Counterstrike (1977)

A great backgammon variant with a unique board and playing twist. Players take turns rolling two dice and moving pieces along a three row, six column field. An opponent may strike a single piece, knocking it into the pit. Pieces stacked two high are only susceptible to a counterstrike in which the moving player rolls doubles. Pieces stacked three high may not be struck. It is also unique that pieces may move forward and backward on the field.

My wife and I have been playing this game for 30+ years! I was introduced to the game when one day browsing in Brentano's book store in Manhatten, I found the creator of Counterstrike set up at a table with his game. He was allowing anyone to play him and he would give a free game to those who beat him. I immediately fell in love with this game (perhaps because I did beat him) and took the game home to introduce it to my friends.

We played the game often for several years and but soon it faded from our interest. The original game had warn out and we substituted a white cloth placemat with the board drawn with a marker and poker chips. Then perhaps 10 years or so, my wife and I started playing again. At first we played it when we were on vacation camping or traveling. Then we would play it at restaurants. Now we play it at almost every meal at home or eating out. We have added a new rule which we find makes the game extremely interesting.

We felt that it seemed obvious that the person who rolls more doubles is very likely to win. So in an attempt to level the play field we follow this:

We have a stack of 8 yellow chips. When someone rolls a double and is able to play all of them, he takes a yellow chip or returns one of his opponents yellow chips to the center. Each yellow chip a player has adds 5 points to the score he must get to win the game. So if he has rolled 4 more usable doubles than his opponent, he must have 120 points to win. If the player cannot either counterstrike or play all 4 pieces, he does NOT take a token. As long as he CAN play, he must even if he can only play all his chips backwards, he still must take a chip. And finally, if a player accumulates ALL 8 chips... he immediately looses!

Anyone still playing this game?

Rik Pierce