Board Game Ideas

This interesting proposal of a Chess variant comes from Andy Lewicki (surprise, surprise ) and, as he says, the idea came to him suddenly while thinking about Dice Chess improvements:

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Name of the game: Mad Chess

Rules:

1. The game starts with a regular Chess setup (board 8x8 squares, all the pieces like in traditional chess).
2. Two dice are used and the moves are executed as described below.
3. Chess pieces correspond to numbers on each die as usual - 1 stands for pawn, 2 for knight, 3 for bishop, 4 for rook, 5 for queen and six for king.
4. After the two dice are thrown, a player has a choice to choose one die as a master die but actually move like the second die indicates. Example: we got 6 and 3, so we can use a king (6) and move it like a bishop (3) or choose bishop (3) and move it like a king (6).
5. Any double limits a move to specific figure, and for example, 4 and 4 would move a rook only once.
6. There are possible "empty" throws, unlike in regular Dice Chess. For example, when there are no more knights and queen, any throw 2 and 5 is just a pass for the player.
7. The goal is as usual, to eliminate (capture) opponent's king. There is just one restriction - pawns can eliminate the opponent's king only when 2 dice show 1 and 1. The reason is that the set of Chess pieces contains too many pawns (8) and the game would be too short if they can capture a king with other piece capabilities.
8. This game can end very fast indeed, but many surprises awaits as well.

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Comments? From my point of view, I like this idea very much because the luck factor is not as strong as in Dice Chess and it is possible to create many different strategies.

And the game of the day is created (again) by Andy Lewicki. It is called Big Bang:

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1. The game is played on a regular chess board.


2. Eight pieces for each side without pawns.


3. Queen and King of each color occupy the central square of the board, Kings and Queens facing each other diagonally. This is the beginning stage. Before the time began, packed, unmanifested energies wait for their Big Bang.


4. White King moves along the main diagonal one step back and at the same time in the quarter of the board he is now, three other white pieces appear, randomly.


5. This step is repeated for the black King and then for the white and black Queen respectively. The difference is, Queens can move any number of squares along the main diagonal.


6. At this stage we have all the pieces "on board" and the process of explosion (Big Bang) is ALMOST completed.


7. Creation forces created also 4 friendly black holes that can be used by either side in the way described below.


8. Now we are in the phase of expanding and creating galaxies. Players move their pieces one by one and trying to gather their pieces at the bottom row of their halves of the board and put the in EXACT traditional chess starting position. Who accomplish this task first, is the winner.


9. Black holes usage: if a player has a chance to move into black hole, he may do this and this friendly black hole can teleport this piece to another black hole which is possibly closer to the place the player would like to be in the present moment of the game. It's my interdimensional travel fantasy transfered into chess.
   
   IMPORTANT: After every usage of the black hole, the system rearranges the position of all 4 black holes.


10. That's the end of creation - galaxies escape each other and who knows what awaits us.

Some additional rules:

• Bishops stand on different colors, like in chess.


• Queens and Kings are positioned closer to opponent's first row.


• If after a Big Bang players occupy opponent's target row, they have to move out of these positions first and cannot move back to this row, to prevent possible endless blocking of the game. This is a race game by nature and blocking can take place only outside of the target rows.


• Pieces placed on player's target row and in correct position are frozen and cannot move anymore.

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Comments are welcome.

Another very nice game idea from Andy Lewicki is the subject of today's entry.

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Name of the game: Fourmate (or Fourmation, which one is better?)

Rules: (a combination of several different games)

BORROWED from Fisher Random Chess:
- initial position (random), without pawns.
- no castles
- no "killing" other pieces
- no checks
BORROWED from 4(5) in line:
- players trying to arrange exactly 4 (no 5, 6, ...) of their pieces either in a row (horizontally, vertically or diagonally) or in a square 2x2.
- above formation MUST NOT have more than 2 pieces on player's half of the board.
BORROWED from Connect 6:
- white moves first ONE of his pieces anywhere on the board according to chess rules.
- black moves TWO of his pieces anywhere on the board but these two pieces cannot touch each other, they have to be at least one squares apart.
- white moves again ONE of his pieces anywhere.
... and so game continues this way.
GOAL:
The player who assembles 4 pieces (exactly) as a first in a way prescribed above, becomes the winner.

