Mississippi (1987)

Overview

An abstract race game set on the Mississippi river. Each person has a boat (actually a hexagonal piece with the numbers 1-6 written on each of the 6 sides of the piece). The board is a long track of hexes that wind back and forth in an 'S' pattern. Each person places his 'boat' on the start space with one of the numbers facing forwards. Each person also starts with a number of 'Logs'. These are used to move your boat forward 1 space for each log spent. (You can also decide to move backwards - gaining 1 log for each space moved back).

Now comes the complication - bumping. If your boat stops in a space that is adjacent to 1 or more others, bumping occurs. To determine where your boat ends up you look at the hex sides facing each other (on your boat and on the adjacent one(s)). You subtract the adjacent boat's hex side number from yours - and if it is positive your boat moves forward that number of spaces, and if negative - the other boat moves forward that number of spaces. Now you check to see if your boat is adjacent to another boat and if so repeat the bumping procedure.

If your boat is next to more than 1 boat, and has at least 1 positive difference, your boat moves forward. If you have more than 1 positive, add them together and move forward that distance. If you have a negative difference the other boats move in clockwise order.

For subsequent turns - you can freely change the facing (& thus the hex side number facing forward) by 60 degrees. Moving it further than 1 hexside costs you 1 "log" per extra 60 degree facing change. You then decide whether to move forward or back and resolve any bumping.

The first boat to the finish wins.