Tag: Defensive power

Defensive powers are those that in some way protect your starting area, a square or your pieces. The general strategy is to either get the opponent to attack you, or, failing that, to perform a slow pawn advance. Defensive powers can be subclassified into zone defense, piece defense, and square defense.

  • Zone Defense: A power that protects your pieces while they are in a specific zone. The basic strategy is to stay in the zone and get your opponent to enter it, where you will have the advantage.
    • American Colonies
    • Ancient China
    • Balkan States
    • Byzantine Empiere
    • Troy
    • U.N. Peacekeepers
  • Piece Defense: A power that protects specific pieces, no matter where on the board they are. This is more mobile and the best strategy would be to attempt a pawn charge, rather than having the opponent attack you.
    • Assassins' Guild
    • Canada
    • Carthage
    • Egypt
    • Jerusalem
    • Ministry of Truth
    • Persia
    • Switzerland
    • West Germany
  • Square Defense: A power that protects a specific square from attack. The only such power at present is Israel, and to play it effectively you should use its power to prevent enemy advances or eliminate escape routes for enemy pieces.
    • Israel


American Colonies

YOU HAVE THE POWER OF MILITIA. You can summon a militia to defend your starting area.


Starting configuration for American Colonies

Once per turn, after moving you may summon a militia in your 3x5 starting area. A militia can move like a king, but may only capture diagonally, and is destroyed two turns after it is summoned. A militia may make a move outside your 3x5 area only to capture a piece.


Ancient China

YOU HAVE THE POWER OF THE GREAT WALL. The Great Wall keeps your enemies out as long as it stands.


Starting configuration for Ancient China

You have a wall partially enclosing your 3x5 starting area as shown. Enemy pieces may not cross the wall unless they jump over it. Your queen cannot cross the wall, and if your queen is captured, the wall no longer functions.


Assassins' Guild

YOU HAVE THE POWER OF STEALTH. Assassins can strike without warning.


Starting configuration for Assassins' Guild

You may only have one knight in play at a time: if you have more than one knight at any time, you must remove all your knights except for one from the board. On your turn, instead of moving, you may permanently convert a bishop or rook you control into a knight.

At the beginning of your turn, you may choose to hide your knight. Knights may be hidden for up to three turns in a row. While your knight is hidden, its position is not shown on the board but is secretly written down each turn by you. Hidden knights may still be captured, but if a piece passes through a hidden knight, you may choose to reveal the knight’s location and automatically capture the piece that moved through it.


Balkan States

YOU HAVE THE POWER OF ASSASSINATION. The countries of the Balkan region have constant conflict and one of the highest assassination rates in the world.


Starting configuration for Balkan States

At the start of your turn, if you have at least three pieces in play, you may target any enemy piece in your 4x4 area and roll a six-sided die:

  1. You misfire. If any of your pieces is horizontally or vertically adjacent to the target, it is destroyed; otherwise, nothing happens. If more than one of your pieces are adjacent, you choose which piece is destroyed.
  2. If the target is a pawn or knight, it is destroyed.
  3. If the target is a pawn, knight, or bishop, it is destroyed.
  4. If the target is a pawn, knight, bishop, or rook, it is destroyed.
  5. If the target is any non-royal piece (including special pieces), it is destroyed.
  6. The target piece is automatically destroyed. If it is a royal piece, you checkmate its owner.


Byzantine Empire

YOU HAVE THE POWER OF RETREAT. When attacked, the Byzantines can quickly retreat back to their own borders.


Starting configuration for Byzantine Empire

On your turn, instead of moving a piece normally, you can move any of your pieces to any open square in your 2x4 starting area. If the piece is outside your 3x5 area and is not a pawn, you may use this ability to move it into a square in your 2x4 area that is occupied by an enemy piece, capturing the enemy piece.


Canada

YOU HAVE THE POWER OF HEALTHCARE. With free health-care, you can heal your troops from a state of near-death.


