Explained in Gladstone's Games to Go, Moka is an abstract strategy game played on a 6x6 board, where the players vie to create a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line of three of their playing pieces, all with the same side up. From Gladstone s Games to Go: Moka was invented by Jay Laird and Mark Rosenstein in a series of brainstorming sessions during the late 1990s. The two would play at their favorite Boston and Cambridge cafes, including the late, lamented beanery that lent the game its name. Though Moka can be played anywhere with coins or pen and paper, there s a certain charming resourcefulness to using sugar packets for markers if you happen to be playing in your favorite coffee shop.

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