The city of Land's End has the King's Castle at its centre. The King has been killed in a coup and two rival fractions group around the Castle to try and get a man of theirs on its Throne.

Material
There are two players, White and Black. Both have a sufficient number of men in their colour.

Object
The player who succeeds in occupying the Throne at the beginning of his turn wins. The Throne is captured by flanking it on opposing sides on two of the six adjacent cells.

The start
The board starts out empty. White moves first by placing one man on a cell, subject to a swap, that is: the other player may choose it as his move. After that players take turns to either

• place a man on an empty cell, or ...
• ... move a man or a 'phalanx' on the board.

Placement
The castle is excluded from placement. A player may enter anywhere else, but never adjacent to a friendly man. Placement on the Throne is the ultimate goal and may only take place if a player succeeds in flanking it on opposing sides with men of his colour.

Movement A man that is not connected to a friendly man, may move along open lines in any of the six main directions. It may not enter or traverse the Castle. It may not move onto or over an occupied cell. If it is stopped by a friendly man, then it becomes part of a phalanx and may only move as such. The overhead throw If it is stopped by an opponent's man, then this man is thrown overhead to the last cell the moving man traversed, unless there's a wall of the Castle in between them. A Phalanx Instead of moving a man a player may move a 'phalanx', which is an unbroken straight line of like coloured men. A phalanx moves as a whole along the line it defines. It may move in either direction. It's maximum range equals the number of men in it. A phalanx may not move over friendly men and it may only move over an opposing smaller phalanx, including a single man. Opposing men that are thus captured are removed from the board. A phalanx may be split by moving a part of it, a sub-phalanx. The range of a sub-phalanx equals the number of men in it. The smallest sub-phalanx is two man long.

Moving or splitting a phalanx may 'release' single men that then are free to move as such again. If a single man is released inside the Castle and moves out of it, it may of course not move in again as a single.

The Castle
The Castle has one Throne, twelve cells and twelve doors consisting of the twelve outermost edges. The only way to enter the Castle is by moving a phalanx through a door of one of the six entance cells. A phalanx moves exactly the same, whether inside the Castle or outside of it, or indeed partly in and out. Since the Castle may only be enterd through a door, the other outward edges are solid walls. Men on adjacent cells with a wall in between, are not part of the same phalanx. Single men inside the Castle behave the same as those outside, in particular the backwards leapfrogging of opponent's men.

Capturing the Throne
If a player succeeds in flanking the Throne on opposing adjacent cells, then he may enter a man on the Throne. If the opponent on the subsequent turn captures one of the flanking men then he may remove the opponent's man from the Throne. If he simultaneously flanks the Throne himself, then he may put one of his own men on it. If a player on his turn finds a man of his colour on the Throne then he has won.

Draws
I'm not sure yet.


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