Sparta Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Object of the Game
• Game Components
• Setup
• Sequence of Play
  • Movement
  • Impact of Moves
    • 1. The Move Ends in a City
    • 2. Capturing
    • Special Case: A Warrior in His Own City
• End of the Game and Winner

Object of the Game

The players move their pieces across the game board aiming to capture their opponent's pieces and to conquer cities.

The first player who controls all cities or has captured all their opponent's pieces but one is the winner of the game.

Game Components

• 1 game board with 10 x 10 squares
• 16 warriors: 8 of each colour
• 16 heroes: 8 of each colour
• 8 city tiles
• 1 rules booklet
• 1 sticker sheet (including spare stickers)

Before the first game, the wooden warrior and hero pieces are prepared as shown.

Setup

1. The board is placed on the table.
2. The 8 cities are placed on the board as illustrated.
3. Each player chooses a colour and places 8 warriors on the board as illustrated.
4. Each player keeps a stock of 8 heroes beside the board as illustrated.
5. The younger player begins.

Sequence of Play

The players take turns to make their moves. 1 of their pieces must be moved in each turn.

Movement

• A warrior may move up to 2 squares in any direction (horizontally, vertically or diagonally). The direction in which the piece is moved may be changed during a single move.
• A hero may move up to 3 squares in any direction. The direction in which the piece is moved may be changed during a single move more than once.

When moving, warriors and heroes may only move over or end their move on unoccupied squares or unoccupied cities, no matter if these are their own, or belong to their opponent. A move may not end on the same square it started from.

Impact of Moves

If a player has moved into a city or if there are any trapped pieces on the game board after finishing the move, this has consequences which are dealt with in the following order:

1. The Move Ends in a City

If a warrior ends his move on his own city, the warrior becomes a hero. Exchange the warrior for a hero and remove the warrior from the game board.

If a warrior ends his move on an opponent's city, he conquers this city. Flip the city tile so that the warrior's colour shows up and place the warrior on top of it.

Please note: When conquering an opponent's city, the warrior does not turn into a hero.

2. Capturing

One or more pieces are captured if they are trapped between pieces of the other side along a horizontal, vertical or diagonal row without a vacant square in between.

• If many rows are generated after a move, with trapped pieces in them, all the trapped pieces – regardless of which player they belong to – are captured.
• If one row is generated after a move, in which both players trap their opponent's pieces, all trapped pieces are captured.

Captured pieces are always removed from the game board!

The examples in the rules show the movements of a piece (with multiple changes in direction) and the following capturing of the trapped piece or pieces. The examples show: capturing pieces in different rows at the same time; capturing pieces of both sides at the same time; and all three captured pieces lying in the same row.

Special Case: A Warrior in His Own City

If a player's warrior is in his own city at the beginning of the move (if he conquered the opponent's city in a previous move and hasn't moved since), the warrior does not have to be moved and the player exchanges the warrior for a hero instead.

End of the Game and Winner

The game ends immediately under one of the following three conditions:

• All cities are owned by one player; this player wins the game.
• One player has only one piece left on the game board. His opponent wins the game.
• Both players have only 1 or 2 pieces left on the game board. The player controlling more cities is the winner of the game. If both players control the same number of cities, the game ends in a tie.