Rules

General Game Rules

1. The game is played by two players, who sit on opposite sides of the game board. 
2. The game board is a 11×11 square grid, where the game pieces are placed.
3. The game pieces are positioned in the two rows closest to each player.
4. The pieces are divided into armies.
5. Each army, regardless of faction, consists of 18 pieces.
6. Players can only play with an army belonging to a single faction; combining pieces from different armies is not allowed.
7. The pieces of each army are placed in two rows, with nine pieces in each row.
8. They are positioned opposite each other in cells 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 in the two rows closest to the player.

Piece Placement for Two Players

9. Each piece has three common characteristics: attack, health, and experience.
10. At the beginning of the game, each piece has one unit of attack, two units of health, and no experience.
11. In this version of the game, the pieces are designed in an eco-style. Each piece has three rods on which rings are placed to represent the units: a red ring represents one unit of attack, a green ring represents one unit of health, and a blue ring represents one unit of experience.

Example of an abstract game piece

14. The first player to move is chosen randomly.
15. Each player’s turn is marked by a turn marker, which is passed clockwise among the players.
16. The player who has the turn marker is the one who currently takes their turn.
17. After making a move, the turn marker is passed clockwise to the next player.
18. Each player can use up to three of their own game pieces for each turn.
19. Each of the pieces used can only be used once per turn.
20. Each of these pieces can either attack or move, as specified by the rules of their faction.
21. Both attacking and moving are considered actions.
22. A piece is not required to move the full distance allowed by its movement range if not explicitly stated for that piece.
23. One experience point is gained for each action performed by each active piece.
24. When three experience points are accumulated, they are removed, and either one point is added to attack or one point is added to health, as decided by the player. 
25. If the turn marker is passed to the next player and experience, attack, and health points are not allocated, the piece with unallocated points is considered to have deserted and is removed from the board without any conditions or exceptions.
26. The pieces are divided into three types: infantry, cavalry, and archers.
27. Infantry cannot move through other pieces, regardless of the number of cells they can pass through in a turn.
28. Cavalry can move through other friendly pieces. They cannot move through cells occupied by enemy pieces.
29. Archers can inflict damage without moving through cells, by shooting at fields corresponding to their piece. They can either shoot or move, depending on their movement capabilities. 
30. Archers cannot attack in close combat.
31. When any piece attacks, the attacked piece loses a number of health points equal to the attacking piece’s attack power.
32. If the attacked piece’s health points reach zero, it is considered defeated and removed from the board.
33. The piece that eliminates an enemy piece takes its place on the board, unless it is an archer.
34. If one’s own piece is adjacent to an enemy piece, it does not move during the attack.
35. If a piece moves several cells, it must position itself adjacent to the attacked piece in the direction of its movement towards it. It can only attack at a distance equal to its movement range. If the enemy piece is further away than the distance the piece can move, the piece can only approach it.
36. If a piece cannot position itself adjacent to the enemy piece in the direction of its movement, it cannot attack.
37. The maximum number of attack and health points is eight. If one of the values reaches the maximum, the second value is filled. After that, experience points are also filled to the maximum. A piece with fully filled health, attack, and experience points receives an additional movement point. If it takes damage, the accumulated experience points are reset, and it starts accumulating health points according to the rules until it reaches the maximum or is defeated.
38. Victory is achieved through mutual agreement or by fulfilling the defeat conditions for the opposing faction.

Deployment of pieces for the faction of the second king.

	H	I	I	G	G	G	I	I	H
	H	A	A	K	P	K	A	A	H

H – Horsemen
I – Infantry
G – Guardsmen
A – Crossbowmen
K – Knights
P – Prince

Description of the figures

P – Prince 

Take good care of the Prince, because if your opponent kills him, they win! 

The Prince can attack and move one square at a time in any direction. 

Cells that the Prince moves to

The Prince is in fact just a stand-in for the king of the second realm. When the God of Death was born, the king vanished during the siege of the second fortress, and the high priests of the Temple of Loddor-At created the Prince: a projection of the king from another world, who leads the king’s army into battle. Unfortunately, this projection is very unstable, and so moves extremely slowly. However, if the projection shows talent as a military commander, the priests will resurrect it as the second king and crown it as the ruler of Alestard in the fortress that is to be built in the king’s recaptured lands. Rumor has it that, in those other worlds, the priests have created a game that would let inhabitants of those worlds take on the role of the Prince in battles. But that, of course, is istavris (heresy). After all, the priests would hardly trust just anyone with our troops! The real reason for our failures on the battlefield is that evil Sharadast is stopping the priests from correctly interpreting the projection’s will. Our troops are only making such stupid mistakes because the priests know little of the art of war, and are incapable of understanding the wishes of the king in the other world. 

