Patent Application
20050280209
The present invention is generally related to the gaming art and, in particular, to a novel board game and method of play.
Conventional board games often have identical or substantially similar set of pieces for each player, often require all players to show the identities of their pieces or all players to conceal the identities of their pieces at the start of the game, and often have predetermined starting positions for the pieces of all players or do not have predetermined starting positions for the pieces of any player. In other words, conventional board games go great length to ensure that the different players are the “same”. Any significant differences between them are expressively avoided.
Starting positions are predetermined when pieces of one player having the same value will have to be placed in predetermined positions at the start of the game. They can not be placed in positions pre-assigned to pieces of a different value. For example in chess, even though pawns can switch positions among themselves, they can not be placed in positions pre-assigned to knights at the start of the game. Starting positions are not predetermined for a player when its pieces do not have to be placed in certain positions according to their values at the start of the game.
Players of a game can be either human or machine. Machine can be hardware, software, or their combination.
The current invention is about a novel board game that is significantly different from conventional board games as described in detail below.
Possible embodiments of the invention are discussed in this section. As shown in
According to one embodiment of the invention, the board game has two players and each player has one set of pieces. The two sets of pieces belonging to the two players are not substantially similar.
For example, one set of pieces can have six solders, two fighter jets and two missals, the other set of pieces can have one boss, seven or more guards and two converters. Only pieces from different players can attack each other. Subject to that rule, solders, guards and the boss have equal value, they can capture each other.
Missal can not capture any pieces unless it reaches a predetermined position, for example a launching position (3). Once it reaches the launching position, it can attack any enemy pieces on the game board on its next move. Once a missal attacks a piece, the missal itself will be taken out of the board together with the attacked piece. Guards can attack missal anytime as long as it is its turn to move and a missal is in a position next to it. However, attacking a missal is considered a suicide mission therefore both the missal and the attacking guard shall be taken out of the game board. The boss and the converter may not attack the missal.
Fighter jets can move either one or two or three steps at a time, provided that it moves in a straight line and there is no other piece in between. Fighter jets can capture any pieces except converters. No piece except converters can capture fighter jets. When a fighter jet tries to capture a converter or when a converter captures a fighter jet, the fighter jet is converted into a fighter jet of the converter's side and the converter is taken out of the game board. Converters may not capture any other pieces except for fighter jets. There may be a set of positions on the board called jumping positions (2). Once a guard, a converter or the boss moves into a jumping position, on the next move, it can either move to a position right next to that jumping position, or move into any other jumping position on the board. Jumping positions are just ordinary positions for solders, fighter jets and missals.
The player with fighter jets, solders and missals may win by capturing the boss. The player with guards, converters and the boss may win by moving any one of its pieces into a predetermined position on the board, called the winning position (4).
According to one embodiment of the invention, one player, such as the player with guards, converters and a boss, conceals the identities of its pieces at the beginning of the game, or may be throughout the game unless one of its pieces are captured. Another player, such as the player with fighter jets, missals and solders shows the identities of its pieces. When a piece with a concealed identity is captured, it is moved out of the board and its identity is shown to the other player(s). When a fighter jet tries to capture a converter, the converter is taken out of the board, its identity is shown, and the fighter jet is converted into a fighter jet of converter's side.
According to another possible embodiment of the invention, the board game may have one dice and two tokens. One token can represent fifty million dollar cash, another token can represent a super bomb. At any point of the game, the player whose pieces' identities are shown may present the token representing cash and throw the dice. The player whose pieces' identities are concealed will also throw the dice. If the first player has a larger number on the dice, then the second player will show a certain piece such as the piece representing the boss. If the second player has a larger number on the dice, then it will receive the super bomb. Once the second player receives the super bomb, it may win by moving any of its pieces to a starting position of the first player. A starting position (5) is a position where a player places one of its pieces at the start of the game. A winning position (4) may be a starting position (5).
According to one possible embodiment of the invention, at the start of the game, one player may place its pieces in any order it wishes either without any restrictions or within a generally predetermined area, while one other player has to place its pieces according to a predetermined order. Predetermined order meaning pieces with a certain value will have to be placed in a predetermined area. They may not be placed on positions pre-assigned to pieces of a different value.
It is obvious that there are many different variations and combinations of the above described embodiments of the novel board game. All these different variations, combinations and their equivalences are foreseen and considered as part of the invention. The players in this game can be either human or machine, and there can be two or more players in the game.
