Sibling Rivalry - Designed by Matthew Baldwin

For 2 players

BACKGROUND

The sibling rivalry between you and your brother is legendary.

For whatever reason, you have spent your entire life trying to prove your superiority to your brother.

Unfortunately, that life is about to end.

Four days ago Barbarians attacked from the west. Both you and your brother marshaled your individual forces and followed your father to meet the enemy. At first it seemed the battle would be easily won: for each of your soldiers who fell in battle a score of Marauders were dispatched.

But by the third day it became apparent that, while your own forces rapidly dwindled, there would be no end to the Barbarian horde. And this morning your losing battle quickly became a rout: The King was slain, you found yourself surrounded, and the forces controlled by you and your brother were reduced to a mere handful apiece.

Now, as the Marauders press in, you know that you will soon be sent to your reward. But you don't fear death. In fact, only one thing weighs on your mind: this is your absolute last chance to outdo your brother.

And you are certain he is thinking the same thing.

OBJECT

Each player attempts to amass more Kills than his opponent before both Princes die in battle.

EQUIPMENT AND DEFINITIONS

• 8x8 board
• complete set of chessmen
• complete set of checkers (12 red, 12 black)

A chess king is a Prince; a queen is a Champion; a bishop is a Swordsman; a knight is a Knight; a rook is a Guard. These pieces are collectively called Soldiers.

A single red checker is a Barbarian; a double black checker (i.e. two stacked black checkers) is a Barbarian Chief (or Chief). These pieces are collectively called Marauders.

The chess pawns, called Kills, are used to indicate how many more Marauders a player has killed than his opponent.

Pieces not currently in play are said to be in the Reserve.

Two squares on the chessboard are adjacent if they touch horizontally, vertically or diagonally.

You can print this 8x8 game board (PDF) with black and white squares, this one (PDF) with gray and white squares, or this one (PDF) with blue and white squares.

SETUP

Figure 1: Initial setup of the board

The Soldiers are put on the board in accordance with figure 1. White Soldiers are placed on light squares and black Soldiers are placed on dark squares. The Princes and Champions are first put in the four squares in the center of the board, each player putting his Prince in the like-colored square closest to himself, and his Champion in the like-colored square farthest from himself. The remaining Soldiers are placed in the band of squares surrounding them: Each corner square contains a Guard, the next square clockwise from each Guard contains a Swordsman, and the Knights are placed in the remaining spaces.

The Marauders and Kills are placed near the board in the Reserve.

One player begins the game owning all the white Soldiers, his opponent owns all the black Soldiers.

The player that owns the white Soldiers goes first.

PLAY

Players alternate taking turns. A player's turn is divided into two phases: a Soldier phase and a Marauder phase. During each phase a player receives 5 Action Points (APs) which he may use to perform specified actions.

Soldier Phase

During the Soldier Phase, a player may spend his 5 APs to move Soldiers and attack Marauders. A player need not use all of his APs during his Soldier Phase, but they do not accumulate from turn to turn; unused APs are lost.

Move a Soldier: For 1 AP, a player may move any Soldier he owns. A Soldier may be moved to any vacant, adjacent square. Princes, Swordsmen and Guards move one square per AP spent; Knights and Champions may move two squares per AP spent. When moving a Knight or a Champion, the second of the two moves is not mandatory and need not be in the same direction as the first.

Attack a Marauder: For 1 AP, a player may attack a Marauder. The square that the attacked Marauder occupies is the Target Square. A player may only attack a Marauder if he owns at least one Soldier adjacent to the Target Square, and if the Soldier Attack Value (SAV) for the Target Square is 1 or greater. To calculate the SAV for a given Target Square, start with a base value of 0 and perform the following computations:

• For every Prince, Knight or Guard adjacent to the Target Square (regardless of who owns them), add 1.
• For every Swordsman or Champion adjacent to the Target Square (regardless of who owns them), add 2.
• For every Barbarian in or adjacent to the Target Square, subtract 1.
• For every Chief in or adjacent to the Target Square, subtract 2.

The attacked Marauder is killed and returned to the Reserve. If the opponent of the attacking player has no Kills, the attacking player takes a Kill from the Reserve. If the opponent of the attacking player has at least one Kill, the attacking player does nothing and his opponent returns one of his Kills to the Reserve.

After a Marauder is killed, the attacking player must immediately move one of his own Soldiers from an adjacent space into the vacated Target Space. This movement is part of the attack and does not require 1 additional AP.

Figure 2: Example of SAV and MAV

(Continued on Page 2)

Sibling Rivalry © copyright 2001 Matthew Baldwin.

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