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I am always glad to see a new idea which is based on Chess but does not require real Chess playing skills. And I am sure that everybody can learn how to move Chess pieces.

This is another game proposal by Andy Lewicki and since BrainKing has no domino games yet, it might be worth a discussion about this topic. Or maybe not - anyway, this proposal sounds very interesting.

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Name: Dominate
Initial info:

• From the whole set of 6x6 domino (28 tiles) set all the doubles (7 in all) are removed and not take part in the game.
• Game is to be played on a grid 6x6 giving 36 fields, which divided by 2 gives 18 double fields - this is the number of domino tiles distributed evenly to players.

Rules:

• Each player gets 9 tiles of domino and keep them unseen for the opponent and 3 domino tiles are left unused till the end of the game, face down.
• First player puts any domino tile on the board on any chosen place, either horizontally of vertically.
• Second player puts any chosen tile on any chosen place on the board, with restrictions below:
  • No row or column may have the half of domino tile with the same number of pips at any time of the game.
  • When the player has no more available moves, he loses the game

This simple game has enormous depth of strategic possibilities, players may guess only a portion of what tiles might be in opponent's hand (three of them are removed from the game but players do not know which).
It's highly unlikely that the game will be drawn. To fill the whole board with 18 tiles players would have to cooperate (solitaire-like mode) which will not be the case. So, prepare yourself for fierce fight from the very beginning.

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And since I am not a domino player at all, perhaps someone who is more experienced would post a comment about this idea.

This proposal of a version of the popular Knight Fight game has been created by MadMonkey and tenuki. It seems that people like Knight Fight so much that they would like to try new variants of this original game as well - and since we already have some of them in our collection of hot tips to be implemented, there is a good chance to make them satisfied.

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Dark Knight Fight

1. Board set up exactly same (with exception of all double values 00, 11, 22 etc....are now replaced by Stars).


2. In addition opponents can NOT see each others scores.


3. Game start, only Top & Bottom Rows are visible to both players (all others values hidden). This is the only point both players can see both Rows of numbers.


4. Player A starts by picking any square on his first row as normal.


5. 1. All other visible squares (Top & Bottom Rows) are now hidden from him.(Point - make notes)
   2. Once he has selected, he gets those points and ONLY then are his next available squares shown to HIM (note: ONLY him, not his opponent).
   3. When Player B makes his first move the same happens, he can see BOTH Rows to start, once he selects his square they are hidden from him as well.
   4. When Player selects number, the mirror is deleted as normal. This mirror is shown to the opponent for just the following move before being blanked out.(Point - make notes to keep track of opponents score)


6. Play then carries on as the normal game. Once a player selects his move, any other squares showing are hidden, and his next ones shown to him.


7. Exceptions are the 10 Star squares. These will NOT be on either first starting Rows. Under these will be 10 values (5 of them will be +100 points, 5 will be -100 points). A player choosing to land on a Star, takes a gamble to gain 100 points or lose 100 points.


8. Game over as normal, when no valid squares for a player to move to. Most points wins.

After some thought we decided that squares used, will be shown as used & also Stars will be shown to both players (i.e. +100 or -100) to keep track of how many used.

The basic idea is to make the game more fun, but also include the chance to take a gamble (the stars). Also great emphasis is being put on players to keep notes (if they want to win). Opponents are only shown Mirrors for their go following so it is down to them to keep note of there opponents score if they wish.

It may take some testing as we did have to think about certain things (e.g. should used squares be shown or left blank so players could trap themselves).

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Well, anybody wants to comment this?