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Cyvasse

By Lord Biscuit and MikeL (Rules 1.1, last edit: MikeL) Want to experience the game played by Lannisters and Targaryens, Pentoshi and Dornishmen alike? Here's our take on Cyvasse, the board game from A Song of Ice and Fire.Set up your spaces behind the curtain at the beginning, then plot to ruin your opponent's fortress and capture their king!With a hex board and new anking rules to make things interesting, Cyvasse is a mix of Chess, Blitzkrieg, and Stratego, but unlike anything you've ever played before. Movement One of George R.R. Martin's inspirations for Cyvasse is Blitzkreig: a 1965 military strategy game, based on a hexagonal board with "squares" (actually hexes).We have followed through on this concept to create a hex board with three colors and this means the movements of our pieces are most similar to hex chess. 1) ! ! 2) ! ! 3) ! Mountain: Stationary (blocks movement of all other pieces except Trebuchet and Dragon). Rabble: One space orthogonally (orthogonal means moving in the direction of the adjoining 6 hexes). King: One space orthogonally.

4) ! ! 5) ! 6) ! ! ! ! 7) ! ! 8) ! ! 9) ! !

Light Horse: Two spaces diagonally (diagonal means moving in the direction of spaces of the same color). Spears: Three spaces orthogonally. Crossbows: Range of two spaces, or three when capturing (range means moving anywhere that two or three adjoining spaces can take you - this piece can jump other pieces, but not moutains). Heavy Horse: Diagonally (This piece is limited only by mountains, other pieces, and the edge of the board). Elephants: Orthogonally (This piece is limited only by mountains, other pieces, and the edge of the board). Trebuchet: Range of two spaces, or three when capturing (can jump other pieces/mountains).

10) ! Dragon: Range of four spaces (This piece can y over ! mountains, but not other pieces).

At the beginning of the game, each player sets up their pieces behind a "curtain". Tier levels, Capturing and Flanking Each piece is grouped into one of four tier levels.Tier levels and numbers of each piece are:

Tier 1 Rabble (x7) and King (x1). Tier 2 Light Horse, Spears and Crossbows (no more than 3 of each, 7 pieces) Tier 3 Heavy Horse, Elephant and Trebuchet. (no more than 3 of each, 7 pieces) Tier 4 Dragon (x1). As you would expect, the pieces of each tier level can capture pieces of the tier level below. Pieces can also capture other pieces of the same tier level in certain circumstances (see below).Ten pieces is a lot of different permutations to remember however, so we've made it a bit easier: The rst thing to notice is that tier 3 pieces are improved tier 2 pieces, and together, these six pieces have a rock, scissors, paper dynamic.So within each tier group, scissors pieces (Light Horse, Heavy Horse) beat paper pieces (Crossbows, Trebuchets), paper pieces (Crossbows, Trebuchets) can beat rock pieces (Spears, Elephant), and rock pieces (Spears, Elephant), can beat scissors pieces (Light Horse, Heavy Horse). With us so far? Good.The next thing to remember is that weaker pieces can capture strong pieces in certain circumstances.We call this anking, and it happens when multiple weaker pieces threaten a stronger piece.If the weaker pieces are collectively strong enough, the strong piece is removed from the board and highest ranking of the attacking pieces

replaces it. Each piece is worth two of the tier level below it, four of the tier two levels below it, and so on.What this means is that to capture a dragon (tier 4), you might use two tier 3 pieces or one tier 3 piece and two tier 2 pieces or one tier 3 piece and four tier 1 pieces or one tier 3 piece, one tier 2 piece and two tier 1 pieces: the choice is up to you.The king is the exception to this rule: by itself it is a tier 1 piece, but when used in anking it is equivalent to the tier level of the attacking piece. Promotions, Ruined Fortresses, and Capturing the King The aim of the game is to capture the enemy King, however this alone is not enough: As long as a player has a fortress, they can promote any of their tier 3 pieces to king.The game only nishes once a player has ruined the enemy fortress, captured the enemy king, and still has a live king themselves.If a player's king is taken by the opposition before their fortress is ruined and/or while the opposition has no king, the consequence is that all of that player's rabble are removed from the board along with the king, but the game continues. The fortress is a powerful space for two reasons: Firstly, any piece residing in it has their tier level increased as if they had a anking piece of the same level - it is for this reason that dragons are not allowed to enter either fortress.Secondly, it can be used to promote any piece to the next tier level: so any tier 3 piece is promoted to king if the king has been captured, any tier 2 piece is promoted to its corresponding tier 3 piece if the number of tier 3 pieces is less than 7, and any rabble is promoted to a tier 2 piece if the number of tier 2 pieces is less than 7.Only one promotion can occur per turn - this happens automatically when a piece is in the fortress and does not prevent the player from making a move.

To ruin a fortress, a player must capture the enemy fortress and hold it until the beginning of their next turn.That means the other player must retake their fortress on the very next move if they wish to avoid it being ruined.If the fortress does become ruined, that player's king becomes vulnerable to capture and defeat. Acknowledgements Credit is due to Zuberi who started the ASOIAF thread and came up with the initial ideas on which this game was developed, and also the people who suggested ideas along the way.Thank you and enjoy!

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