/checkers. Similar, because here you also have playing pieces that are the same, and can move one step/area in a move. and capturing the opponents playing pieces is mandatory, though chain-capture, eg. capturing more opponents pieces through series of movements is not mandatory. The winner is the one, who manages to capture all of the opponents pieces, or succeeds in blocking the remaining opponents pieces, so they cant move. Otherwise they can agree in a tie.
RunRabbitRun	7
Ikarus	6.9	Con su Tablero se puede jugar a varios juegos: Alquerque, Bagh Guti, Bagh Chal...
Otter	6.5
lhapka	5.5	[pnp]
Deleted010518	7.1	Seems an interesting game and I like the speed of it. However, I'm a bit put off by the feeling that I would need to memorise moves (rather than plan ahead further or better understand the implications of rules) in order to win consistently. Maybe I'm wrong, though...
BlueMountain	9	Very enjoyable abstract. While I am only starting to get used to the endgame tactics ... it's working out the moves to make to get me to the end game with the least amount of damage that is sending me bonkers. The more i play the more i realise this game has greater depth than initially appears to be the case.
Takvorian	7
Josquin	8
glanfam	7	wooden board with drawers for pieces
ezeregy	6.7
fehrmeister	6	The official game of Madagascar. A fairly quick abstract game about capturing sets of pieces by moving towards or away from them.
Schwenkstar	N/A	In [b]The Book of Classic Board Games[/b].
NikitayPipo	6.5
dagny21	N/A	Own this in the form of the Klutz Book The 15 Greatest Board Games in the World.
GeoMan	N/A	Das Spiel and Nestor Games portable edition.
Litwood	9
falcala	8
taragalinas	7	Cute and tricky little abstract. Rating may increase with more play (as with all abstracts).
ricardofo	6	Included in my "Todos os Jogos" collection
Master Thomas	7.5
Spooky Donkey	N/A	[thing=2883][/thing]
latindog	6.5	Clever tactical abstract game. This is the sort of game that would require regular play against a partner to do more than scratch the surface of its depth. I have only played this on boardspace.net although I would like to try it on a real board.
gestic	7
lucrada	7
Pensator	7
Nap16	5.5	Games magazine, Sept/Oct 1980, page 58
ypaul	6	I was initially put off by this game because it is one of those famously solved games. I knew that the number of total permutations these types of games have is inconceivable, and it has very little significance when it comes to actual human play, but that bias was still there. I decided to try this one day and it turns out that it is actually really fun--more so than draughts even (which is also weakly solved). The capture rules are quite straightforward, but it is somehow quite unique. I recommend having a go at this game at some point if you are into these kinds of games.
Rabbits	7	So far only played the computer on boardspace. It is hard to see the board when you first start out. You need to make strong defensive moves too, otherwise you kill a few men of the opponent but end up losing too many yourself on the subsequent response. May 18 - had my closest game against the bot, lost by 2. This is a good brain burner game.
Geijuutsuka	8
quantumplation	6.5	Fanorona is perhaps as close as any abstract can get to a plain old savage massacre. Diminished previous rating in light of research finding forced strategies, but I think they overall mechanism of this game could still be put to interesting ends.
libridine	6.5
mothertruckin	7	Awesome capture rules. Fun game. I have ios version.
Herr Niemand	6	love the high mortality rate.
spearjr	7	Seems interesting, not sure about the long endgame.
clayhaus	9	Interesting, deceptively simple abstract strategy game that begins slowly, then builds quickly into a mutually aggressive annihilation state before settling into a slowly introspective mode of contemplative maneuvering and piece eating. Recommended.
ddubin	7.5
kanekki7ryuzaky	10
fofluff	N/A	Klutz Board Games book.
awleong	8
rainyl	6	?????????????????????????????????????????????
vkandtj	N/A	Have Out of Africa...Fanorona by ?
Schmelzi	N/A	7-4
