Crossing Stonehenge, A Stonehenge Abstract Strategy Game by Rich Hutnik
Stonehenge has shown itself to be a versitile set of equipment to design games around. Looking over Stonehenge, I felt compelled to come up with a positional abstract strategy game. Upon examing the parts and layout, I managed to come up with this purely abstract strategy game utilizing the basic equipment. Like most abstract strategy games, Crossing Stonehenge is very weak on back story. Crossing Stonehenge borrows from the likes of chess, Turkish checkers, and my own game Linebreakers, which uses a unique method of trap and delay capture, based around Reversi.
Game Rules
Number of players: 2
Object of the game: To either capture an opponent's druid or get your own druid across the board. See diagram above for board. A win for green player to get their druid piece to space A10 (gb). The yellow player would win if they got their A21. Both these players could also win by capturing their opponent's druid piece.
Getting Started
Equipment: Stonehenge board (using spaces 10-21 only)
1 green figure and 1 yellow figure
1 green bar and 1 yellow bar
10 green disks and 10 yellow disks
Setup: The board (on Stonehenge board, this is arched and consists of the outer tracks). Spaces 13-18 remain empty, and are removed from diagram below:
gb yp yp gp gp yb A
yp yp yp gp gp gp B
10 11 12 19 20 21 C
yp yp yp gp gp gp
yd yp yp gp gp gd D
Key:
##
XX is a space on board. XX is used to describe what occupies space at start. ## in XX space means space is blank
gb - green bar space. Victory space for green. Has a green bar on it
##
yb - yellow bar space. Victory space for yellow. Has a green bar on it
##-##
10-21 - These spaces match number space on board. A-D on above diagram is to help with notation purposes only for these rules, and are not on the board. A-D correspond with sections of the board. A is the outer most part, B is the colored spaces, C is the space with the numbers, D is the day-night spaces.
yp - Space contains a yellow disk (pawn)
gp- Space contains a green disk (pawn)
yd - space contains a yellow figure (druid)
gd - space contains a green figure (druid)
Playing the Game
Basic gameplay:
Players alternate moving one of their pieces one at a time, until one player has one or both players agree to a draw. Only pieces that are not trapped may be moved. A piece becomes trapped when it, and possibly other pieces, are between two pieces of an opponent (see diagram below for diagrams of which pieces are trapped).
Types of moves:
Pieces either conduct a regular move, which is a slide, freezing or not freezing move or a capture move (either jump, or frozen piece slide elimination).
The pieces and how they move:
Victory space bar: Doesn't move. It is used to mark victory space and isn't actually a piece used in the game. A piece may occupy the same space as the victory bar.
Pawn: Moves in straight line vertically or horizontally into an unoccupied space. Piece may also jump over enemy pieces (capturing and eliminating any enemy pieces it may jump over). Moves one or multiple spaces in a straight line, vertically or horizontally (NOT diagonally). The piece's move is identical to that of a rook in chess, except for changes made due to how pieces capture in this game.
Druid (figure of given color): Moves just like a Pawn.
* Pawns and druids, unless capturing, must either move vertically towards or away from the center of the board or closer to their own victory bar. For example, a Green Druid or Pawn on B18 is not allowed to end its turn on B19, or B20, or B21. It could move to B10-B17, or A18, C18, or D18.
Jump capture:
* If a player has a jump capture move, by a non-trapped piece, he must make it.
* A piece (Druid or Pawn) may jump over one or more pieces, jumping vertically and/or horizontally. Pieces are not permitted to land back at the same spot they started from. Any opponent's piece that is jumped over is captured (and removed from the board). If an opponent's Druid piece is capture, the owner of the druid piece loses the game. Pieces may jump backwards when they are capturing an opponent's piece. If multiple jump captures exist, player has the option as to which to execute all of them (but they must at least do the first jump).
Trapping (and delayed capture):
* A piece may move into a situation where it becomes trapped.
* When a piece moves and causes a series of opponent's pieces to become trapped (see diagram below), and unable to move, in a following turn (need not be the next turn), it may conduct a capture move.
* A trap capture move consists of moving a piece trapping an opponent's piece one, vertically or horizontally, to a space occupied by an opponent's piece that was trapped by this piece. This trapped piece is removed from the board and the trapping piece takes the trapped piece (a trapping piece may slide backwards to capture). Diagram below shows this (X represents one player's pieces, O represents another player's pieces. Types of pieces don't matter):
X#OOOOOX (O pieces are not trapped... yet.)
#XOOOOOX (X piece on left moves one space right and traps the O pieces. The O pieces in this diagram are now trapped and can't move)
#XOOOOX# (The later turn, X piece on right moves one space left and removes an O piece from the board. Either X piece trapping could have made a move to remove a piece it trapped, from the board).
Sample trap/capture positions:
[Note: # is a space. X is a piece that is trapping a piece and can capture an opponent's piece. Z is a piece that is trapping an opponent's piece but can't capture, because it is also trapped. O is an opponent's piece that is trapped. @ is an opponent's piece that is not trapped. In the diagram, what specific pieces X or O are is irrelevent.]
Legal trap positions:
XOOOOX
XOOZOX
X
O
X
XOZOOOZOZ@
XOZOX
O
X
Pieces are not trapped:
X@@@#@@@X (Space between the opponent pieces make trap not possible)
Ending the Game
One player wins when they either capture their opponent's druid or get their druid across the board on to the space containing their color bar. A game can also end if a player has not advanced one of his pieces 10 turns in a row. The first player to fail to do this loses the game.
Rich Hutnik is a regular on Board Game Geek, contributing far too many Geeklists to that website. He generally gets antsy and wants to tear apart just about every game on the planet to create a new games out of them. This compulsion to turn everything he gets his hands on is why he was drawn to Stonehenge. Crossing Stonehenge is his first positional abstract strategy game for Stonehenge. It was created in an attempt to creature a purely abstract strategy game using the Stonehenge system.
This rule set is for use with
Stonehenge: An
Anthology Board Game?Ñ¢ from Paizo Publishing.
Stonehenge may be purchased at
paizo.com
or at your favorite local game store. ©
2009
Paizo Publishing, LLC. Titanic Games, its logo, and Anthology Board Game are trademarks of Paizo Publishing, LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries.
All rights reserved. This contribution was made under the Anthology Board Game Library Agreement, whose conditions apply to the material in this document. For more free
Stonehenge
rule sets, visit the Stonehenge
Library at
paizo.com/stonehengelibrary.
Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at
webmaster@paizo.com.
Recent Posts
