Death Stacks

Death Stacks is a two player abstract strategy board game invented by Stephen Euin Cobb, developed as a variant of Focus, the classic stacking game designed by Sid Sackson and published in his collection A Gamut of Games. Players maneuver stacks of colored pieces across a checkered board, capturing opposing stacks by landing on them and absorbing their pieces, with the height and composition of a stack determining how far it can move and how much strength it carries into a capture. Cobb invented the game on November 27, 2002 and secured a copyright for it on January 21, 2004, refining Focus's stacking mechanic into a leaner, faster playing design. The game has built a dedicated following in Cobb's home region of the Carolinas, where an annual Death Stacks Tournament is hosted each summer by ConCarolinas, a science fiction and fantasy convention held in Charlotte, North Carolina, giving the game a direct link between a tabletop abstract strategy title and an organized fan convention scene.