Difference between revisions of "The Animal Game"

Revision as of 00:31, 19 December 2024

The Animal Game is a wormy adaptation of an Abandonware 1996 game of the same name (available here and here). That software was based on Dou Shou Qi, a real life board game that is similar to Stratego (known as Combate in Brazil) but it's significantly different.

How to play

The scheme uses the modern gameplay rules:

• The objective of the game is to get one of your animals to the opponent's den. It is also possible to win the game by capturing all the pieces.

• The pieces are moved one square vertically or horizontally; never diagonally.

• No animal may occupy the square of its own den.

• Stronger animals (based on their number) capture weaker animals, and the opposite is not possible. Animals of the same value capture each other; the one that advances on the other first is the one that captures.

• The animals and their corresponding strength values ​​are as follows:

1. Rat
2. Cat
3. Dog
4. Wolf
5. Leopard
6. Tiger
7. Lion
8. Elephant

• Each player must use a team of Worms containing these names (and preferably their corresponding strengh number too, to help reminding them during the game).

• When starting the game, the position of the animals (the worms, with their names) should be placed on the map in the following positions:

The initial positions. One's team positions are vertically opposite to the opponent's. The one who starts is always the player on the left.

• One's team positions are vertically opposite to the opponent's. The one who starts is always the player on the left.

• The rat captures the elephant, but the elephant cannot capture the rat.

• The rat is the only piece that can enter the water (blue squares), but it can only capture from land to land or from water to water; You cannot leave the water and make a capture or enter the water and make a capture.

• The tiger and the lion are the only pieces that can jump over the river from the closest land square to the closest one on the other side, both vertically and horizontally, and they can also make a capture with this movement, but if there is a mouse in the river on the same line as the jump, the movement cannot be made.

• A position cannot be repeated more than 3 times. In this case of a stalemate, the one who must change moves is always the one who is trying to advance with a piece, regardless of the side.

• Around the den, there are 3 traps. If an opponent's animal is on top of one of them, a weaker animal on a square next to it can capture it. The traps have no effect on your own animals.

• To make a capture, a player must move one piece over another, that is, in this case, teleport the worm that makes the capture to the same square where the animal to be captured is. After that, the opponent must teleport the captured animal off the board, such as on top of the "signboard" with the name of the game below or into the water. Preferably to the "signboard" if they are going to play a rematch later and still have all the worms in the same game. After the worm is removed from the board, the player who captured it must skip his turn so that his opponent can play, since at that point, it is his turn.

Variations on the rules

• The original old rule was played accepting that the elephant could capture the rat, not only the rat capture the elephant. The capture would be done depending on which animal advanced first.
• There is a variation in which the dog is stronger than the wolf.
• There is a variation in which the dog can also enter the water.
• There is a variant in which the leopard can jump over the river, but only 2 squares of water (vertically, in this case) because he is not as strong as the tiger and the lion.

Variations on the scheme settings

The original scheme has infinite turn time and was designed for amateur gameplay. For competitive/professional play, the scheme has 45 seconds of turn time, and if a player spend 3 turns without moving any piece, this player loses. The original scheme has 120 minutes of round time to indicate that ther is no limit, but it can be restricted to a few minutes to allow draws.

History

Magnus created this scheme probably 1-3 days before presenting the idea to FoxHound on a game played on 7th February 2021. The final version of the original map + the scheme was concluded on 5th December 2022. On 18th December 2024 FoxHound uploaded the original scheme and map and wrote an article based on the rules (in Brazilian Portuguese and the files that the author sent to him. Magnus supervised the text and authorized the release of the scheme.

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