An implimentation of a board game that may or may not have existed during the Hellenistic period. Written in Janet
To Win the Game: Either remove all opponents pieces (hoplites) from the board or connect to your goal. The game ends immediately when one of these conditions are met.
Required Pieces:
- A 9x9 plain grid of 9 horizontal and 9 vertical lines (Go Board)
- 9 black and white stones each
- 1 black and white Goal (can be a unique piece or a 10th stone)
Setup: For each player place 4 stones in the shape of a square in adjacent corners of the board 1 intersection away from the wall. These are your starting hoplites. Place 1 stone each in the opponent's corner (behind the square); This is your goal.
Life & Death: 2 hoplite are connected if they share an adjacent intersection. 2 or more connected hoplites are considered a living phalanx. A hoplite is dead if they are not connected to another hoplite, or if they are pushed off the board (more below). Dead hoplites are immediately removed from the board.
Flow of Play: Black takes the first turn, then players alternate back and forth. A turn consists of doing optionally up to 3 actions. The same action may be done multiple times. The possible actions are:
- MOVE: move 1 hoplite to an adjacent intersection touching their army. You may split or merge phalanx, but hoplites may not jump between unconnected phalanx.
- RENFORCE/ADD: If you have less than 9 hoplites on the board, add a new hoplite to an existing phalanx
- PUSH: if your phalanx is connected to an opponent's, and the number of your hoplites is greater then the opponents in a straight line, and there is an open intersection on the other side of the line, you may slide the whole line towards the opponent's hoplites 1 intersection. Hoplites pushed off the board are dead.