Agora (Strate & J)
Agora (Strate & J) Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components and Object
- Number of players: 2
- Components: 1 relief board, 16 double-sided pieces.
- Object of the game: A player wins when the opponent can no longer move, that is, when all of the opponent's pieces are captured or made prisoners.
Setup
Each player places their eight pieces as shown in Fig. 1 (top view of the board). White begins.
Legend: each piece has a dark face and a light face. The legend shows that the two faces of a piece are the two colours.
Turn and Movement
On your turn, you must move one of your pieces one square in any direction (Fig. 2). When the square has a stack of pieces, you always move the piece on top of the stack.
There are three possible kinds of movement:
- Moving to a free square (always possible).
- Capturing (la prise).
- Becoming a prisoner (le prisonnier).
Capturing (La prise)
If your piece is higher than, or at the same height as, the opponent's piece, you may capture it. Your piece is then placed on top of the opponent's pieces in that stack, which are turned over and so change colour. Capturing is never mandatory.
- Example illustrating the capture possibilities for White: (1) Being lower, White cannot capture.
- Example of a capture: You do not turn over a white prisoner that is already your colour.
Becoming a Prisoner (Le prisonnier)
If your piece is lower than, or at the same height as, the opponent's piece, you may make yourself a prisoner. Your piece is then slid under the opponent's pieces without being turned over. If your prisoners become the majority in a stack, the opposing pieces in that stack are automatically captured and turned over. This is the revolution.
- Example illustrating the possibilities for White to become a prisoner: White may become a prisoner.
- Example of a revolution: White may become a prisoner even if White already has a prisoner of its own under the opponent's pieces.
Special Case
Caution: If you leave a stack, your prisoners may become the majority. In that case, at the moment you leave the stack, you must turn over your pieces that have become the minority, as in the example on the sheet.
Forbidden Moves
It is forbidden to stack on your own pieces. The only way to make a stack is to capture or to make yourself a prisoner.
Questions and Answers
- How do I know whether I am higher or lower than my opponent? Compare the top of your stack with the top of the opposing stack.
- Can I move a prisoner? You always move the piece on top of a stack, which is a visible piece. It is therefore impossible to move a prisoner.
- Can prisoners be captured by the pieces they control? No. It is the prisoners that capture the pieces that control them, never the reverse.
Advanced Rule: Isolated Pieces
It is forbidden to stack on one of your own pieces, except in the case of an isolated piece.
- Two pieces touch if they are on adjacent squares.
- A piece is isolated if there is only one piece of its own colour that it touches.
- Any isolated piece may stack on the piece it touches.
Examples from the sheet:
- Piece 2 touches 1 and 3, so 2 is not isolated. Piece 1 touches only 2, so 1 is isolated.
- Piece 4 touches 3 and 5, but 5 is a prisoner and is not counted, so 4 is isolated.
- Piece 8 touches 7 and 6, so 8 is not isolated. Piece 6 touches 7 and 8, so 6 is not isolated.
Three Questions to Check Understanding of the Rules
Question 1: Are the captures shown possible? If so, what situation results?
Answer to Question 1:
- At the same height, capturing is possible.
- If lower, capturing is not possible.
- If higher, capturing is possible.
In case (1), the result is the situation shown on the sheet (the captured stack is turned over and the capturing piece is placed on top).
Question 2: In each case, can the White piece make itself a prisoner? If so, what situation results?
Answer to Question 2:
- At the same height, the piece can make itself a prisoner.
- If higher, the piece cannot make itself a prisoner.
In case (1), the result is the situation shown on the sheet.
Question 3: Can White make itself a prisoner?
Answer to Question 3: White cannot make itself a prisoner. The piece on top of a stack controls all the pieces under it. So it is forbidden to make yourself a prisoner in a stack where your own piece is visible, because you would be making yourself a prisoner of yourself.
How to Make Yourself a Prisoner Without Being Captured
The best way to capture is to make yourself a prisoner and become the majority. To make yourself a prisoner, you must be lower than or at the same height as the opponent, so the risk is being captured, as in the example on the sheet: White slides under Black, and Black may then capture it.
The solution is simple: keep a piece on top to recapture if necessary. White advances under Black in the hope of making itself a prisoner. This time Black has no interest in capturing, because otherwise White would recapture everything. Conclusion: Black will not capture, and White can make itself a prisoner.
Problems
Problem 1: How can White get rid of its prisoner?
Solution to Problem 1: One must play the following very classic move. The piece moved is protected by the White piece above it, and moreover this piece can make itself a prisoner under Black.
Problem 2: White seems threatened. Yet White has a good move to play.
Solution to Problem 2: One must put a prisoner under Black. If Black recaptures, the prisoner reappears and can recapture everything.