EVL

A brain bending battle of good vs. EVL

When I designed NXS, so many years ago, I always figured that would be my one and only game. And until recently, other than designing some variants of NXS, I really had no desire to create a new game. After all, getting myself to actually make anything happen with NXS took over 20 years!

But, largely spurred by my desire to create a Hnefatafl variant that could be played entirely with a NXS set, I’ve started to see more games in my future. Designing heXentafl made me stretch my brain. I’ve also had this idea floating around in the back of my brain for years, that if I ever did decide to design another game, that it would use heptagons (7 sided polygons). Why? Because everyone, including me, uses squares and hexagons. And for good reason! They actually tesselate uniformly, which has the advantage of rules simplicity. However, in order to challenge myself, I wanted to break out of those confines.

There are several ways that heptagons tesselate, but the most interesting to me was the one shown above. Essentially, the gaps between heptagons are “filled in” by irregular pentagons. I wasn’t sure how I was going to make use of them, but it was an interesting challenge to me.

My first attempt was a game called Angels & Demons. It accomplished everything I set out to accomplish. It was an asymmetric game. One side was the angels, the other the demons. The angels had a smaller force, a different move method, a different capture method, and a different goal than the demons. One side moved on the heptagons, the other on the pentagons, etc. But… at the end of the day, it just wasn’t all that fun to play. I knew I could do better.

Now, I’ll admit to a bias against games that start with an empty board. Which is odd, since some of the games I consider to be excellent start with an empty board. For whatever reason, I just prefer the idea of two “armies” (or in the case of NXS: Man-o-War, navies) facing off across a battlefield. So when I embarked on my second heptagon board attempt, I decided to challenge myself to design a game that starts with an empty board.

Several influences were floating around in my head. I’m not sure if there is any such thing as a totally unique mechanic at this point in history, so I’ll freely give credit where it is due. The custodial capture of the Tafl family was definitely on my mind. Stacking games, obviously, but particularly Tak. And the pick-up-and-sow mechanic of the Mancala family.

My thoughts began to coalesce around the idea that the heptagons would be where the pieces could be placed and move, and that the pentagons would be the “territory” that you were trying to capture by surrounding (custodial capture). I knew that I wanted a stacking game, as I find the mechanic intriguing. Finally, I wanted un-stacking to feel a bit like Mancala, where you “sow” the pieces one at a time as you go. I wanted the theme (or lack thereof) to be as primal as possible. Good vs. Evil. Shortened to three letters with no vowels as a nod to NXS. Thus EVL was born.

Thanks to some playtesting, and some excellent suggestions from play-testers, the rules have evolved somewhat from the original. In particular, the original version only allowed unstacking straight down a row, not across them. But that was limiting some really interesting tactics (as pointed out by a play-tester).

And so, we come to the final version of EVL, as described in the rules found here. I am very pleased with the final version, and I plan to release a 3D printed version this fall (2021).

A sandbox version created by Roman Ondrus is available here.