The siege game

How to play the siege game

The rules

• The board is a cross of 33 holes joined by lines. Every hole is linked to its neighbours across and up and down, and every other hole has diagonals as well. The nine holes of the bottom arm are the fortress.
• One player has two officers, the other 24 soldiers. The soldiers start on every hole outside the fortress.
• First the officers are placed, one at a time, on any two holes inside the fortress. Then the soldiers move, and the sides take turns.
• A soldier moves one hole along a line, and only towards the fortress: each step must bring it closer. Inside the fortress it moves freely along the lines.
• An officer moves one hole along a line in any direction. It captures by jumping over a soldier next to it into the empty hole beyond, and the soldier comes off the board. It may go on jumping in the same move, as long as there is another soldier to jump.
• An officer who could capture and doesn't is taken off the board himself. If the officer that moved could have captured, he is the one removed; otherwise it is the other.
• The soldiers win if they fill all nine holes of the fortress, or trap the officers so that neither can move. The officers win if they capture so many soldiers that fewer than nine are left, too few to fill the fortress.

In this version

• If both officers have been removed, the soldiers have won. If the soldiers have no move left, the officers have won.
• The machine looks a few moves ahead.

New game