Jungle (board game)
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| Jungle 鬥獸棋 (Dou Shou Qi) |
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|---|---|
 This is a typical inexpensive Jungle set purchased at a Chinese stationary shop. |
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| Players | 2 |
| Age range | 5+ |
| Setup time | 1-2 minutes |
| Playing time | 5-30 minutes |
| Random chance | none |
| Skills required | Strategy, Observation |
Jungle or Dou Shou Qi (traditional Chinese: 鬥獸棋, Game of Fighting Animals) is a traditional Chinese board game. It is also known as Jungle Chess or Animal Chess. It is a two player, abstract strategy game played on a 7x9 board. In many ways, the game resembles the western game Stratego, which has its origin in Jungle.[1] The major difference between the two games is that in Jungle the pieces are not hidden from the opponent and initial setup is fixed.
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[edit] Rules
[edit] Objective
The goal of the game is to move a piece onto a special square, the den, on the opponent's side of the board.
[edit] Board
The Jungle game board consists of seven columns and nine rows of squares. Pieces move on the square spaces as in international chess, not on the lines as in xiangqi. Pictures of eight animals and their names appear on each side of the board to indicate initial placement of the game pieces. Other than initial setup, these animal spaces have no use in game play.
There are several special squares and areas of the Jungle board: The Den (獸穴; pinyin: shòu xuè, "lair") is located in the center of the first row or rank of the board, and is labeled as such in Chinese. Traps (陷阱; pinyin: xiàn jǐng, "snare") are located to each side and in front of the Den, and are also labeled in Chinese. Two water areas or Rivers (河川; pinyin: hé chuān, "river") are located in the center of the Jungle board. Each comprises six squares in a 2x3 rectangle, and labeled with the Chinese characters for "river". There are single columns or files of ordinary land squares on the edges of the board, and down the middle between the rivers.
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[edit] Pieces
Each side has 8 pieces representing different animals, each with a different rank. Higher ranking pieces can capture all pieces of identical or weaker ranking. (The Mouse may attack the Elephant under certain conditions.) The animal ranking, from strongest to weakest, is:
- 8 - Elephant (Chinese: 象; pinyin: xiàng)
- 7 - Lion (simplified Chinese: 狮; traditional Chinese: 獅; pinyin: shī)
- 6 - Tiger (Chinese: 虎; pinyin: hǔ)
- 5 - Leopard (Chinese: 豹; pinyin: bào)
- 4 - Wolf (Chinese: 狼; pinyin: hǎng, láng, lǎng, làng)
- 3 - Dog (Chinese: 狗; pinyin: gǒu)
- 2 - Cat (Chinese: 貓; pinyin: māo)
- 1 - Mouse (Chinese: 鼠; pinyin: shǔ)
Pieces are placed onto the corresponding pictures of the animals which are invariably shown on the Jungle board.
[edit] Movement
Players alternate moves with White moving first. During their turn, a player must move. Each piece moves one square horizontally or vertically (not diagonally). A piece may not move to its own den.
There are special rules related to the water squares:
- The Mouse is the only animal that is allowed to go onto a water square.
- The Mouse may not capture the Elephant directly from a water square.
- The Mouse may attack the opponent Mouse in the water.
- The Lion and Tiger pieces may jump over a river by moving horizontally or vertically. They move from a square on one edge of the river to the next non-water square on the other side. Such a move is not allowed if there is a Mouse (whether or not friendly or enemy) on any of the intervening water squares. The Lion and Tiger are allowed to capture enemy pieces by such jumping moves.
[edit] Capturing
Animals capture the opponent pieces by "eating" them. A piece can capture any enemy piece which has the same or lower rank, with the following exceptions:
- The Mouse may kill (capture) the Elephant. Many published versions of the game say this is done by the Mouse crawling in the Elephant's ear and gnawing at his brains. As stated above, the Mouse may not capture the Elephant from a water square. The Elephant can capture the Mouse during an attack. The powers of the Mouse resemble those of the Spy in Stratego.
- The player may capture any enemy piece in one of the player's trap squares regardless of rank.
[edit] Variations
There are some commonly played variations to the rules official published by the board/pieces maker as follows:
- The Elephant may not kill the Mouse under all circumstances. This is because a mouse is able to dodge the attack of an elephant because of its size.
- The Leopard may jump over the river horizontally but not vertically (due to its lesser strength than the Tiger or Lion). It cannot jump over a mouse in the river though.
- All traps are universal. If an animal goes into a trap in its own region, an opponent animal is able to capture it regardless of rank difference if it's beside the trapped animal.
- Some play the Wolf to be stronger than the Dog.
- There is a simplified version called Animal Checkers, which has no traps or rivers, and only the Mouse, Dog, Tiger and Elephant. [2]
[edit] References
- Bell, R. C. (1979). The Boardgame Book. New York: The Viking Press. ISBN 0-89535-007-6.
- ^ Freeman, Jon. (1979). The Playboy Winner's Guide to Board Games. New York: Playboy Press. ISBN 0-87216-562-0. Retrieved January 29, 2007 from http://edcollins.com/stratego/stratego-freeman.htm
- ^ Animal Checkers. (2007). Retrieved May 20, 2007 from http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~cs3411/07s1/hw3/.
