Has anybody done a board where you can ONLY attack countries that DO NOT border the attacking territory?  I mean, besides knight's tour?

And what if you combined that dynamic with a hordes-style bonus system?  Or anarchy-style?

Not to my knowledge - I like the idea, but what might be the backstory?

The thing that pops into my head immediately is a story about how hell is a place where the only food is soup and all the spoons are too long to feed yourself.  And heaven is the same, only the people there feed each other. 

Undersea weapon only works at a distance; surrounding turf needed to build air bubble!

Ender's Game, Dr. Device -- danger to yourself if used too close to home

Quantum tunneling!

The general capriciousness of the universe!

Cloak and dagger politics where one must attack but never be seen to attack.

A mean ol math teacher drawing interlocking Venn diagrams and imposing arbitrary rules on a frictionless plane!

Fighting up and down a family tree -- no attacking blood relatives. 

Rock, paper scissors!

Friends close, enemies closer.

mean ol math teacher drawing interlocking Venn diagrams and imposing arbitrary rules on a frictionless plane!

Frictionless and arbitrary are not friends in this phrase of yours.

Snakes gliding off a frictionless plane...

Reading further down this thread -> witnessing BTdubs descent into madness.

I think a duelling board about a nuclear war and its aftermath between the US and Russia would be cool. After obliterating each other the survivors rebuild their nations and fight across a wasteland to ultimately dispatch their mortal enemy. How it could work:

Each side starts with a number of territories with lots of armies (e.g. cities/states whatever) and a bunch of nukes. The nukes can only be used on turn one (and turn neutral after turn one) and attack the cities of the opposing side with a heavily favoured artillery border...but their the dice would be set to allow for some variability (i.e. taking the city down from say 50 to 1-10 armies on average). Use of medium fog means the two sides cannot see each other after the nukes neutralise. Each side then needs to take a couple of turns to "rebuild" after which they start seeking final victory over the other country, first having to fight across the remains of humanity to reach the opponent....represented by neutrals occupying the countries between the US and Russia. So there might be 5-10 or 15 turns after the initial nuclear exchange before you ran into your opponent again. Lots of opportunity to make use of advanced map features to represent resources etc. to increase army building capacity.

Hugh wrote:

mean ol math teacher drawing interlocking Venn diagrams and imposing arbitrary rules on a frictionless plane!

Frictionless and arbitrary are not friends in this phrase of yours.

 

Snakes gliding off a frictionless plane...

Spoken like a math teacher - and probably a mean one :P