Guerrilla Checkers Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Equipment
• Setup and Description of Play
• Moving and Capturing
• Victory
• Notes on Tactics
  • Guerrilla player
  • COIN player

Equipment

• checkered 8x8 square grid
• 6 red cones for the Counterinsurgent (COIN) player
• 66 x discs for the Guerrilla player
• carrying case

Setup and Description of Play

The COIN player places his pieces on the marked squares.

The Guerrilla player starts with no pieces on the board, but begins by placing one piece on a point (corner of a square) anywhere on the board, then a second piece on a point orthogonally adjacent to the first piece.

Moving and Capturing

The Guerrilla player does not move his pieces. Instead, he places two and only two pieces per turn on the board, on the points (intersections) of the squares. The first piece must be orthogonally adjacent to any other guerrilla piece on the board; the second piece must be orthogonally adjacent to the first piece placed. He may not place pieces on the exterior board edge points (i.e. any place it is impossible for him to be captured). He captures an enemy piece by surrounding it (i.e. having a piece, or an exterior board edge point, on each of the four points of the square the piece occupies - note this makes the edge of the board very dangerous for the COIN player). He removes the piece.

The COIN player either: moves one piece per turn, one square diagonally in any direction; or makes captures with one piece by jumping over the point between two squares into an empty square, removing Guerrilla pieces as he goes. He is not forced to capture if he does not want to, but if he starts capturing he must continue to make captures for as long as it is possible for him to do so, along the path he chooses.

Players may not pass.

Victory

The player who clears the board of all enemy pieces at the end of his turn wins. The Guerrilla player (black) loses if he runs out of pieces.

Notes on Tactics

Guerrilla player

Remember the words of Mao Zedong:

• "The enemy advances, we retreat." It's OK if you lose lots of pieces in a turn (and you will): as long as you have one left, you are still in the game. Play where the enemy can't get at you right away.
• "The enemy camps, we harass." Exploit unit boundary confusion by playing between enemy pieces when you can - he can't jump you there.
• "The enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue." Your forces do not move but they "flow": think of your pieces as an ever-growing web to trap the enemy. Deploy lines of pieces to hamper his movement and trap him - he has to move next to you before he can jump you.

COIN player

• You have the tougher job - you can mow them down but they will keep coming back!
• Watch for any mistakes the enemy might make - if you can completely clear a whole corner of the board of enemy pieces, it will be a while before he can return there. But you must do a complete job.
• Be careful of the edge of the board - any piece left there can be eliminated with only two enemy pieces, or even one in the corners, if there are enemy nearby. Don't run into such an ambush.
• The Guerrilla will always be setting up thin walls and traps for you - watch where he puts these. If he makes too large a "string" you can reduce his forces to almost nothing in one move.