Starting configuration for Canada

Twice per game, you may take any piece that you lost at some point in the game and place it anywhere in your 2x4 starting area.


Carthage

YOU HAVE THE POWER OF ELEPHANTS. These slow but powerful beasts can decimate the enemy ranks.


Starting configuration for Carthage

Elephants can move up to three squares horizontally or vertically each turn and may only be captured by pieces no more than two squares away from them.


FBI

YOU HAVE THE POWER OF DISGUISE. Your enemies can’t be sure that they are capturing the right piece.


Starting configuration for FBI

When one of your pieces is about to be captured, you can switch places between that piece and another piece you control within three squares of it.


Israel

YOU HAVE THE POWER OF BARRICADES. You can predict your opponents’ moves in advance and build up barricades to hinder them.


Starting configuration for Israel

At the end of your turn, you may choose any unoccupied square on the board. Until the start of your next turn, non-royal pieces may not move into or through that square.


Jerusalem

YOU HAVE THE POWER OF CASTLES. With stunning speed, you can fortify your kingdom.


Starting configuration for Jerusalem

At the end of each of your turns, you may choose a non-royal piece you control that has not moved that turn. Until the start of your next turn, the chosen piece may not be captured, except by royal pieces.


Ministry of Truth

YOU HAVE THE POWER OF HISTORY. History is in the hands of those who rewrite it.


Starting configuration for Ministry of Truth

You start the game with four points. Whenever you capture a piece, you gain one point.

At the start of any opponent’s turn, you may pay one point to take back your last move. You may pay one additional point to immediately make a move, interrupting the current player’s turn. If a move is taken back, so are all of its effects (i.e. captured pieces are brought back into the game), and after the interruption, play resumes normally starting with the play clockwise from you.


Persia

YOU HAVE THE POWER OF ESCAPE. Your king always seems to elude his captors.


Starting configuration for Persia

You do not lose the game if you do not have your king in play.

On your turn, instead of moving you may put any of your pieces that have been captured or destroyed into your 2x4 area, as long as your king is in play.

Whenever you are put in check and the only way you can get out of check is by moving your king, you must immediately remove your king from the game.


Switzerland

YOU HAVE THE POWER OF NEUTRALITY. The Swiss are naturally protected from almost any attack, and can choose to stay out of most conflicts.


Starting configuration for Switzerland

An enemy player may only capture a Swiss piece if at least one of the following conditions is satisfied:

  1. The Swiss captured a piece belonging to that player at some point in the game.
  2. The enemy player has already either captured or lost at least three pieces.
  3. The enemy player is in check.


Troy

YOU HAVE THE POWER OF WALLS. You can wait out the enemy behind your walls.


Starting configuration for Troy

While a piece you control is in your 4x4 area, it can only be captured by a piece no more than two squares away from it or by a knight.


U.N. Peacekeepers

YOU HAVE THE POWER OF PACIFISM. Although you do not carry lethal weapons, you have other ways of ending wars.


Starting configuration for U.N. Peacekeepers

Your bishops and rooks may only move up to three squares each turn. Your pawns may move one square in any direction each turn.

Your pieces can only be captured within your 2x4 starting area, and you can only capture other pieces normally if they are within your 2x4 starting area, and only with your bishops and rooks. Your pawns cannot capture anywhere.

If an opponent’s piece cannot move at the start of its owner's turn, and at least one UN Peacekeeper is horizontally or vertically adjacent to it, that piece is removed from the game.

You are checkmated only if any opponent moves at least three of his/her pieces into your starting area.


West Germany

YOU HAVE THE POWER OF AIRLIFT. You can quickly move your forces on and off the field.


Starting configuration for West Germany

On your turn, instead of moving, you can choose to either:

  • take a piece you control off the board as long as it is within two squares of another piece you control, or
  • place a piece removed from the board with this ability onto the board as long as it is placed within two squares of a piece you control.
You cannot use either of these abilities to cause check.


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