G – Guardsmen 

Winged, armored troops for direct attacks. They attack and move horizontally or vertically, one square at a time. 

Cells that the Guardsmen move to

Their armor is so heavy that nobody could possibly walk while wearing it, so it has steel wings fixed to it that bless the Guardsmen, helping them move and stay upright. This means the Guardsmen can only walk in a straight line, and can’t cope with sudden maneuvers or jumps. They move slowly, but once they reach enemy lines, Guardsmen are a force to be reckoned with. 

I – Infantry 

The Infantry are a mobile unit capable of sudden attacks and agile maneuvers. They attack and move diagonally, one square at a time. 

Cells that the Infantry move to

Skillful, experienced soldiers, they are trained to carry out sudden, unexpected attacks and complex tactical operations. Experts in fast-paced battles, ambushes, and strikes, they can storm opponents and cause them serious damage. There isn’t much that can be done against a well-trained light infantry brigade. Evil istavrist heretics say they’re particularly good at carrying off parts of catapults. 

K – Knights 

Knights in shining armor carry out direct attacks, mounted on their armored steeds. 

They move horizontally and vertically, one or two squares at a time. Like all horsemen, Knights can move one or two squares in one direction, but they can only cross empty squares or squares containing their own troops. They cannot move through enemy troops. Knights only attack troops that are in their path. If an opponent is two squares away from them, a Knight will end up in the square in front of the opponent when they attack them, three squares away from where they started. 

Cells that the Knights move to

Knights are the king’s faithful servants, his strike force, his protectors and defenders, and the mounted messengers of his anger and wrath. They are the only soldiers who feel no guilt or remorse about the failure to defend the fortress: after all, the walls of a fortress aren’t exactly the best place for a cavalryman in heavy armor riding an armored war horse. Nobody has ever complained, after experiencing one of their attacks, that they were underwhelmed and wanted more. When a heretical istavrist runs into this highly trained combat unit, they’re guaranteed the opportunity for a mindcleanse. 

H – Horsemen 

Eager hunters of enemy archers, masters of the raid, and kings of the unforeseen maneuver. Horsemen attack and move diagonally, one or two squares at a time. 

Cells that the Horsemen move to

The second fortress, silver-stoned Alestard, sits in the center of a great plain, in flood-meadows that are home to deer, eagles, and saber-toothed bears who roar angrily as they attack armored rhinos. When it comes to horsemanship, Alestardians have no equal, and their riders can cause enemies all sorts of problems. Nothing is more likely to make enemy archers consider a career change than seeing a dust cloud appear on the horizon, thrown up by a rapidly approaching Alestardian cavalry unit. The only thing scarier than their lightning-fast raids is their complete lack of direct combat skills and the harshness of the punishment they mete out to istavrist heretics, who marvel at their ability to beat an organized retreat to lines they prepared earlier. It’s thanks to them that no istavrist traitors who don’t want the opportunity for a mindcleanse have ever gotten far. Thanks to their incredible ability to chase down istavrist evildoers in the steppe, the Horsemen were given the right to offer them a cup of silver even in the middle of the steppe. This gave rise to a false rumor that istavrist heretics could occasionally be unusually amenable, and would actually ask the Horsemen to give them pewter to drink instead of silver. After all, it’s not the contents that matter, it’s the Faith! 

C – Crossbowmen 

The only type of archer in Alestard, because everyone in the realm knows how useless archers are in the middle of an open plain. They move one square horizontally or vertically, but their arrows land two squares away in the direction they are moving. 

Сells that the Crossbowmen move to and shoot at

Tasked with defending the fortress walls, Crossbowmen shoot incredibly fast, but unfortunately not very far. They need other units to provide cover, as they can’t defend themselves in close combat. They also need self-restraint in the face of mockery and curses aimed at them for failing to do their job and defend the fortress when the Nurghi destroyed it. When used correctly, Crossbowmen are capable of turning any military operation into trench warfare. They love hiding behind infantrymen and hate horses. Particularly enemy horses. In fact, they hate enemy cavalry in general. Nobody really knows why.