Difference between revisions of "Ducart"

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'''Ducart''' (or '''Ducarté''') is a two-player game, played on a board of 64 squares arranged in an 8-by-8 square. At the start of a game, each player controls 16 pieces: two Keepers, two Creepers, two Sleepers, eight Sweepers, one Healer, and one Stealer.
 
'''Ducart''' (or '''Ducarté''') is a two-player game, played on a board of 64 squares arranged in an 8-by-8 square. At the start of a game, each player controls 16 pieces: two Keepers, two Creepers, two Sleepers, eight Sweepers, one Healer, and one Stealer.
  

Revision as of 04:06, 28 July 2008

Ducart board.png

Ducart (or Ducarté) is a two-player game, played on a board of 64 squares arranged in an 8-by-8 square. At the start of a game, each player controls 16 pieces: two Keepers, two Creepers, two Sleepers, eight Sweepers, one Healer, and one Stealer.

Aim

The aim of the game is to be the only player with any Sweepers remaining; Sweepers can be removed from the game in two ways:

  1. They can be killed by another Sweeper
  2. If a Sweeper is moved to any of the squares in the far row of the board (relative to the side that it started on) then it is replaced by a Leaper.

Sweepers are significant, because as well as deciding who wins the game, they are the only piece which can destroy, or "kill" another piece.

Board Layout

The board is arranged with each player having their sixteen pieces in the two rows of the board closest to them. The "second row" (the row second-closest to the player) consists entirely of all eight Sweepers. The "first row" (the row closest to the player) has the pieces arranged as follows - from left to right:

Keeper, Creeper, Sleeper, Healer, Stealer, Sleeper, Creeper, Keeper.

Moves

The first move of the first game is decided with a coin toss; players alternate first move for any following games. A turn can be spent either moving a single piece, or using a single piece's Ability. Each piece has its own distinctive move pattern, and many have Abilities:

  • Sweepers can move one square forward, either directly, or in either of the two diagonals. If there is a piece in the square that the Sweeper is trying to move into, that piece is "killed", which means that it is taken off the board and cannot return for the duration of the game.
    • Sweepers cannot kill Leapers.
    • Sweepers can kill pieces on its own team.
  • Keepers move horizontally or vertically, along rows or columns - they may stop in any unoccupied squares, or they may stop in the same square as another piece. They then "keep" the piece; they remain on top of the piece, rendering it unable to move until it is no longer being kept. A Keeper may use a turn to get off the piece that it is keeping - if there is another piece in the same row or column, it may jump straight from keeping one piece to keeping the next, however it can not jump over or past the second piece in the same turn.
    • Keeping a piece is not an Ability, it is part of the Keeper's move.
    • While keeping a piece, Keepers may not be kept, slept, stolen, or pushed.
    • A piece being kept by a Keeper cannot be killed, stolen, or use an Ability. It can be pushed or slept.
    • Keepers cannot keep Leapers.
    • Keepers can keep pieces on its own team.
    • Once a Keeper starts to keep a Stealer, it cannot move off that Stealer unless the Stealer is slept.
  • Creepers move two squares in one direction, and then one square in another direction, in an L shape. They can move over occupied spaces, however the square that a Creeper lands in must be empty. A Creeper has the ability to "push" any one piece - the piece being pushed must be either directly above, below, or next to (either to the left or to the right) the Creeper. "Pushing" a piece means moving it one square away from the Creeper (directly, not diagonally.) A piece can only be "pushed" if the square that it is being pushed into is empty.
    • A Creeper cannot be pushed, slept, kept, or stolen for the first turn after it moves.
    • A Creeper cannot push a Keeper while it is keeping a piece. It can, however, push the piece that is being kept - the piece that is being kept moves one square, the Keeper stays in the same square, but is now slept.
      • This is the only way to stop a Stealer from being kept.
    • A Creeper can push pieces on its own team.
  • Sleepers move diagonally, and can stop in any unoccupied square. They cannot move over occupied spaces, the square that the Sleeper lands in must be empty. A Sleeper has the Ability to "sleep" another piece - the piece is then "slept" (signified by laying it down flat on the board.) While a piece is slept, it cannot move or use its abilities. It can still be killed, stolen, pushed, or kept. A Sleeper can only sleep pieces which are in any of the eight squares surrounding it.
    • A Sleeper can sleep pieces on its own team.
  • Stealers can move one square in any direction, into any unoccupied square. They have the Ability to "steal" any other piece, by switching the "stolen" piece's position with the position of the Stealer. If a Stealer is directly or diagonally adjacent to a piece being kept, the Stealer has a second Ability (although only one Ability can be used each turn) to transfer the Keeper from the piece that it is currently keeping, to the Stealer, causing the Stealer to be kept.
    • If a Sweeper is stolen into a square in the far row (from the Sweeper's starting point) then the Sweeper is turned into a Leaper.
    • Stealers can steal pieces on its own team.
    • A Stealer can steal another Stealer.
  • Healers can move any number of unoccupied squares either vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. It cannot move through or into occupied squares, the square that the Healer lands in must be empty. Healers have the ability to "heal" - any slept pieces in any of the eight squares around a Healer is no longer slept, it is "healed" and may behave as it did before it was slept.
    • Healers heal pieces of both their own team and the opposite team. If a piece is in one of the eight squares surrounding the Healer, it is healed, even if it is being kept.
  • Leapers are controlled by whichever player controlled the Sweeper that was transformed. They move horizontally or vertically, along rows or columns - as long as they stop in an unoccupied square, can move through occupied squares, "leaping" over other pieces. They may then immediately move once more, horizontally or vertically, along rows or columns, stopping in any unoccupied square - during their second movement, however, they can not "leap" over occupied squares. These second moves cannot be stored, however taking the second move is entirely optional.
    • Leapers cannot be stolen, slept, kept or killed.
    • Sweepers (of either team) cannot enter a square immediately to either the left or the right of a Leaper, however if a Leaper moves into the square immediately to the left or right of a Leaper, there is no effect. Any other piece can freely move into a square to the left or right of a Leaper.
    • Leapers do not count towards the Sweeper-count when determining the winner of the game.

Variants

In Gnomish society, "Ducarté" refers to the game as it is traditionally played, without time limit, while "Ducart" is a special time-based variant. Each turn may be no more than one minute long, and at the end of one hour, the player with the most Sweepers left wins. (if both players have an equal number of Sweepers left, all other pieces are counted, and whichever player has the most pieces left wins. If both players have an equal number of pieces, then the game continues until the next piece is killed, with the time for each move reduced to ten seconds.)

Some play with whoever goes first having the Healer and the Stealer switched around; this is a common variant, and is generally decided before the game starts. If there is any disagreement, then it is not applied, however if it is applied for the first game in a series of games, it must be applied for the rest.

Many play "Long-Distance Ducarté", using Standard Ducart Notation to play by mail or long-distance magic.