| Gobbler | |
Designed by Luke Weisman
Gobbler is a quick game for two players. One player has two pieces (the Gobblers) that attempt to eat as many of the other player's sixty pieces (the Littles) as possible. It is played on a Chess board with Go stones and Chess knights.
Components
Fill the board with the Littles, one Little per square, except for the four central squares. Then place the two Gobblers in the center so they are kitty-corner to each other.
Play
The Littles go first. The Littles move three of his pieces one space in any direction. Littles are small, so the Littles player can move any number of Littles into a single square. The Littles player cannot move a single piece multiple spaces. The Littles player does not need to use all his moves.
The Gobbler moves one of her pieces either one or two knight move hops (a knight move is a jump two spaces in one direction, then one space over, making the shape of an L). The Gobbler eats any Littles it lands on. It must consume two or more Littles in its two hops, and will stop hopping as soon as it consumes two or more Littles (so if it lands on two Littles in its first hop, it eats them and then immediately stops moving.) Any move not resulting in the consumption of two or more Littles is invalid and disallowed. Note a Gobbler can hop into an empty square as long as the subsequent hop is into a square populated by two or more Littles.
When a Gobblers stops moving, all adjacent Littles run directly away from the Gobbler one space. If a Little is up against the edge of the board but on the diagonal with the Gobbler it slides down the edge one space. If it is stuck in the corner, it is pinned and eaten. If it is directly adjacent to the Gobbler and on the edge of the board, it is pinned and eaten. If a Little would run into the jaws of another Gobbler, it is eaten. Pinned and eaten Littles do not count towards the two Littles eaten per move requirement for a Gobbler. A Gobbler move and subsequent Littles scattering is illustrated in the diagram below (G is a Gobbler, L is a Little, 2 is two Littles).
If a Gobbler cannot move during a turn due to lack of Littles, it starves and is removed from the board. Even if the Gobbler could reach one Little, but not two, the Gobbler starves. A Gobbler starves even if the other Gobbler is still able to move.
The game ends when both Gobblers have starved.
Winning
The Gobbler player wins if she manages to consume more than forty Littles. The Littles player wins if he manages to save forty Littles or more.
Ranking System
Differences between players in exposure to the game and natural ability is easily corrected by the following ranking system -- based on the beauty of handicap stones and ranking in Go -- to create an even game. A player has two ranks, Marauding and Scatter, representing ability with Gobblers and Littles respectively. A rank of 0 is a truly novice player. Higher ranks indicate greater ability. With each game played, the winner gains a rank of the appropriate type and the loser loses a rank. If this would put a rank below 0, leave the rank at 0.
The ranks affect the number of Littles the Gobbler needs to eat in order to win. Add the Gobbler's Marauding and subtract the Little's Scatter to the Gobbler's base objective of eating more than forty Littles to determine the threshold for the Gobbler's victory. So, a 8M/10S player playing the Gobblers against a 13M/12S player would need to eat more than 40 + 8 - 12 = 36 Littles to win. In this example, if the Littles won, the second player would go up a rank in Scatter and the first player would lose a rank in Marauding.
Strategy
One way for the Littles to survive is to sacrifice Littles so the Gobblers get lured to one side of the board where they hopefully starve. Traps and trickery on the part of the Littles is the heart of the game. The Gobblers, in turn, must keep an eye to the long term and avoid being tempted into short-term gain. Also, there is a cool checker pattern for the corners that is often safe for Littles -- see if you can discover it!
This game © copyright 2002 Luke Weisman.
For 2 players
Introduction
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Setup
Before 1st Hop 2nd Hop After Scatter
L L L L L L L G L L L L _ L L 2 2 _ 2 L
L L L _ G L L L _ _ L L L _ _ _ _ _ _ _
L L L G _ --> L L L G _ --> L G L G _ --> _ G _ G _
L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L _ _ _ L L
L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L 2 2 L 2 L
In the above, one Little was eaten on the first hop, one on the second hop, one was pinned and eaten when the Littles scattered, and one was chased into the maw of the other Gobbler.