RichardIngram	7
tckoppang	6	Solid game of material capture with interesting opportunities for multiple captures. It's growing on me even though I once found it very boring.
Jannu	8	fascinating game!
WolfgangWallace	6	I don't rate higher because I can't find people to play. I really like this amazing game
madjer	8
b1sti	7
XMJA	8
dispatch134711	7.8	The traditional game of Madagascar, a capturing game with a unique board and mechanism. Lines of pieces are captured either by approach or retreat. An initial phase of bloody massacre is followed by a careful battle of pins and attrition. Pretty susceptible to draws.
bellowski	7
CDRodeffer	6	Excellent two-player abstract with unique approach or withdrawal capture mechanism. The national game of Madagascar.
chrisbogert	7	Fast and furious sums it up. Each moves becomes a life or death situation. Haha, check this move out, boom boom boom (wipes out several rows)... oh no (fear sinks in as the consequences are revealed). boom, bam, pazow! Left in taters the pieces huddle together trapped in the corners awaiting their doom... Gotta say I really like this game.
jkandell	8	Hidden gem medieval abstract from Isle of Madagascar. The dense board (only one open space at start) and unique mechanic (you capture by either moving toward or withdrawing from a line of enemy pieces) makes the strategy and tactics perplexing. Fewer pieces isn't always an advantage, strength is not gained by numbers. I find the game play soothing. Death by confinement or withdrawal is metaphorical for life, and very ying/yang. The quick playing time, primal metaphorical nature, and the claustrophobic board reminds me of the Gipf series. Surprisingly modern for a game invented in 1680.
ddyer	8
russ	7	Less well-known classic old game, with an unusual capture protocol. Surprisingly bloody: the board typically becomes sparse quickly as some turns may have a series of captures killing many pieces! So you reach the endgame pretty fast. Like Checkers, you can occasionally end up in a draw e.g. with each player having only one piece left, but most of our games have ended with a victory for one side who is a little bit ahead on material in the endgame and successfully maneuvers for the win.
Zickzack	7	Murray rated it as one of the three great games. The others were Chess and Go. Fanorona redefined mind boggling for me. It is difficult to find strong players, though.
bazyn	7
montsegur	7
rseater	6	a surprisingly good abstract. very bloody!
Big Tiki D	7
StupidWhoDoDooDoo	7
Ottia	9	The Madagascar national game, Fanorona, is an apparent descendant of Alquerque since it is played on a much bigger board but with the same kind of connections, and it shares its goal (namely stripping the opponent off their pieces). However, while Alquerque is quite predictable because of its symmetry and modest size, Fanorona is pure dynamite at first and pure finesse in the end. This is achieved with two highly original rules for taking enemy pieces: a group of consecutive enemy stones can be removed both by moving a piece towards an enemy piece (or a group) or by moving away from it. Plus, after one piece has a group of enemy pieces removed it can move again provided it removes another enemy piece or group and doesn't go back to a square just occupied.
isao	7
fomalhot	9
richgowell	N/A	Put this and Yinsh on here twice by accident simply because I'm that dense!
Kaffedrake	3	The early massacre is wacky and it almost seems like there's no reason to try to read ahead. Then the slow endgame and prospect of a draw relegate this to the "no need to play again" category.
Mounthail	7
kollin	N/A	iPad
AGChavasse	9
Iguanoman	8
jejo	6.8
Pola	7
Kytty	6	Given to Dwight and Gabriel Book of Classic Board Games as "Fandango"
jefferydoc	8
bgg15	7
Toph	8
janus	7
STICKPIN	6	Cheap printed board. I'm interested in the capture technique and need to play more games.
Pikaraph	7
KTPrymus	7	Very intriguing variant/precursor to checkers. The decisions are quite varied and the game is never really over despite how outnumbered one player may get.
FiveStars	9	The National game of Madagaskar.
buhlertj	8

