Charing Cross

Hi BGDF! I'm brand new here, so I thought, what better way to say hello than to show you one of my designs?

Here's a pure-strategy board game I designed a while back. It's actually really simple to learn, as there are only two types of move and a very small number of pieces. If anyone has any comments, I'd love to hear them!

This game is my submission to Daniel Solis' 1000 Year Game Design Competition at http://www.thousandyeargame.com/ - lots of neat ideas there!

[To describe locations we will use standard chessboard notation, where each column from left to right is given a letter from A to H consecutively, and each row from bottom to top is given a number from 1 to 8.]

Charing Cross

Objective: The objective of the two-player game of Charing Cross is to move any one of your pieces from its home area, where it begins at the start of the game, to its goal area, which is on the other side of the playing board, before your opponent accomplishes the same.

Equipment: An 8x8 square tiled playing board, like a chess or checkerboard; two black pieces of one type; two black pieces of another type; two white pieces of the first type; two white pieces of the second type. [In this document, we’ll assume you have used two black knights, two black rooks, two white knights and two white rooks as your playing pieces.]

Setup: The game begins with all eight pieces on their home squares. Place the two white knights at A4 and A5, the two white rooks at D8 and E8, the two black knights at H4 and H5, and the two black rooks at D1 and E1. One player will control the black pieces, the other player will control the white pieces. [See the attached image for the starting setup.]

Goal squares: We will use the term goal squares to denote the squares a piece needs to reach for the controlling player to win the game. The white knights (starting at A4 and A5) need to reach any square in column H, the black knights any square in column A. Similarly, the white rooks (starting at D8 and E8) need to reach any square in row 1, the black rooks any square in row 8. The collection of goal squares for a given piece is known as its goal area. For instance, all squares in column H are the goal area for the white knights.

Gameplay: Players alternate taking turns until one player moves one of their pieces to any of that piece’s goal squares. On your first game, use whatever means you like to decide who takes the first turn. On subsequent games, the losing player of the previous game becomes the starting player of this game.

Turns: The incoming player may either make one jumpmove with one of their pieces, or one forward move with one of their pieces. If the moved piece finishes in its goal area, the game is over and the current player has won the game. If a piece were jumped, the player controlling the jumped piece immediately chooses a vacant home square for that piece - if no home square is available, the piece is removed from the game. Play now continues with the next player taking a turn.

Jump moves: Any piece may jump any other piece as long as (a) the jumped piece is in one of the eight squares orthogornally or diagonally adjacent to the jumping piece, and (b) the square immediately beyond the jumped piece is vacant on on the playing board.
(As noted above, the player controlling the jumped piece then immediately places that piece in either of that pieces home squares, if vacant. If neither of the home squares for that piece are vacant, the piece is removed from the game.)
[For example, on black’s turn, if a black rook were at D3, a white knight were at C4, and B5 were empty, black could jump the white knight at C4 with their rook at D3, moving the rook to B5, and picking up the white knight at C4 from the board, giving it to the white player. The white player would then place the jumped knight on one of its home squares of white’s choice, in this case either A4 or A5.]

Forward moves: Any piece may move one square toward their goal area, either diagonally or orthogonally, as long as they do not move into either edge of the board, and as long as the chosen square is empty. The edge of the board is defined as both row 1 and row 8 for the knights, or column A and column H for the rooks. [For instance, if black would like to make a forward move with a knight at E5, they could choose D4 or D5 or D6 if the chosen square is empty. If the knight had been at E2, then the only forward moves available would be to D2 or D3, as the square at D1 lies on the edge for that knight.]

[p.s. I used http://www.apronus.com/chess/wbeditor.php to make the attached image, and they asked for a shout-out if you use their site, so here it is :) ]