Land Battle Chess
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Land Battle Chess is a board game developed in China. It simulates modern army combat, in a manner similar to Stratego. The objective is to capture the opposing player's flag, after disabling all their landmines.
Contents |
[edit] Pieces
Each side has 25 pieces (all rectangular blocks) which fall into two categories as ranked pieces and weapons.
Ranked pieces, from weakest to strongest:
- 3 Engineers (gōngbīng, 工兵)
- 3 Platoon Leaders (páizhǎng, 排长)
- 3 Company Leaders (liánzhǎng, 連长)
- 2 Battalion Leaders (yínzhǎng, 营长)
- 2 Regiment Leaders (tuánzhǎng, 团长)
- 2 Brigade Leaders (lúzhǎng, 旅长)
- 2 Division Leaders (shĩzhǎng, 师长)
- 1 Corps Leader (jũnzhǎng, 军长)
- 1 Commander (sĩlìng, 司令)
Special Pieces
- 1 Player Flag (jũnqí, 军旗). If the flag is captured the player loses.
- 2 Bombs (or Missiles) (zhàdàn, 炸弹)
- 3 Landmines (dìleí, 地雷)
[edit] Board
Each side has 30 places to place its pieces, of which two are headquarter tiles, on one of which the flags must be placed. There are also five field bases on each side, and units stationed inside these based are safe from all attacks.
Unlike other board games, the starting location of the pieces is not fixed. The placement of pieces is entirely the choice of the player, subject to some regulation. Landmines can only be placed in the two rows closest to the player. Bombs cannot be placed in the row furthest from the player. Also, pieces cannot be placed inside a field base at the start of a game.
[edit] Movement
Neither the flag nor the landmines may be moved. In each turn one piece may be moved one tile, with the exception of bombs which may move an unlimited number of tiles in one direction (but not through field bases). However, on railways all pieces may move an unlimited number of tiles in one direction, except for engineers, who may move an unlimited number of tiles and also turn on railroad joints. This makes iot easier for engineers to move around the gameboard, disabling landmines.
[edit] Combat
Similar to Stratego, the rank of the combatant pieces alone determines combat outcome, as stronger pieces defeat weaker pieces. Ties result in both pieces being removed. Bombs are always removed together with the opposing piece, regardless of the rank although bombs can be defeated by the platoon leaders. Mines defeat everything except engineers and bombs, which can remove landmines. Mines can only be placed on the two back ranks. Bombs can also be defeated with any opposing piece except a flag and a landmine, by that piece "attacking" and setting off the bomb (The attacking piece is also defeated). This cannot, however, be done when the bomb is in a field base.
[edit] Game modes
[edit] Closed
In this mode, three players are needed of which two are players and the third one acts as a referee. During the game, the pieces are placed so that the top face of a piece faces the player so that his opponent cannot see it, acting as a fog of war. Also because the player cannot see the rank of a particular opponent piece a referee is needed to make judgments in a combat. Some modern sets have an electronic referee, which can determine combat outcomes when the pieces are placed on it facedown. (The pieces are encoded in some way that the referee can read.) This system removes the need for a third person referee.
[edit] Open
Similar to closed mode, except once placement of the pieces is completed, the location of the pieces are revealed to both players.
[edit] Reveal
All pieces are shuffled and placed face down at the beginning of a game. Each player can move a piece or flip over a piece to reveal the piece. The game ends when a player loses his flag and all three landmines. To add a random factor, a piece is allowed to engage in combat with an unrevealed piece. A variation of this mode of play would be the revealing (and then reconcealing) of a piece's true identity only when attacking or being attacked.
[edit] Variations
- Sea-Land-Air Battle Chess, adds naval and air units to combat.