Kolomogorov Complexity Analysis

Size (bytes)	28118
Reference Size	10293
Ratio	2.73

Ai Ai calculates the size of the implementation, and compares it to the Ai Ai implementation of the simplest possible game (which just fills the board). Note that this estimate may include some graphics and heuristics code as well as the game logic. See the wikipedia entry for more details.

Playout Complexity Estimate

Playouts per second	8510.02 (117.51µs/playout)
Reference Size	416094.54 (2.40µs/playout)
Ratio (low is good)	48.89

Tavener complexity: the heat generated by playing every possible instance of a game with a perfectly efficient programme. Since this is not possible to calculate, Ai Ai calculates the number of random playouts per second and compares it to the fastest non-trivial Ai Ai game (Connect 4). This ratio gives a practical indication of how complex the game is. Combine this with the computational state space, and you can get an idea of how strong the default (MCTS-based) AI will be.

Playout/Search Speed

Label	Its/s	SD	Nodes/s	SD	Game length	SD
Random playout	37,825	3,294	2,671,572	232,815	71	30
search.UCB	38,902	6,256			89	152
search.UCT	37,762	5,171			145	181

Random: 10 second warmup for the hotspot compiler. 100 trials of 1000ms each.

Other: 100 playouts, means calculated over the first 5 moves only to avoid distortion due to speedup at end of game.

Mirroring Strategies

Rotation (Half turn) lost each game as expected.
Reflection (X axis) lost each game as expected.
Reflection (Y axis) lost each game as expected.
Copy last move lost each game as expected.

Mirroring strategies attempt to copy the previous move. On first move, they will attempt to play in the centre. If neither of these are possible, they will pick a random move. Each entry represents a different form of copying; direct copy, reflection in either the X or Y axis, half-turn rotation.

Win % By Player (Bias)

1: White win %	49.80±3.09	Includes draws = 50%
2: Black win %	50.20±3.09	Includes draws = 50%
Draw %	14.40	Percentage of games where all players draw.
Decisive %	85.60	Percentage of games with a single winner.
Samples	1000	Quantity of logged games played

Note: that win/loss statistics may vary depending on thinking time (horizon effect, etc.), bad heuristics, bugs, and other factors, so should be taken with a pinch of salt. (Given perfect play, any game of pure skill will always end in the same result.)

Note: Ai Ai differentiates between states where all players draw or win or lose; this is mostly to support cooperative games.

Levels of Play

AI	Strong Wins	Draws	Strong Losses	#Games	Strong Win%	p1 Win%	Game Length
Random
Grand Unified UCT(rSel=s, secs=0.01)	36	0	0	36	100.00	50.00	41.92
Grand Unified UCT(rSel=s, secs=0.07)	36	0	6	42	85.71	42.86	107.81
Grand Unified UCT(rSel=s, secs=0.20)	35	2	6	43	83.72	67.44	182.14

Level of Play: Strong beats Weak 60% of the time (lower bound with 90% confidence).

Draw%, p1 win% and game length may give some indication of trends as AI strength increases; but be aware that the AI can introduce bias due to horizon effects, poor heuristics, etc.

Complexity

Game length	301.18
Branching factor	10.53
Complexity	10^307.93	Based on game length and branching factor
Samples	1000	Quantity of logged games played

Move Classification

Distinct actions	553	Number of distinct moves (e.g. "e4") regardless of position in game tree
Killer moves	69	A 'killer' move is selected by the AI more than 50% of the time Too many killers to list.
Good moves	390	A good move is selected by the AI more than the average
Bad moves	162	A bad move is selected by the AI less than the average
Terrible moves	3	A terrible move is never selected by the AI Terrible moves: xh5-g5,xb1-c1,xa2-a3
Response distance	3.50	Mean distance between move and response; a low value relative to the board size may mean a game is tactical rather than strategic.
Samples	1000	Quantity of logged games played

Board Coverage

A mean of 83.08% of board locations were used per game.

Colour and size show the frequency of visits.

Game Length

Game length frequencies.

Mean	300.62
Mode	[999]
Median	113.0

Change in Material Per Turn

This chart is based on a single representative* playout, and gives a feel for the change in material over the course of a game. (* Representative in the sense that it is close to the mean length.)

Actions/turn

Table: branching factor per turn, based on a single representative* game. (* Representative in the sense that it is close to the mean game length.)

Action Types per Turn

This chart is based on a single representative* game, and gives a feel for the types of moves available throughout that game. (* Representative in the sense that it is close to the mean game length.)

Red: removal, Black: move, Blue: Add, Grey: pass, Purple: swap sides, Brown: other.

Trajectory

This chart shows the best move value with respect to the active player; the orange line represents the value of doing nothing (null move).

The lead changed on 4% of the game turns. Ai Ai found 17 critical turns (turns with only one good option).

Position Heatmap

This chart shows the relative temperature of all moves each turn. Colour range: black (worst), red, orange(even), yellow, white(best).

