I had the pleasure of playing three games of Breakthough today, face to face, with the designer of Breakthrough, Dan Troyka. Thank you, Dan, for introducing this great game with a very simple rule set! What a great game you have invented!

Breakthrough won the 2001 eight by eight board design contest.

For the record, I googled “Breakthrough” several months ago, and discovered that the game designer, Dan Troyka, works in the same city that I do! (Ann Arbor, Michigan) We met today at the annual U-con game festival in Ann Arbor. There were hundreds of gamers at this event from around the country, an interesting event…

I lived in Royal Oak for about six years (1987 through 1993) and one year in the late 1980s I think, I attended that festival. I had a blast.

I remember the board game Abalone had just recenly been invented, and there was an Abalone booth demonstrating and showing off the game. The board was extra, extra large. (I think billiard size balls were used as the playing pieces.)

I also remember seeing the card game SET displayed.

One day they had a big auction and I remember bidding on a vintage 1961 Stratego game from Milton Bradley. (Remember, this was long before the existance of ebay!) The game I was bidding on had the more desirable wooden pieces and was in near mint condition. I remember bidding far more than I should have and lost it to someone who obviously wanted it more than I did.

By the way, did you win?

They still have the auction, although I was unable to attend. Maybe I should have, a wooden Stratego board would be AWSOME!

yes, thank you for asking, I did win all three. Dan played the opening very well positionally, but fell prey to winning tactical manouvers each time.

Congrats.

By the way, were you able to convince Dan to play here?

Dan says he used to play here long ago….I will keep encouraging him to do so! He is more interested in designing new games, and is also busy (as an attorney)