[pbmserv] New book: Connection Games

[Cameron Browne <cameronb@optusnet.com.au>]

Hi,

Some of you may have noticed one or two connection games being added to the 
server last year. This was mostly background research for the following 
book, which has just been released:

  Connection Games: Variations on a Theme
  Cameron Browne
  AK Peters, 2005
  Paperback, 416 pages, 390 illustrations
  ISBN: 1-56881-224-8
  http://akpeters.com/product.asp?ProdCode=2248

It is an encylopedia of connection games, and includes several nice games 
designed by Gamerz.net users.

Many thanks to all of you who contributed games and analyses, or who just 
helped out by showing an interest and testing out new games. I hope you 
like it!

Cameron

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part I - Defining Connection

1  What Is a Connection Game?
   1.1  History
2  The Nature of Connection
   2.1  Adjacency
   2.2  Connection
   2.3  Pattern
   2.4  Connection Quality
3  Games as Graphs
   3.1  Duals
   3.2  The Shannon Switching Game
   3.3  Deadlocks
   3.4  Example Graph Analysis
4  Properties of Connection Games
   4.1  Elements of a Game
   4.2  Board Design
   4.3  Rules of Play
   4.4  Winning Conditions
5  Common Plays
   5.1  Strategic and Tactical Play
   5.2  Forks
   5.3  Convergence of Flow
   5.4  Forcing Moves
   5.5  Ladders
   5.6  Defensive Play
   5.7  Staking Your Claim
   5.8  Efficiency
   5.9  Sacrifice
   5.10 Broadsides
6  Classification
   6.1  Strictly Connective Games
   6.2  Taxonomy
   6.3  Drawing the Line

Part II - The Games

7  Pure Connection Games
   7.1  Pure Connection > Absolute Path
   7.2  Pure Connection > Path Race
   7.3  Pure Connection > Path Majority
   7.4  Pure Connection > Cycle Making
8  Connective Goal
   8.1  Connective Goal > Path Making
   8.2  Connective Goal > Convergent
9  Connective Play
   9.1  Connective Play > Path Making
   9.2  Connective Play > Territorial
10 Connection-Related Games
   10.1  Connection Quality
   10.2  Reach a Goal
   10.3  Form a Pattern
   10.4  Limit the Opponent

Part III - End Play

11 Rolling Your Own
   11.1  The Design Process
   11.2  Evaluating a Game
   11.3  Convergence of Rule Sets
   11.4  Case Studies
12 The Psychology of Connection
   12.1  Everyday Connections
   12.2  Visualizing Connections
   12.3  Games for the Boys?
   12.4  Child's Play
13 Afterword

Part IV - Appendices

A - Basic Graph Theory
B - Solving the Shannon Game
C - Hex, Ties, and Trivalency
D - Strategy-Stealing
E - Point-Pairing Strategies
F - Y Reduction
G - Sperner's Lemma
H - Tessellations