X Spectrum

X Spectrum
Bess Gutenstein
Combine and Conquer
:Players	Players:	2
:Time	Length:	unknown
:Complexity	Complexity:	Medium
Trios per color:		2
Number of colors:		5
Pyramid trios:
Monochr. stashes:		5
Five-color sets:		2
- - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - -
Chess Board
Setup time:		1 minute
Playing time:
Strategy depth:		Medium
Random chance:		None
Game mechanics:
Theme:		Chess
BGG Link:
Status: Playtesting (v1.0), Year released: 2007

Under development

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This game is currently under development, in the Playtesting stage. Feedback is strongly encouraged! Feel free to give comments on game design or structure on the talk page.

Setup

Place the chess board at a forty-five degree angle from normal. Players sit at opposite corners.

• Remove the cyan, clear, orange and white nests from 2 Xeno Treehouse Sets.
  • If you have a third Set, remove the white nest and 3 pieces of each other color from it as well.
  • If you do not have a third set you will need the purple pieces as additional markers
• Setting up Pieces
  • At the corner nearest to each player, place the 3 orange pieces in an "L" shape.
    • The biggest piece is placed in the corner (A1)
    • Two-pip goes on the left (A2)
    • One-pip is on the right (B1)
  • The three clear pieces are placed in front of the orange in a straight line
    • Three-pip is placed next to the orange one-pip (A3)
    • Two-pip completes the square begun by the orange (B2)
    • One-pip is placed next to the orange one-pip (C1)
  • The cyan pieces are place, in ascending pip order, at B4, D2 & C3 in a diagonal line
  • Copy this pattern for the other player, placing the white (and purple if needed, Volcano Caps work for this as well) pieces of the same size under the colored ones to differentiate.

Like this:

::LPU	::MPU	:LPU
::SPU	:MPU		::SPU
:SPU		::LPU
	::MPU

How To Play

Basic Abilities of Single Pieces

• The number of spaces a single piece can move is determined by its pip count.
  • Pieces with one pip can move one space.
  • Pieces with two pips can move up to two spaces.
  • Pieces with three pips can move up to three spaces.
• The direction of a single piece's movement is determined by its color.
  • Single cyan pieces can only move left or right and can not jump.
  • Single clear pieces can only move forward or backward and can not jump.
  • Single orange pieces can only jump over other pieces. Jumping is defined as moving over other pieces in a straight line and then landing in an empty square like in regular chess. Only spaces jumped are considered with single orange pieces, (otherwise, the single one pip orange wouldn't be able to move at all). Single orange pieces can only jump over other pieces, not empty squares.

To avoid confusion in remembering which directions individual pieces may move, set up extra pieces (if you have them) in a "compass" next to the board.

Combining Pieces

To gain more movement options, a player may stack or nest up to three single pieces together by moving them to the same square.

• Nesting increases the number of spaces the combination may move and does not effect direction.
  • Nested pieces must be placed under other pieces of a larger size.
• Stacking combines the directional abilities of the two single pieces together and does not effect distance.
• No combination may exceed 3 pieces.
• Once pieces are stacked or nested, they may be separated by moving a single piece of the stack in their own direction. (To remove a one pip cyan piece, the player would take it off the stack and place it on the square to the left or right of the combination.)
• A player may move a nested piece to a stacked position within a combination and vice versa.
• A combination containing both nested and stacked pieces is allowed.
• When dealing with the set of pieces marked with white, any position of the marker (nested or stacked) is allowed. The white are only markers so their position within a combination doesn't matter.

Any movement of pieces counts as a "move". You are not allowed to change the position of pieces with in a combination and perform another action.

Combined Abilities of Nested Pieces

Any nested pieces are placed underneath the largest piece in the combination. Nested pieces must be smaller than the piece they are placed under. The new maximum number of pieces a combination may move is determined by adding the number of nested pips together. The top piece in the nest is included in this count.

Combined Abilities of Stacked Pieces

• A cyan piece stacked on a clear piece (and vice versa) can move right, left, forwards and backwards.
  • This combination also has the special bonus of being able to move diagonally. The number of spaces this combination is able to move is equal to the maximum amount that combination may move minus the pip count of cyan or clear piece stacked on top.
• An orange piece stacked on to a cyan or clear piece may jump over pieces in any direction regardless of the abilities of the rest of the stack.

Taking Enemy Pieces

The "taking" action simply consists of landing in the same square as an enemy piece. The player who took the piece or combination may reintroduce that piece(s) into the game by placing in on the same square their original piece of that size and color started.

Winning

A player wins when the other is either out of pieces or concedes defeat.

Conversion Cart

For those of you who having the plain and boring Rainbow Sets here are the conversions:

• Cyan - Blue
• Clear - Yellow
• Orange - Red
• Any opaque pieces can used as markers.