Skill and a sharp intellect always have been one of the best preconditions for that great and brilliant board game.
At this time gambling used to be strictly prohibited by the law in the whole empire. The board game Latrones, Latrunculi or also Ludas latrunculorum,
what means mercanary or soldier in Latin, was played without a cube and was already developed by the ancient Greeks called Polis.
It was simply easy for the mercanarys to scratch the playfield into slab, what prove historical finds.
The easy rules of the game require lots of strategic cognitive capacity and you can play it on different sized game boards.
The Gameboard :
- You can choose between different board-sizes (8x8, 12x8, 10x9 and 11x10)
- Everywhere in the very back position row of each color are stones
- The King is in the second row, one field right, next to the middle of the board
- The game layout is designed by the computer and cant be changed
The aim of the game :
- You have diffent possibilities to win the game :
- if the King of the opponent is blocked, that there is no way to move anywhere, the game is won
- if no gaming piece is captured within 30 moves, the player with the most game pieces on the board wins the game
- if all gaming pieces of the opponent except the king, are captured, you win the game
- if the game stalemates, the player with the most game pieces win the game
The game :
- Black plays first
- Each player moves alternately
- All game pieces can move any number of spaces in the horizontal or vertical direction without jumping over another piece
equal the piece color
- diagonal moves are not allowed
- You cant capture the King but you can immobilize the King by surround him on all four sides
- One or multiple game pieces along a line (horizontal or vertical) can be captured if they are surrounded on two opposite sides
of the other color. If the King is along the line, each other piece is dropped by the board except the King
- The exterior walls, except the corners, cant be used to capture pieces
The corners are a exception. So a piece in the corner can be captured by two stones of another color placed across the corner
- By being surrounded on all four sides, the king is unabled to move and the game is won