Yagbap

Yagbap is an entry into the 10 contest, entered at just about the last possible minute.  It is a game including elements from both Chess and the Game of the Amazons.

Setup

Each player starts with one Amazon, one Queen, one Marshall, one Cardinal, two Rooks, two Knights, and two Bishops off board.  One player starts by arranging the White pieces any way he likes on his home three rows.  The other player chooses either to turn the board and play as White with that configuration or to play as Black and thus arrange the Black pieces on his own home three rows any way he likes.

Pieces

The Rook, Bishop, Knight, and Queen move as in standard Chess.  The Marshall moves as a Rook or Knight, the Cardinal moves as a Bishop or Knight, and the Amazon moves as any of the three unit pieces.

Rules

Players alternate moving pieces as in normal Chess.  After a piece has moved, it must also shoot an arrow to any space, according to how it moved:

If the piece just moved as a Rook, it may fire as a Bishop or Knight.
If the piece just moved as a Bishop, it may fire as a Rook or Knight.
If the piece just moved as a Knight, it may fire as a Rook or Bishop.

Arrows are fired to any space the piece could move to with the given firing pattern from its new location.  The arrow creates a block on the space where it lands, and pieces may not move through it (although jumping like a Knight over blocked spaces is legal).  Shooting is not optional.

Every tenth turn (for both players), instead of moving, each player must either (a) un-block a previously blocked space or (b) remove one of their own non-Amazon pieces from the board.  One (and only one) of these actions MUST be performed every tenth turn.

There is no capturing.  The objective of the game is to blockade your opponent's Amazon.  If your Amazon cannot move, and you cannot create a position in which it can move on your next turn, either by un-blocking a space or moving or removing one of your own pieces to create a vacancy, you lose the game.

Notes

This was (obviously) inspired by The Game of the Amazons.  The name "Yagbap" is derived from "Yet Another Game By A Person."

In Amazons, you have four pieces.  In Yagbap, you have ten, but they can eventually be removed if necessary, and the net increase of blocks averages out to between 80% and 90% of that of Amazons in the long run.  Additionally, only one must be blockaded to win, but that one is the most mobile of the ten.

This page is currently locked, which means its author cannot modify the contents of this page. This is done in situations such as when the page is a submission in a contest and the contest rules prohibit changes from being made after a certain date.