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Martian Chess!
May. 11th, 2013 11:56 pmTonight we played a couple more games of Gnostica, then tried a new (to us) pyramids game called Martian Chess. It's played on a 4x8 board; each player gets three each of queens, drones (rook limited to 1 or 2 spaces), and pawns (bishop limited to 1 space).
Here's the tweest: all the pieces are the same color. You can make a move with any piece ON YOUR SIDE OF THE BOARD. That means that when you send a piece "over the canal" (Martian, remember?) it now belongs to your opponent. Game ends when one side of the board is completely empty; victory is determined by total point value (3/2/1) of captured pieces.
And it is INTENSE. The first few moves are cautious maneuvering for position on one's own side of the board, then a few careful captures here and there, then a vicious bloodbath of capture after capture after capture until the last piece is sent over to trigger endgame. I'm finding that I have to "unlearn" almost everything I know from chess. In some ways it's more like mancala. Crazy fun mental workout; would play again.
This also brings the list of pyramid games I know how to play up to eight. Two more and I can legally call myself a Starship Captain.
Here's the tweest: all the pieces are the same color. You can make a move with any piece ON YOUR SIDE OF THE BOARD. That means that when you send a piece "over the canal" (Martian, remember?) it now belongs to your opponent. Game ends when one side of the board is completely empty; victory is determined by total point value (3/2/1) of captured pieces.
And it is INTENSE. The first few moves are cautious maneuvering for position on one's own side of the board, then a few careful captures here and there, then a vicious bloodbath of capture after capture after capture until the last piece is sent over to trigger endgame. I'm finding that I have to "unlearn" almost everything I know from chess. In some ways it's more like mancala. Crazy fun mental workout; would play again.
This also brings the list of pyramid games I know how to play up to eight. Two more and I can legally call myself a Starship Captain.
