Tag: Time Bomb power

Time bomb powers start out weak but grow more powerful as the game goes on, either by weakening their opponents, or by growing in strength themselves. The key to winning is to always give the appearance of weakness; letting your opponents have a free piece or two early on might be a good idea, as long as this doesn't backfire on you later.

Mycenae

YOU HAVE THE POWER OF THE TROJAN HORSE. Your soldiers are hidden inside giant wooden horses, from which you can catch the enemy off guard.

Starting configuration for Mycenae

Mycenaean knights may not capture but may carry other pieces.

At the start of the game, your army is carried inside the knights. The army consists of one king, one rook, two bishops, and three pawns. Secretly write down which pieces are inside which knight.

On your turn, instead of moving, you can load or unload any number of pieces to or from a knight. Loaded or unloaded pieces must be horizontally, vertically, or diagonally adjacent to the knight. You may load another player’s pieces into a knight only with his permission, and he may only unload pieces from a knight on his turn.

Instead of moving, loading, or unloading, you may choose to "burn" a knight that has at least one piece inside it – the knight, all pieces inside it, and all pieces horizontally or vertically adjacent to it are destroyed.

If one of your knights is ever captured or if another player takes control of one of your knights, all pieces inside of it are automatically destroyed. If your king was inside it, you are automatically checkmated.

Nuclear Rogue

YOU HAVE THE POWER OF THE BOMB. Your army is small, but you have the capability to develop nuclear weapons.

Starting configuration for Nuclear Rogue

Once every three turns (starting on your third turn), at the start of your turn you can choose any 2x2 square in the center 4x4 area. At the start of your next turn, all pieces within this 2x2 square are destroyed.

Ottoman Empire

YOU HAVE THE POWER OF DEPLOYMENT. Although you have a powerful army, you are forced to deploy it slowly because of the distance it has to travel.

Starting configuration for Ottoman Empire

You do not start with any pieces, but with four deployment squares (represented as ?’s in the diagram), and have one king, two pawns, two bishops, two knights, and one rook in reserve. On your turn, you have the choice of either moving a piece or placing a piece from your reserve onto an empty deployment square.

If you don’t have any pieces in play, and it is not your first turn, you lose the game automatically. However, your pieces may not be captured until the end of your second turn. Three of the first five pieces you play must be the king and two pawns.

Spain

YOU HAVE THE POWER OF CONQUEST. The Spanish know better than anyone else how to exploit the lands that they conquer.

Starting configuration for Spain

Whenever you capture a piece, you receive an additional pawn and place it "in reserve" outside of the board. On your turn, instead of moving, you may place any pawn that you have in reserve on the board, provided that it does not put any player in check, it cannot promote, and it cannot immediately move to a square where it can promote.

The Huns

YOU HAVE THE POWER OF TRIBUTE. Your great reputation allows you to enrich your coffers.

Starting configuration for The Huns

On each of your turns, instead of moving a piece, you may instead choose to place an additional pawn under your control into your 3x5 starting area. However, you may not use this ability two turns in a row.

The Incas

YOU HAVE THE POWER OF MANIPULATION. Your army starts small, but you can recruit other people into your army.

Starting configuration for The Incas

Delegates can move like kings but can also jump 2 squares horizontally or vertically. Every time a delegate starts a turn within one square horizontally or vertically of a nonroyal enemy piece, that enemy piece joins the Incan army.

The Mayas

YOU HAVE THE POWER OF TECHNOLOGY. Though starting at a low technological age, the Mayan Empire ended up with very advanced technology.

Starting configuration for The Mayas

At the start of each turn you get a token. On your turn, instead of moving, you can use tokens to upgrade any piece other than your original king (which is your only royal piece) by giving it the movement capability of another piece:

2 tokens – king (non-royal), knight, or bishop
3 tokens – rook
6 tokens - any piece on the board

You can combine powers (i.e. bishop + rook = queen). Once you upgrade a pawn it cannot move or act like a pawn and is no longer considered to be a pawn.

The Norse

YOU HAVE THE POWER OF THE VALKYRIE. The valkyrie collects the bodies of the dead to fight for you another day.

Starting configuration for The Norse

The Valkyrie moves like a knight. On your turn, instead of moving normally, you can move a valkyrie anywhere on the board where it does not give check, but you may not use this ability two turns in a row. You cannot promote pawns to valkyries.

Whenever the valkyrie captures a piece put it by your side of the board. At the start of the turn, instead of moving you may put one of these pieces on the board in your 2x4 starting area, as long as your valkyrie is still on the board.

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