After Sid’s book was published, I figured that I could add more complexity to Crossings if I went beyond the 8 x 8 board size, and I also might be able to turn it into an equipment board game. I settled on a 14 x 12 board, with the players seated at the long sides of the board. I chose this non-square board because it added more long diagonals, and battles along these diagonals bring more interest to the game. Actually, the game works on boards of many different sizes; so if you want to give the game a try, you can use whatever size board you happen to have. Besides changing the board size, I also made a minor change in the rules to strengthen offense compared to defense.

Since I had pretty much worked out a new game, I thought I should give it a new name, so I called it “Epaminondas.” This was a really stupid (and pretentious) move on my part and it’s probably been a hindrance to the game. Epaminondas was the Theban leader who invented the phalanx, which he first used to defeat the Spartans. I used “phalanx” to describe the lines of pieces in the game, but I don’t think they even move the way phalanxes do in battle. Someday I hope this game will be published again, and if it is, I’d like to go back to calling it “Crossings.”

Epaminondas was first published in 1975 in a British edition by Philmar Ltd. A year later I published my own edition in America.

I wrote an article about Epaminondas for the May 1975 issue of the British magazine Games & Puzzles. The article was called “Under the Strategy Tree.” I’ve copied it to my web site at this location. The article discusses my concept of “clarity,” and clarity is, I think, the best feature of Epaminondas.

The complete rules to Epaminondas, as well as three puzzles based on the game, are in an article by Kerry Handscomb. The article was in Kerry’s great (but small) magazine, Abstract Games (published in Vancouver, Canada) and also on the magazine’s web site. Unfortunately, great (but small) games magazines have a tendency to disappear, and Abstract Games is now gone, along with its web site. I’ve seen this happen before (to World Game Review and twice to Games & Puzzles), so I had taken the precaution of downloading a copy of the article. It is now on my web site at this location.

In the fall of 2005, Ludoteka.com added Epaminondas to their games you can play on-line with another human. There are a couple of problems with their write-up of the game. First, they point to the rules in the Abstract Games article, which no longer exists (but, as I said in the previous paragraph, you can find it here). Second, they don't explain how to indicate your moves. What you have to do is: Put the cursor over the last piece in the phalanx you intend to move. Press the right mouse button and hold it down. Drag the cursor to the square where the head of the phalanx should go. Then release the mouse button.