Cyvasse (Rules by MikeL v4.

3)
Inspired by George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire

George RR Martin has stated Chess, Blitzkrieg and Stratego as his inspiration for
Cyvasse. In this variant: players take turns moving pieces in a manner similar to
chess. The fate of the King is what decides the game. The board itself is a 91-
square hexagonal grid (an element borrowed from Blitzkrieg), and players decide
their initial set ups in secret behind a screen (an element borrowed from
Stratego).

Download this:
www.mikelepage.com/pieces3.doc

Assemble it to look something like this:

http://www.freeimage...loads/acdcq.jpg
(These are assets from the webgame I'm working on)

Terrain and Pieces Terrenos y Piezas

Each player starts with one fortress tile, which they can place on any square in
their half of the board, and this gives advantage to any piece placed on it (more
on that later). The board surface itself is checkered in three colours, indicating
three types of terrain which advantage certain pieces:

Cada jugador comienza con un terreno Fortaleza que puede ser colocado en
cualquier espacio de su mitad del tablero, y da ventaja a cualquier ficha
posicionado en el. La superficie tiene 3 colores, indicando tres tipos de terrenos.

Hill (Carnelian/Red): gives advantage to Crossbows and Trebuchet

Forest (Jade/Green): gives advantage to Spears and Elephant
Water (Lapis Lazuli/Blue): gives advantage to Light Horse and Heavy Horse
Colina: Ventaja a Ballestas y Catapulta

Bosque: Ventaja a Lanzas y elefante

Agua: Ventaja a caballera y caballera pesada

Each player has 10 pieces with movement as follows (note: no piece may "jump"
another):
Cada jugador posee 10 piezas con movimiento (las piezas no pueden saltarse)

No se mueven: Montaas 6

Mueven orthogonal: 1 Peble 6 y Rey 1

Mueven ortogonal : 3 para ballestas (2) hasta el final del tablero para catapultas
(2)

Mueve diagonal : 2 para lanzas (2), hasta el final del tablero elefantes (2)

Mueven relativos a la fortaleza: Formando un hexagon de 3 espacios al rededor

de la Fortaleza para light horse, hasta el final para caballeria pesada.
Stationary: Mountains (x6) (blocks movement of all pieces but Dragon)
Move any direction orthogonally (adjacent squares): 1 square for Rabble (x6) and
King (x1)
Move any direction orthogonally: 3 squares for Crossbows (x2), to edge of board
or mountains for Trebuchet (x2)
Move any direction diagonally (squares of same terrain): 2 squares for Spears
(x2), to edge of board or mountains for Elephant (x2)
Move relative to fortress (move must be along a hexagonal path that starts and
finishes "x" squares away from one fortress or the other): 3 squares for Light
Horse (x2), to edge of board or mountains for Heavy Horse (x2)
Move any direction to a range of 4 squares: Dragon (x1)

Se mueve en todas las direcciones 4 espacios : Dragon

These are grouped into four tier levels as follows:

Tier 1: King, Rabble

Tier 2: Crossbows, Spears, Light Horse
Tier 3: Trebuchet, Elephant, Heavy Horse
Tier 4: Dragon

Capturing, Changes to "Effective" Tier level

A piece can always capture another piece of the same or lesser tier level. There
are two factors which change the "effective" tier level and allow lesser ranked
pieces to 1) attack higher rank pieces (flanking) or 2) defend against pieces of
same rank (terrain).
1) Flanking plays make up much of the strategy in this variant of Cyvasse so this
is where most of the complexity is. Flanking happens when you have 2 or more
pieces with a bearing on a target piece. The attacking piece moves into the
target square to capture the opponent piece and receives a effective increase in
tier level because the other pieces "flank". For example: Two tier 3 pieces can
capture a Dragon because the second tier 3 piece provides a temporary +1
improvement in tier. The same applies in a situation where two tier 2 pieces
attack a tier 3 piece or two tier 1 pieces attack a tier 2 piece. Because each
flanking piece of the same tier level as the attacking piece provides a +1
improvement, it is also possible for three tier 2 pieces to attack a Dragon, or for
four tier 1 pieces to attack a Dragon.

The way pieces of different tier level interact in flanking is that each lower
ranked flanking piece is worth half of a flanking piece from the tier above. So for
example, a tier 3 piece and two tier 2 pieces can also capture a dragon because
each lower ranked piece provides half the flanking power of the tier above it.
Likewise a tier 3 piece, a tier 2 piece and two tier 1 pieces could also attack a
dragon. The special ability of the King is to serve in a flanking play as an equal to
the highest ranked piece in the attack. The highest ranked piece (or one of them,
King included) must always be the one that moves to the target square.

2) Terrain provides a +1 improvement in tier level for defence only, and only as
long as the piece is on it. A King in its fortress is therefore ranked tier 2. An
Elephant on a forest tile (its "home" terrain) is ranked tier 4, but a trebuchet on a
forest tile is only ranked tier 3. Unlike the other pieces, a Dragon does not
receive any benefit from being in the fortress as it is already Tier 4.

Gameplay

Initial set up requires putting a screen across the centre row of squares so
placement of pieces and tiles is done in secret. That leaves 40 "home" squares in
which to place 25 pieces.
A King always starts in its fortress
All other pieces can be placed strategically as desired.
The dragon (the 26th piece) does not need to be placed on the board initially, but
when it is "brought out", it must be placed within one move of home fortress
(including inside the fortress). It may capture on this move.

Promotions:
The fortress can be used to promote any piece to a higher rank if that higher
ranked piece has already been captured. If possible, this happens at the
beginning of a players turn without counting as a turn itself. A rabble in the
fortress can be promoted to any tier 2 piece which has been previously captured.
A tier 2 piece can be promoted to its corresponding tier 3 piece (Crossbows to
Trebuchet, Spears to Elephant, Light Horse to Heavy Horse), and any tier 3 piece
may be promoted to King if this is done the turn immediately following the
capture of the King. The Dragon piece can be neither promoted, nor replaced.

Ruining the Fortress:

If a player's fortress is occupied and cannot be retaken on the move immediately
following the attack, the fortress is ruined and the fortress tile is removed from
the board. All horse pieces can only move relative to the remaining fortress, but
do gain the ability to move one square orthogonally (like rabble). That player can
no longer promote pieces.

End game:
The fate of the King is ultimately what decides the game:
Just as the fortress must be retaken on the very next move in order for it not to
be ruined, the King must be replaced on the very next move for the game not to
be lost. If the fortress is already ruined, or no tier 3 pieces are left/able to move
to the fortress to be promoted, the game ends as soon as the King is captured.

Extras

Optional extra rule:

Sea ports: Each of the 6 corners of the board are connected via the sea. Any
piece that can move to one corner can move to either adjacent corner in that
same move. If a fortress is placed on the edge of the board, it too counts as a
sea port. The reason for this is to allow forest pieces (Spears/Elephants) to
change the terrain that they are moving on.

Praise for the game:

"Just played my first two games of cyvasse. The first took twenty minutes, the
second nearly three hours. My opinion? Compellingly addictive once the rules are
grasped"... Xin

My advice:
Grab a friend a try a few games. All the moves become quite intuitive after a
while. Make use of terrain and flanking. Don't bring out your dragon too early!
Happy playing!