First of all i have to say a big WOW and kudos to Brainking that added Fevga and Plakoto to the available games. 2 of the most played Greek games along with Portes(which is a slight variation of Backgammon).
It's now time people from all over the world to learn and play the King of Backgammon-type of games which is Fevga of course!! Its deep strategic nature is incomparable with any known Backgammon-type game and i'm glad Fencer has chosen the Greek version(Fevga) and not its Turkish brother Moultezim nor the Russian Narde. The last 2 are equally good games and slightly different than Fevga, but the more simplistic/symmetrical/logical/strong(that create a slightly more strategical game) rules of Fevga make it the best!
Fevga is very difficult to master and there are generally 4 main different types of main strategies one can follow to play it. All have their + and - and it's difficult right now to explain all on detail. For now i will just say that this game is by no means to create a 6 prime or a 5-prime, etc. It's not about big primes at all! It's about a combination of controlling the tempo(the definition of it is big and complicated), controlling the key squares of the position(that vary strongly depending on the position) not necessarily by big primes, having flexibility(MUCH more important than in Backgammon) and controlling the critical area of the phase of the game which is different each time and depends on the overall position, usually the critical area of the game changes 1 to 2 times in each game.
Plakoto is a very good game also, but i prefer Fevga and Backgammon as it tends to be slower than Backgammon and not so strategic as Fevga.
There are some different variations of Fevga described on the WEB that suggest how this game is played by Greeks and add to the confusion about it. I(a Greek indeed) have posted information on REC....Backgammon of how the majority of us play it and thank God the www.bkgm.com has listened to me and added my sayings into their rules. Bad thing is that they have not followed my words exactly and now they have 1 mistake, but my emails for some reason, do not arrive to them.
The same mistake and one more serious(in Plakoto) is on the rules for both games here in Brainking.
The Brainking rules for Plakoto say: -------------- Plakoto: "The last checker on your starting point is called the mother checker. If this checker gets pinned by the opponent before it has left the start, the game is over and the player loses the game. The only exception is if the opponent still has checkers on his starting point, since in this case his own mother checker is still threatened. A game in which both mothers are pinned is a draw." --------------
•This is not true as there is a very rare case(the fact it is very rare is irrelevant) where if one pins your mother and has escaped from the starting point, there is still hope for the player that his mother has been pinned to win. ►Look for example the starting position: http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc34/Crocodile13/11662.jpg
►Red has pinned blue's mother and red has moved all his pieces inside his home board. Red rolls 1-1 so has to release the pin on the blue mother as this is the only move. Blue now rolls 6-6 and we have a good battle now. :-) Many other such type of positions exist.
The Brainking rules for Fevga say: -------------- "It is allowed to build a prime (six consecutive blocked points) anywhere else (not in the player's starting quarter), but if opponent has collected all his checkers onto the one point behind player's prime, the player must unblock a point in his prime to allow the opponent a chance to move." --------------
•There is a slight mistake on this. The correct should be: "It is allowed to build a 6-prime anywhere else (not in the player's starting quarter), but if the opponent for all possible dice rolls can't move any of his checkers (for example because he has collected all his checkers onto the one point behind player's prime), the player must unblock a point in his prime to allow the opponent a chance to move."