Game Overview
Push Fight is a two-player abstract strategy game where the board rapidly changes.
Object of the Game
Players fight to push one of their opponent’s pieces of the board, utilizing only two moves and a push each turn.
The Pieces
In Push Fight there are 3 pieces: Circles, Squares, and the Anchor.
Each player controls 3 Squares, 2 Circles, and the Anchor alternates between the two players.
Squares can push.
Circles cannot push.
The Anchor prevents the last square that pushed from being pushed.
Setup
The light pieces setup first on one side of the center dividing line. Then the dark pieces setup on the other side. The anchor does not start in play. The light pieces take the first turn.
For your first game, I recommend the standard setup below:
For future games, there are no restrictions on how you setup your pieces on your side of the line. You do not need to put a piece in all 4 spaces adjacent to the line. You are also allowed to place pieces on the edge of your side of the line.
Playing the Game
Each turn consists of two optional moves and one mandatory push. You do not need to use both moves, but your moves can only be made before your push.
Move
When you move one of your pieces, you may move through any number of unoccupied spaces in a single move. You may not move diagonally.
For example, this would be a legal move:
Push
After you have finished making your moves, you must Push with one of your Squares. How pushing works:
- You must Push your chosen Square in the direction of at least one adjacent piece (that piece can be an opponent’s piece or your own)
- If you Push into a row of adjacent pieces, you push that entire row
- After you push, take the Anchor and place it on the Square that Pushed
- You may not make a Push that would move the Square with the Anchor
- You may not make a Push that would move a piece into the top or bottom wall
- The first player to Push one of their opponent’s pieces off either edge immediately wins the game
Conclusions
This is one of my favorite games. The rules are very simple, but, due to the move and push mechanics, the state of the game changes rapidly every turn. I almost certainly have played over a 100 games of this. When you first start playing, the games are pretty quick because it is easy to fall into a trap. As you play more, the games get longer and the turns get a lot more interesting. Once you know what you are doing (I say it takes a minimum of 5 games before it starts to click), the staggering possibilities start revealing themselves. I do not want to go into too much detail, since I think that the discovery is part of what makes this game great.
Before you buy this game, I would recommend trying it out online here. If you want to buy it, Penny Arcade is the current distributor. As a heads up, the price did jump up by around $15-20 when Penny Arcade became the distributor, so I would recommend waiting for a sale. It is currently marked as limited edition.