Queen's Guard
Queen's Guard Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- Hexagonal board (6 hexes per side)
- 7 pieces of 2 colors (Light and Dark) each. One of them is a queen piece.
The board consists of five concentrically arranged rings and a central hex (throne). Six of the pieces of each color are "guards" and the piece with the crown is the "queen".
Setup
Place the pieces as shown in the diagram (Fig.1, Initial position). Light is the first player to move, and the players take turns.
Gameplay
The active player moves one piece of his color to an adjacent empty hex (Fig.2, How to move a piece). The destination must be a hex in the inner ring of the previous move, or a hex in the same ring.
The center hex (throne) can only be occupied by queen pieces.
Trapping
When one of your opponent's pieces is trapped by two of your pieces in the same line, the trapped player must use his or her next turn to rescue (reposition) the piece. No other movement is allowed on the repositioned turn. (Fig.3, Trapped position for the Light guard.)
- If the trapped piece is a guard, it is repositioned to any of the free hexes in the outermost ring.
- If the trapped piece is a queen, it can be placed anywhere on the board in an empty hex (it can be placed in the center hex).
If more than one piece is trapped at the same time, the trapped player repositions the trapped pieces, one per turn. If a guard and a queen are trapped at the same time, the queen must be repositioned first.
Blocking
When two of your pieces flank an empty hex on the same line, no enemy piece can enter that hex.
Game End
You win if you can place your queen on the throne and surround it with six of your own guards. If the player does not place own queen on the throne and own guards completely surround the throne, the player loses. (Fig.4, Dark wins.)
Alternative Rules
- Instead of the usual set-up, the game can be started with both players placing only their queens in the specified positions, and then alternately placing their guards in any position on the board (except the center hex).
- When a queen is trapped, the trapping player, not the trapped player, may specify where the opponent's queen should be repositioned.
Variant: "Bloody Queen"
The classic rules of Queen's Guard can sometimes be difficult to settle, and the game can go on sluggishly if there is no difference in the players' abilities. The following is an arranged version that adjusts the convergence and tempo of the game while keeping the playability of Queen's Guard as intact as possible.
The basic movement rules are the same as the classic rules, but there is no blocking. Trapping occurs only by sandwiching the opponent's piece between the piece just moved in that turn and another friendly piece. In other words, you can advance your piece between two opponent's pieces on your turn without being trapped.
In addition, the trap process varies depending on the type of piece as follows.
Trapping a Guard with 2 Guards
The trapped player immediately repositions the trapped opponent's guard to any position in one outer ring from the trapped guard's location.
- If there is no available location in the one outer ring, the guard is placed in the second outer ring.
- If a trap occurs in the outermost ring, it is repositioned to any position in the same outermost ring.
Trapping the Queen
If a Queen is trapped (by any type of pieces), the player who trapped it immediately exchanges it for one of the outermost guards of the opponent. The exchanged guard is removed from the game.
Trapping a Guard with a Guard and Queen
The trapping player immediately removes the trapped guard from the game.
If two or more pieces are trapped simultaneously in multiple directions, the trapping player does all of the above at once in the turn.
Game End (Bloody Queen)
You win if you place your queen in the center hex and all of your remaining guards on the board in one of the six hexes surrounding the throne. If you do not place your queen on the throne, and your six guards completely surround the throne, you lose.
If you lose all your guards, you lose the game.
(Fig.5, Light wins.)