Bastide

About

Bastide is a drawless strategy game for two players: Black and White, played on a 10 × 10 grid board that is initially empty. Each player has an unlimited supply of pieces oriented by means of arrows. During the game, the board evolves with the permanent appearance of walls, which modify the playing terrain. Definitions: The orientation of a piece is the cardinal direction indicated by its arrows. A group is a maximal set of friendly pieces of the same category connected orthogonally or diagonally. A single piece is also a group. If a group contains N pieces, any of its members can move up to N empty squares according to its movement pattern. Traversed ramparts do not count toward this limit. A rampart is an uninterrupted sequence of walls aligned orthogonally or diagonally. A single wall is also a rampart. The immobilization is the state of a piece, except the king, whose forward movements are impossible due solely to board edges or ramparts. Other pieces do not prevent immobilization. Pieces: The king moves exactly one square forward, along either of the forward diagonals, or laterally. The queen moves exactly one square along either of the forward diagonals or laterally. The prince moves exactly the same as the king. The noble moves forward or laterally. If it moves laterally, the square it leaves becomes a wall. The knight moves by means of "L" jumps toward any of its four forward directions. The paladin moves forward and along both forward diagonals. The guardian moves along both forward diagonals. The villager moves exactly one square forward. Evolution:Two orthogonally adjacent pieces can merge. The player chooses which of the two squares the evolved piece occupies; the other remains empty. The evolved piece freely adopts one of the two orientations corresponding to the furthest edges. Villager + Villager (parallel orientations) → Noble. Villager + Villager (perpendicular orientations) → Guardian. Guardian + Villager (parallel orientations) → Paladin. Guardian + Villager (perpendicular orientations) → Knight. Noble + Villager (parallel orientations) → Prince. Noble + Villager (perpendicular orientations) → Queen. Turns:White plays first and then turns alternate. On the first turn, White places its King on any border square. On the second turn, Black places its King on any square of a different border. If the first King was placed on a corner, Black may not choose either of the two borders that meet at that corner. On your turn, perform one of the following actions: Place a villager on an empty edge square. It cannot be orthogonally adjacent to another friendly villager with a parallel orientation. If it occupies a corner, its orthogonal orientation is freely chosen. Move a piece according to its movement pattern up to as many squares as there are pieces in its group. If a trajectory traverses a rampart, the piece lands on the first free square immediately after it. Squares occupied by the rampart do not count toward the range. Crown an immobilized piece to freely reorient it and grant it unlimited range, respecting its movement pattern and restrictions on moving backward. The knight applies this range by chaining continuous "L" jumps. If a piece ends its movement on a square occupied by an enemy piece, the enemy piece is captured and replaced by the attacking piece; moving backward is only allowed to capture. If a knight lands on a wall, it can chain new jumps as long as it continues to land on walls. Walls:A wall is generated on the square abandoned by a piece when moving laterally or capturing by moving backward. Succession:When a king is captured, its owner immediately converts one of their princes into the new king, if they control one. Otherwise, they lose the game. End of the game:The game ends immediately when: A player captures the enemy king and it cannot be succeeded by a prince. A player voluntarily moves their own king off the board. —description from the designer

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