"Melee"

For millennia, humanity’s greatest strategic minds have converged on the checkered lattice. From the royal court maneuvers of Chaturanga and Chess, to the imperial encirclement of Go and the defensive king hunts of Norse Hnefatafl, classic strategy has rested on one shared truth: zero luck, pure skill, and perfect information.

Yet, across centuries, board games followed familiar paths of attrition: pieces were removed from the board, empty space remained passive, and battles resolved in static exchanges.

MELEE was conceived to honor this timeless heritage while shattering its limitations. Contested across a 10×10 rotated diamond, Melee turns orthogonal vectors on their side, transforming standard grid lines into diagonal sightlines of attack.

Unlike any classic ancestor, Melee introduces dynamic corpse physics: fallen units are inverted rather than discarded, remaining on the battlefield as physical terrain. These fallen warriors become impenetrable barriers for their grieving kin, while turning into super-highways of movement and unobstructed line-of-sight strikes for their conquerors.

Crafted across generations by Ronald Van Hook and Nathan Van Hook, and bearing the family’s historic cattle brand monogram, Melee stands as both a tribute to ancient board traditions and a revolutionary new frontier in tactical combat.