Introduction: A game of divide and conquer in the fine tradition of Backgammon or Risk. Players compete for control of strategic points on the board, forcing their opponents to disperse and dilute their strength, leaving them ripe for the taking.

Players: 2

Materials:

• At least one hundred pennies (or other small coins or counters).
• Four quarters (or other coins or counters larger and differently colored than pennies).
• One standard Chess or Checkers board.
• A notepad and pencil, to keep score.

Setting Up: Lay the board in the center of the table and place the four quarters on the four center-most spaces — these represent fortresses. Place all the pennies in a communal pile off to the side of the board. Each player draws ten pennies from this pile and takes turns placing them like so: each player assumes control of one of the colors on the board — black (or red) and white. At game start, players may place pennies on any space of their color on their half of the board (the 32 spaces nearest them), up to a maximum of four pennies per space. Initial stack size is limited to one (see below). Initial placement on the quarters is allowed.

How to Play: Each turn, players make a single move to either strengthen their position or attack their opponent’s spaces. They choose and execute one of the following moves:

• Bombard: Move pennies from one space to another to deplete the forces in a neighboring, opposing space. Movement is between diagonally adjacent, like-colored spaces. Any number of pennies may be moved as long as the destination space can support the addition (see below). For every penny moved in this way, the player may remove that number of pennies from any single horizontally/vertically adjacent, opposing-colored space. Opposing single pennies may be removed by any bombardment, but opposing stacks with multiple pennies can only be removed by the bombardment of a stack of equal or greater size.
• Fortify: Consolidate pennies into stacks to improve their strength and stability. The player chooses one of their spaces and may rearrange all the pennies on it into whatever configuration they choose, so long as the space has between one and four stacks and each stack has no more than ten pennies when the turn is complete.
• Reinforce: Add pennies from the communal pool to strengthen a space’s forces. For each stack not yet at its maximum (ten pennies), add one penny from the pool to the stack.
• Assault: Move a fortress (the quarters or large counters) from one space to another and force the opposing forces to disperse. Moving a fortress is accomplished in the same way as moving pennies during a Bombard move, and the fortress may be moved singly or in combination with whatever pennies are also on the space. However, moving a fortress to a new space forces the opposing player to disperse their forces like so: for each horizontally/vertically adjacent opposing space, the opposing player must deplete the stacks on those spaces by removing one penny from each stack and allocating it to a new, empty stack on the same space. If the space already has the maximum number of stacks allowable, the depleted pennies are removed from play entirely.
• Capture: Move a fortress and seize control of an unguarded, opposing fortress. If a player’s fortress may move to be adjacent to an opposing fortress with no pennies on it, the move allows them to capture it. Remove the fortress from the opposing space and place it on any friendly space adjacent to the capturing fortress.

Stacks and Consolidating Forces: Each space may support a maximum of four stacks of pennies. Each stack can have as little as one and as many as ten pennies in it, allowing each space to support between four and forty pennies. Arrange stacks in a square pattern on the space. When moving stacks between spaces, the player may configure their forces on the destination space however they choose so long as they have the same number of stacks at the end of the turn as they did before they began. For example: One space has three stacks with two pennies each for a total strength of six. They move all six pennies to a new space with two stacks, each with only a single penny. They are allowed to configure the new strength of eight (six moved plus two in place) however they choose as long as the space still has two stacks when they are finished. They choose to allocate five pennies to one stack and three to another to complete the move legally. Since they moved six pennies, they may remove six from a neighboring opposing space. Since they moved stacks of size two, they can remove opposing stacks of size two or smaller.

Fortresses and Guards: Fortresses are represented on the board by the quarters or large counters. Any space with a fortress can support only one stack — the fortress itself. However, pennies may be stacked on top of the fortress as guards, up to a maximum of ten. Thus, a fortress with no pennies stacked on it is an unguarded fortress, and susceptible to capture. When moving a fortress, the player may choose to bring as many or as few of the guards along as well. If they move a fortress to a space that already has pennies, they must add these pennies to the fortress guard. Note that this means a fortress cannot move to a space if it has more pennies than the fortress guard can support. Fortresses can bombard ordinary pennies or opposing fortresses in the normal manner, with one exception: fortresses are indestructible. Only the guard can be depleted or removed from bombardment. Unguarded fortresses can only be captured. For example: A player has a fortress with a guard of five –  five pennies stacked on top of the quarter. They move it to a new space with four pennies in two stacks of two. All four pennies are added to the guard, brining the total to nine. Since the fortress moved with a guard of five, the player may remove six opposing pennies (five guard plus the fortress itself). Since they moved a stack of five, they can remove opposing stacks of size five or smaller.

Winning the Game: The first player to seize all four fortresses is the winner.

Next: Designing “Penny Ante:” 

Coming Soon…