Jarmo Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Object of the Game
• Game Contents
• Setup
• How to Play
  • Moving
  • Capturing
  • Promoting
  • Entering an Enemy Camp
  • Redeploy a Captured Piece
• Game End
• Play a Match
• Tips and Tricks
• Game Variants
  • The Legendary Variant
  • Jasyr Variant
• Mini Expansions
  • Heroes of Asia
  • Challenges of Asia

Object of the Game

Earn the most points by evading capture and infiltrating the enemy camp.

Game Contents

• 1 travel bag
• 1 game mat
• 5 blue Soldier pieces
• 5 green Soldier pieces
• 1 rulebook

Setup

1. Lay out the game mat with the board side up.
2. Give each player 5 Soldiers of the same color.
3. Each player places their Soldiers, archer sides up (archer symbol), onto the row closest to them. This is their "camp" (Fig. 1).

How to Play

The player commanding the green Soldiers goes first. Then players alternate turns. Soldier pieces are double-sided: one side is an archer (archer symbol), and the other is a guard (guard symbol).

Moving

On their turn, a player must move 1 of their pieces to a space connected by a solid line (Fig. 2). They may not move to a space already occupied by one of their own pieces.

Capturing

If a player's piece lands on an enemy piece, the enemy piece is captured and removed from the board (Fig. 3).

Promoting

When you use an archer to capture an enemy piece outside their camp, that archer is promoted to guard (flip the piece over) (Fig. 4). If you use a guard to capture a piece, it stays a guard.

Entering an Enemy Camp

Once a piece enters an enemy camp, that piece may not be moved, but it still may be captured. If that piece is a guard, the player who owns it must flip that guard back to the archer side. In doing so, the player may recover 1 of their captured pieces (if there are any), and immediately redeploy it, or hold onto it until a future turn. (See "Redeploy a Captured Piece" below.)

If a piece enters an enemy camp as an archer, and captures a piece upon entering that camp, it stays an archer.

Redeploy a Captured Piece

After a player recovers a captured piece, they may place it immediately, archer side up, into their own camp, if a space is available. If all the spaces in their camp are blocked (or a space is available but the player doesn't want to place the piece immediately), they may keep the piece nearby and place it anytime during a future turn.

Game End

The game ends in one of 3 ways:

1. If a player has moved all their pieces on the board into the enemy camp, the game ends and players tally their points:
   • Score 2 points for each of your pieces in the enemy camp.
   • Score 1 point for each other piece you have on the board.
2. If a player captures all enemy pieces, the capturing player wins. They score points as described above, and the losing player scores 0.
3. If both players make the same back-and-forth moves 2 consecutive times, the game ends, and players tally their scores as above, based on the current positions of their pieces.

Did you know? The end of the game in Jarmo can be triggered by the losing player, which is a rare mechanism in historic strategy games.

If playing a single game, the player with the most points wins. If there is a tie, the player with the most pieces in the enemy camp wins. If still a tie, the game is a draw.

Play a Match

The board of Jarmo is asymmetrical, but well balanced between the 2 sides. However, it is recommended to rotate the board and play a series of games. This way, both players can experience the challenges offered by each side.

Play a series of 2, 4 or 6 games. Then each player adds together their points from all the games. The player with the most points wins.

Tips and Tricks

• Taking the shortest route towards the enemy camp is not always the most strategic move.
• Try to "back up" your pieces with other pieces so that if one gets captured, you can immediately capture the enemy piece that captured yours.
• When one of your archers gets promoted to a guard, try to move it to an enemy camp as soon as possible to bring back a captured piece.

Game Variants

The Legendary Variant

Play as the base game, with these modifications:

1. This variation has no scoring. To win, be the player who moves their last piece on the board into the enemy camp.
2. When a piece is in the enemy's camp, it may NOT be captured.
3. If one of your guards enters the enemy camp, you do not flip it immediately. In any future turn, you may flip the guard and take back a captured piece. This counts as your entire turn.

Based on the rules described in AGON (Tamás Marosi).

Jasyr Variant

Play as the base game, with these modifications:

1. This variation has no scoring. To win, be the player who moves their last piece on the board into the enemy camp.
2. The dotted line connecting to the center space becomes available for movement.
3. Players may move their pieces laterally or forward, but not backward.
4. When a piece is in the enemy's camp, it may NOT be captured.
5. When an archer is captured, it is permanently removed from the game. (Put it back in the game bag.)
6. When a guard is captured, it is immediately returned to the player who owns it. They may only redeploy the piece by using an entire turn to place it.

Mini Expansions

Heroes of Asia

Contains 2 Golden Soldier pieces.

Setup: Remove the Soldiers from the camps in the right-hand corners of the board (opposing corners) and return those Soldiers to the bag. Replace them with each player's Golden Soldier, guard side up (Fig. 5).

How to use: Unlike other soldiers, Golden Soldiers start as guards. If a Golden Soldier is demoted to an archer, it may not be promoted back to a guard. If it is captured as an archer, it is returned to the bag.

Golden Soldiers can be held hostage. If your Golden Soldier is captured, do not remove it from the board. Instead, flip it to its archer side and place the capturing piece on top of it. The Golden Soldier is now a "hostage." (The printed sheet reads "Golder Soldier"; corrected to "Golden Soldier".) It may not move until there are no pieces on top of it.

Rescuing a hostage: To capture a Soldier on top of a hostage, move your Soldier to that space and capture your opponent's Soldier normally. This means your Soldier will end on top of your Golden Soldier. Once you move your Soldier, your Golden Soldier may move freely again. If your Soldier is captured while on top of your Golden Soldier, only the top Soldier is captured, and the Golden Soldier becomes a "hostage" again.

Challenges of Asia

Contains 2 camp pieces.

Setup: Place the 2 camp pieces in the Battlefield (See Fig. 5 for suggested placement). These pieces mark "remote camps".

How to use: If a player occupies both remote camps at the same time, they may redeploy one of their captured archers.* If they do, they remove the 2 remote camps from the game. (If you do not redeploy, do not remove the camps.)

*Each player may have a maximum of 5 Soldiers on the board at a time. In the rare case that you would be entitled to place a 6th Soldier, you must wait until one of your other Soldiers is captured.