Components
- A hexagonal board with 45 fields
- 43 Reversi (Othello) pieces
Winning Condition
The player with the greater number of pieces showing his color, when one of the players is unable to move, wins the game.
General Comment
The player playing the black pieces (that is the black side of the pieces) is called Black. The other player plays the white pieces and is called White. In Reviser the players play different roles. One player will play the "Setter," the other will play the "Jumper." Setter and Jumper keep their role during the whole game.
Gameplay
The first player gets the choice to decide which of the two roles he will play. The first player is decided by lot. The second player will play the other role and decide who will start the game and with which color (the color is not important as the board is symmetrical with regard to the starting position).
Starting Position
At the beginning of the game six pieces of each color are set up as in the starting position (shown in diagram B).
The starting player (decided by the "second player") starts the game with a regular move (in accordance with his role). The turn then alternates.
Moving the Pieces
Setter: At his turn, the Setter places one of his pieces on the board. That piece must be in line with one of his pieces so that one or more opponents pieces are between them (without any empty fields between them). These opponents pieces are flipped. This is the same mechanism as in Reversi.
Jumper: At his turn the Jumper must jump with one of his pieces (on the board) over any number of his opponents pieces in a straight line. The opponents pieces he jumped over are flipped. He may continue to jump with that piece if possible. He must not jump over his own pieces or over empty fields.
End of Game
The game ends if one player is unable to make a legal move. The player with the greater number of his pieces on the board wins the game.
Comments
The game can end before the whole board is filled. The longest possible game (with the whole board filled) takes 66 moves (or 67 moves if Jumper starts the game) (6 moves longer than a game of Reversi).
The players take different roles for the whole game. The Jumper has a much greater choice of moves than Setter most of the time. But Setter has the advantage that he always enters an additional piece and that his pieces do not have to move.
The players have the same pieces but their "forces" are clearly unequal in the way they can make use of that pieces. After playing many games of Reviser I personally have a guess who is more handicapped, but it is not all certain who really is the more handicapped.
Diagrams
Reviser © copyright 2002 Jochen Drechsler.
