Tree-Halma
| Tree-Halma | ||
|---|---|---|
| Carlton Noles | ||
| Treehouse update to an older game | ||
| Players: | 2 - 4 | |
| Length: | unknown | |
| Complexity: | Medium | |
| Trios per color: | 1 | |
| Number of colors: | 1 per player + 1 | |
| - - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - - | ||
| Volcano Board | ||
| Setup time: | 2 minutes | |
| Strategy depth: | Medium | |
| Random chance: | None | |
| Theme: | Chinese Checkers | |
| Status: Not Specified (v1.0), Year released: 2005 | ||
A Bit of History[edit | edit source]
Halma was invented by American Thoracic Surgeon George Monks in the 1880's. Halma was later reworked and became the game most of us know as Chinese Checkers (odd name since it was neither Chinese nor did it use checkers). Tree-Halma is a somewhat twisted version of Halma. It uses a smaller board (5x5 as opposed to 16x16) And fewer pieces for each player (3 as opposed to 19 or 13).
The Setup[edit | edit source]
Set out your Volcano Board or other 5x5 board and place each player's pieces in a corner. If there are only two players, use opposing corners. Set a tree of a neutral color in the center square. The setup is as shown below.
Movement[edit | edit source]
On their turns players must make a move. NO PASSING! A player may move one of his own pieces or one of the neutral pieces. If the player chooses to move the neutral piece on his/her turn, it can be only one NOT the entire tree. Additionally it can be any one of the three not just the topmost.
A move can be either a:
- Move- move 1 space in any direction.
- Jump- jump over a piece to the space opposite the jumped piece from where he started. (provided that space was vacant).
The following restrictions apply to movement:
- A piece cannot jump another with the same number of pips.
- A piece cannot move backwards (toward the starting point).
In the above illustration the second restriction is illustrated. Legal moves are in green, illegal moves are in red, the starting area is yellow and the goal is black.
Winning[edit | edit source]
A player wins when he (or she) occupies the three squares in the opposing corner. Which pyramid is in which square does not matter. If a player occupies one or more of the 'goal' squares (i.e. on a piece never moved from start or someone has entered a corner that is not their goal a win is achieved by a player occupying the squares nearest the goal as well as any vacant goal squares. (in short you can't guarantee a draw by only moving the neutral pyramids).
To Do[edit | edit source]
- playtesting
- pics
 This game is licensed under a Creative_Commons License and is copyrighted © 2005 by me, Carlton Noles |