Gygès
Gygès Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- A board of 36 spaces connected to one another, with a goal space on each side (fig. 1).
- 12 wooden pieces in 3 different sizes: 4 single rings, 4 double rings, and 4 triple rings (fig. 1).
- A bag.
- This rulebook.
Object of the Game
Bring any piece to the goal space on the other side of the board (fig. 2).
Setup
The players sit on opposite sides of the board. The pieces are shared out: each player takes 2 triple rings, 2 double rings, and 2 single rings. Taking turns, each player places their 6 pieces one at a time, as they wish, on the 6 spaces of their own starting row (fig. 3).
Playing the Game (Base Rule)
The pieces belong to no one, and each player must play whichever pieces are nearest to them.
Whoever places the last piece makes the first move; after that, each player moves one piece on their turn.
A player chooses which piece to play, but must take it from the row nearest to them. At the start, players must therefore move the 6 pieces sitting on their own starting row (fig. 4: a triple ring's first move). Once no space on a player's first row is occupied any more, that player must move a piece from their second row, and so on. It can happen that every piece on the first row is blocked by pieces on the second row; in that case, a player must exceptionally play a piece from the row after that.
Pieces move from space to space, forward-and-back or side-to-side (never diagonally), by a number of spaces set by their size: a single ring moves 1 space, a double ring 2 spaces, and a triple ring 3 spaces. A piece may change direction during its move (fig. 4).
If a move ends on an empty space, it stops there, and it becomes the opponent's turn.
A piece may only reach an occupied space if it arrives there at the very end of its move: a single ring can therefore reach an occupied space directly, a double ring must first pass through an empty space, and a triple ring must cross two empty spaces (fig. 5). When a piece arrives on an occupied space, it bounces off the piece sitting there and immediately begins a new move of 1, 2, or 3 spaces (again, the spaces it crosses must be free); this new move's length is set by the size (single, double, or triple) of the piece it bounced off (fig. 6). A piece may bounce several times in a row, and may even cross the entire board in a single series of bounces (fig. 7).
During the same move, a piece may pass back through a space it has already used, provided it enters and/or leaves that space by a different path (fig. 8).
End of the Game
The winner is the first player to bring a piece to the goal space on the other side of the board. The goal space can be reached directly from any space on the far row. A piece may only reach the goal space at the very end of its move (fig. 9).
A piece may never pass through the goal space; it is only ever occupied at the moment of victory.
It is almost always by a series of bounces that a player will send a piece all the way to the opponent's side to win the game.
Advanced Rule
Seasoned players can move on to the advanced rule for greater tactical depth.
On reaching an occupied space, a player may now either bounce (as in the base rule) or replace the piece sitting there with the arriving piece: the player immediately moves the displaced piece to any free space of their choosing, except beyond the spaces the opponent is allowed to play from (fig. 10). A replacement may also be made at the end of a series of bounces.