Good/Effective moves

Measure	All players	Player 1	Player 2
Mean % of effective moves	32.12	29.16	35.03
Mean no. of effective moves	3.98	2.95	4.99
Effective game space	10^144.38	10^55.53	10^88.85
Mean % of good moves	23.01	0.40	45.32
Mean no. of good moves	3.48	0.02	6.89
Good move game space	10^101.62	10^0.30	10^101.32

These figures were calculated over a single game.

An effective move is one with score 0.1 of the best move (including the best move). -1 (loss) <= score <= 1 (win)

A good move has a score > 0. Note that when there are no good moves, an multiplier of 1 is used for the game space calculation.

Quality Measures

Measure	Value	Description
Hot turns	86.75%	A hot turn is one where making a move is better than doing nothing.
Momentum	27.15%	% of turns where a player improved their score.
Correction	45.70%	% of turns where the score headed back towards equality.
Depth	2.62%	Difference in evaluation between a short and long search.
Drama	0.03%	How much the winner was behind before their final victory.
Foulup Factor	11.26%	Moves that looked better than the best move after a short search.
Surprising turns	0.33%	Turns that looked bad after a short search, but good after a long one.
Last lead change	76.82%	Distance through game when the lead changed for the last time.
Decisiveness	8.94%	Distance from the result being known to the end of the game.

These figures were calculated over a single representative* game, and based on the measures of quality described in "Automatic Generation and Evaluation of Recombination Games" (Cameron Browne, 2007). (* Representative, in the sense that it is close to the mean game length.)

Openings

Moves	Animation
f2-e3x,g3-f2x,Pass,c3-d4x,Pass,xd3-c3,Pass,xd4-d3,xd3-e3,Pass,xf2-f3
f2-e3x,g3-f2x,Pass,c3-d4x,Pass,xd3-c3,Pass,xd4-d3,xd3-e3,Pass,xe4-e5
f2-e3x,g3-f2x,Pass,c3-d4x,Pass,xd3-c3,Pass,xd4-d3,xd3-e3,Pass,xb4-c5
f2-e3x,g3-f2x,Pass,c3-d4x,Pass,xd3-c3,Pass,xd4-d3,xd3-e3,Pass,b4-c3x
f2-e3x,g3-f2x,Pass,c3-d4x,Pass,xd3-c3,Pass,xd4-d3,xd3-e3,Pass,f4-g3x
f2-e3x,g3-f2x,Pass,c3-d4x,Pass,xd3-c3,Pass,xd4-d3,xd3-e3,Pass,b4-b3x
f2-e3x,g3-f2x,Pass,c3-d4x,Pass,xd3-c3,Pass,xd4-d3,xd3-e3,Pass,c4-c3x
f2-e3x,g3-f2x,Pass,c3-d4x,Pass,xd3-c3,Pass,xd4-d3,xd3-e3,Pass,g4-g3x
f2-e3x,e5-d4x,xd4-c5,Pass,e2-e3x,e3-d4x,d4-e4x,Pass,f5-f4x,f4-e3x,e3-f2x
f2-e3x,e5-d4x,xd4-c5,Pass,e2-e3x,e3-d4x,d4-e4x,Pass,f5-f4x,f4-e3x,e3-e2x
f2-e3x,e5-d4x,xd4-c5,Pass,e2-e3x,e3-d4x,d4-e4x,Pass,f5-f4x,f4-e3x,xe3-e2
e2-e3x,xd4-e5,e5-e4x,Pass,f3-e3x,xe3-e2,Pass,f4-e3x,xe3-d4,Pass,b1-b2x

Opening Heatmap

Colour shows the success ratio of this play over the first 10moves; black < red < yellow < white.

Size shows the frequency this move is played.

Positions Reachable at Depth (Includes Transpositions)

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17
1	5	22	43	96	215	503	1092	2442	5211	11917	30298	95733	288108	954335	3008779	9832459	31057888

Note: most games do not take board rotation and reflection into consideration.
Multi-part turns could be treated as the same or different depth depending on the implementation.
Counts to depth N include all moves reachable at lower depths.
Zobrist hashes are not available for this game, so transpositions are included in the counts.

Shortest Game(s)

No solutions found to depth 17.

Puzzles

Puzzle	Solution
White to win in 8 moves

Selection criteria: first move must be unique, and not forced to avoid losing. Beyond that, Puzzles will be rated by the product of [total move]/[best moves] at each step, and the best puzzles selected.