science of board games

Pank-A-Squith, a suffrage-themed board game, came out a century ago and is up for auction at the end of the month. A complete copy of the German-manufactured game is being sold at Bonham's, where it's expected to go for between 600 and 800 pounds.

The board design is incredible, although it may not be clear in this picture. It's printed in full color and even comes with six suffragette markers made from lead and painted in yellow, brown, red, cream, blue and green. The board is decorated in green, white and purple, which were considered the colors of the suffragette movement. The construction of the board may not involve as many bits and pieces as one of Fantasy Flight's games, but it is beautiful and has held together for more than a century.

The name of the game comes from Emmeline Pankhurst, a leading British suffragette, and British Prime Minister H.H. Asquith, a very vocal opponent of women's votes. The goal of the game is to move your suffragette around the 50 squares on the board and reaching the last square, representing universal suffrage. The game mechanics aren't anything fancy, but the names and stories of the individual squares are pretty memorable: There's Square 6, where suffragettes can break the windows of the Home Office, and Square 43, which represents the force feeding of hunger strikers.

Suffrage isn't a theme that see a lot of, but I think it could be very interesting with the right mechanics.