My own self

Or, in English, "Battle". In my "book-project", though it is an insult to book-projects to call it so, I today had to have two characters play a strategic board-game. While the world the plot takes place in resembles ours closely, culture- and technology-wise, I felt having chess or backgammon there would be pushing it. So I invented some names and pieces on the spot.

Then I made a mistake. I showed this latest addition to the text to Obdormio. Who, by his nature, of course insisted upon a comprehensive guide on how to play the damned thing.


So, here I am. This is still just in the "random ideas"-stage, and it will probably never get any further than that, but hey, I put some work into it, so here you go:



The green line is the Castle Wall of the Green House, the grey one is the Castle Wall of the Shadow House. The blue lines on the sides mark off the Astral Plane, where only the Magicians move. They may move elsewhere - and, to take out other pieces, they usually have to - but are far less powerful outside it ny nature of being more vulnerable.

The purple squares are the High Seat of each of the two houses. The red square is the Throne of the Realm, and the yellow squares symbolize the Royal Court. Most pieces gain some kind of bonus ability when standing in the Court, for example, if your King-piece is on the Throne of the Realm and there are no enemy pieces on the yellow squares, you may promote any one of your peasant-pieces standing on a yellow square to a Knight. (Provided you have no more than one Knight already, there cannot be more than two on each side at the same time) Likewise, if a Knight reach the Throne and you have no King in play, the Knight becomes a King.

Now, how do you win? Well, there are, at this planning-stage, several ways, divided into three categories:

In all scenarios:
1. By placing a Magician-piece on the Royal Throne without any enemy Magician-pieces being placed on the corresponding Astral-squares.
2. By the other player yielding, signified by tipping over (one of) his or her highest ranking remaining officer-piece.

If neither side has a King-piece in play:
3. By having a Knight or Field Marshal-piece in your opponents High Seat-square whilst having no enemy pieces on the Royal Throne or your own High Seat.
4. By taking out all the enemy's officer-pieces and retaining at least three officer-pieces yourself.
5. By placing a High Priest-piece on the Royal Throne without any enemy Magician-pieces being placed on the corresponding Astral-squares.

If only your side has a King-piece in play:
6. By having your King-piece in your High Seat-square without any opponent pieces threatening him.

If both sides has a King-piece in play:
7. By having your King-piece in your opponent's High Seat-square without the opponent being able to remove it in one move.
8. By having your King-piece, non-threatened, on the Royal Throne, while no other piece (including your own) occupy any High Seat or Court-square.
9. Only if you in addition to the King-piece have two Knights in play and placed on squares behind your Castle Wall: By having your King-piece in your High Seat-square without any opponent pieces threatening him while no enemy piece is on the Royal Throne or in Court.



I know. I over-complicate. I always do. It's a character-flaw.

Just wait 'til you see the rest of the rules. (That is, until I bother to imagine them with enough clarity to write them down)


Edit:

Okay, I've made (tentative) rules for the pieces.

Pieces you start play with, from lowest to highest rank:

6 peasants
3 archers
2 siege engines
2 chariots
2 knights
2 magicians
1 field marshal & 1 high priest

Throughout play you may also acquire the following pieces:

1 knight templar, of equal rank with magicians
1 king, highest rank


Peasants: Move and strike like pawns in chess, but cannot move two squares on their first move. When standing on their own Castle Wall they can strike forwards as well as diagonally forwards. When on the enemy Castle Wall, they may strike horizontally as well as diagonally forwards. They cannot enter the Royal Throne-square.
When a peasant is situated behind the enemy Castle Wall its owner may choose to spend a move removing the peasant, and adding a new peasant on any of his or her own free Castle Wall-squares (bar, of course, the two Astral-squares)
When a peasant is situated on a Court-square and its owner's King-piece is standing on the Royal Throne, if there is no enemy units on any of the Court-squares adjacent to the one the peasant is standing on, a move may be spent to exchange the peasant for a Knight.

The officer pieces:

Archers: Move like peasants, but with the following changes: They may enter the Royal Throne-square. May always strike forwards as well as diagonally forwards. May move backwards as well as forwards, but cannot strike backwards. When on own Castle Wall they can strike any directly opposing Siege Engine within firing distance if there are no pieces between them.
May, under the same circumstances as the peasant-knight-exchange described above, be exchanged for a Siege Engine or Chariot, by choice of its owner.

Siege Engines: Moves one square in any direction, save to the three behind it. Cannot strike pieces that aren't placed either on the enemy Castle Wall or in Court. Does not move to the square it strikes pieces in, but spends a move striking them without moving the siege engine itself. Is within "firing distance" when there are between two and no free squares between it and an enemy piece situated on a Castle Wall or in Court. (Though they may not move backwards, this opens for them being able to, in some rare instances, strike backwards, on ones own wall or on the Court.)
No player may have more than two Siege Engines in play at the same time.

Chariots: Exactly like Rooks in chess, but cannot enter any enemy Castle Wall-squares. No player may have more than two Chariots in play at the same time.

Knights: Move and strike like Bishops in chess. When a Knight is moved into the Royal Throne, if its owner has no King in play, it is exchanged for a King-piece. When located on a square next to a High Priest or King-piece, Knights may move - not strike - one square forward, sideways or backward, as long as the square they move to is directly next to the High Priest or King as well, effectively changing the diagonals they may move on.
When the same conditions as for the peasant-knight-exchange are in place, only with a Knight instead of a Peasant and a High Priest instead of a King, a Knight may be exchanged for a Knight Templar-piece.
No player may have more than three Knights or two Knights and a Knight Templar in play at the same time.

Magicians: Move and strike like Knights in chess, but when on the Astral-squares may also move (not strike) one square forward or backward. Able to move on the Astral-squares. If both a players magicians are situated on exactly opposing Astral-squares while the opponent High Priest is on a square between them, a move may be spent to strike the High Priest.

Knight Templar: Move and strike like both Bishops and Knights in chess. You cannot have more than one Knight Templar in play at the same time. Knight Templars may move onto the Astral plane but only to strike a magician or high priest-piece.

Field Marshal: Move and strike like the Queen in chess.

High Priest: Move and strike like the King in chess, only up-to-two squares instead of being limited to just one. May, however, not jump over pieces. Are able to move on the Astral-squares, and able to strike magicians on it. Cannot strike officer-pieces except for Kings and Magicians.

King: Move and strike like the King in chess, but without restrictions - you may for instance move the King into a square where it may be struck.
If, at any time, all the Court-squares are filled with peasants and/or archers, regardless of sides, all Kings are immediately removed from the game.
You cannot have more than one King-piece in play at the same time.




A concern I'm having is that there'll be too few peasants. A variant rule may be to add four Village-squares, like so:

and say that whenever a peasant is located on a village, a player may skip his move to place an additional peasant on any free non-Astral square of his Castle Wall - the limit of peasants for each player being eight.