Seega
Seega Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- A board of five rows of five holes (a 5 x 5 grid). The leaflet suggests printing out the page or drawing a copy of the board.
- 12 playing pieces for each of the two players.
Setup
The board starts empty.
Placement
The game is for two players, who will each need 12 playing pieces. The aim of the game is to capture your opponent's pieces by "custodial capture" - taking them into custody, or sandwiching a piece, between two of your pieces.
Start with an empty board. The first player puts two pieces on the board, anywhere they like, EXCEPT the middle position. The second player does the same, and the two players continue until all pieces are on the board. The middle position should remain empty!
Movement and Capture
Now the second stage of play begins - each player takes turns to move one piece to an adjacent empty position, horizontally or vertically, but NOT DIAGONALLY; trying to capture an opponent's piece.
The first move will have to be to the middle position, but you may have a choice of pieces to move, depending on how you set them up in the first part of the game.
Capturing
- Only a single piece (NOT two enemy pieces next to each other) can be "sandwiched" between your two pieces in any one direction (vertically or horizontally, but again, not diagonally).
- It is possible that one move may simultaneously capture two, or even more, single pieces in several directions.
- A piece is only captured if an enemy piece moves into a capturing position - you can safely move a piece between two enemy pieces without being captured.
- Captured pieces are removed from the board.
End of the Game
Play continues either until one player has lost all their pieces, or, if you prefer, when one player is down to their last piece - they can no longer capture, so cannot possibly win!
Variants
Larger Boards
As you continue to play the game you might like to think about different strategies for positioning your pieces in the first part of the game. You could also try making and playing on a bigger board - boards up to 9 x 9 rows are known - but you'll need more pieces!
Jumping Capture
You could also try an alternative version, starting as usual, but then capturing pieces by jumping over them, as in Alquerque (Historic Games Club game No. 5) or Draughts. Again, you can jump over and take as many individual pieces as possible in one turn, but (unlike Alquerque or Draughts) no diagonal movement is allowed. This version of the game probably borrowed its method of capture from Alquerque, which originally comes from the same part of the world!