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Civil War – A Chess-Like Game for Four Players
The board is divided into four regions, each with a three-by-three fortress in the corner. The layout and starting positions of each piece are given below.
The object of the game is to remove the enemy Kings while the player's King sits in the central square, known as the Capital City. If the player fails to place his King in the Capital City before removing all enemy Kings then the game is considered a draw. Only the King can be moved into the Capital City.
No piece can cross the wall of the fortresses (marked out in purple), but any piece can move into or out of a fortress through the gate.
There are a total of ten kinds of piece:
The King can move to any of the surrounding eight squares
The Queen can move one step to any orthogonal square or up to three squares diagonally
The Prince can move one step to any adjacent diagonal square or up to three squares orthogonally
Upon reaching an enemy fortress, the Prince is promoted to a Grand Prince, gaining unlimited movement in the orthogonally forward, left and right directions.
The Bishop can move forward, left or right one square or up to three squares in the two forward diagonal directions.
Upon reaching an enemy fortress, the Bishop is promoted to the Archbishop.
The Knight can move up to three squares directly forward, as well as to the two squares immediately forward in the diagonal direction, and to the two squares directly forward of them. The Knight can skip over both enemy and allied pieces to reach any of these points.
Upon reaching an enemy fortress, the Knight is promoted to the Baron. Only when moving forward can the Baron skip other pieces.
The Pawn can move to any of the square directly in front of it or to one of the two squares diagonally forward
Upon reaching an enemy fortress, the Pawn is promoted to the Pikeman.
Neither the King or Queen are able to be promoted.
Pieces other than the King may capture other pieces through the following process:
a) The attacking piece must be moved orthogonally forward to occupy a square in which an enemy piece currently sits.
b) Each piece has an associated score (King = 10, Grand Prince = 9, Queen = 8, Archbishop = 7, Prince = 6, Baron = 5, Bishop = 4, Pikeman = 3, Knight = 2, Pawn = 1)
c) A piece of higher value may capture any piece of lower value automatically.
d) If a piece of lower value attempts to attack a piece of higher value, then a twelve-sided die must be rolled, returning a number greater than the difference in value between the two pieces plus one for the attack to be successful. For example, if a Pawn (1) tries to take a King (10), then the die must show a number higher than 10. However, if a Pawn (1) tries to take a Knight (2), then the die must show a number greater than 2.
e) If a piece tries to take a piece of equal value then the die must show a number between (and including) 9 and 12.
f) If the result of the die roll is equal to the value of the difference between the two pieces (or between 5 and 8 for equal value pieces), then the attack is considered a draw and the attacking piece is returned to the square it occupied at the start of the turn.
g) If the result of the die roll is less than the value of the difference between the two pieces (or between 1 and 4 for equal value pieces), then the attack is considered a failure and the attacking piece is removed from the board.
Special note should be made regarding the direction of attack. Pieces other than the King and Queen have a forward “face”, facing away from the player. This face marks out which direction is considered orthogonally forward, and thus which way a piece can attack. As a result, a Pawn, Knight, Bishop and Prince can only attack when moving away from the player, regardless of, in the case of the Prince, that piece is moving backwards. However, the promoted pieces, when moving backwards, are considered to be “retreating” and thus conceptually moving forward. As a result, a Grand Prince, Archbishop, Baron and Pikeman can attack pieces while moving backwards. The Queen is, therefore, the only piece that can attack in any orthogonal direction from the start of the game.
When attacking an enemy King in the Capital City, the player needs to place their attacking piece in an orthogonally adjacent square and then roll the die. This differs from other attacks in that the attacking piece does not take over the square previously occupied by an an enemy piece.
When a King is captured, the player can continue moving their pieces. Betrayal is still possible, but it involves promoting a Grand Prince to a King and skipping a turn (a Prince cannot be promoted to a King). If the player who lost their King has no Grand Prince, then they lose control of their pieces to either their ally or the player who captured their King, both of whom are then able to make two moves per turn, one using their pieces and the other using the newly-controlled pieces (in the case of a triple alliance, this gives one player an extremely weighted advantage of three moves per turn against one move per turn). If the player does have a Grand Prince, then they are capable of moving their own pieces, but must promote the Grand Prince to a King in order to betray their ally or “controlling” King.
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There are several different two-player and three-player variants which follow generally the same rules and which can be derived from the above rules (for example, the transfer of pieces upon capturing a King means that in "non-weighted" three-player variants, capturing the "neutral" King results in the player gaining a new set of pieces).
