Rules

Batalo is a game of war a bit like Checkers, except that the aim is to occupy your opponent's goal (marked '*'). Each player starts with six stones in a ring and one column (enclosed by brackets) which occupies the player's home base:

               1 2 3 4 5 6 7
              / / / / / / / 8
                           / 9
        a-  . . . . . . .   / 10
       b-  . . . . . . . .   / 11
      c-  . . . . . . . . .   / 12
     d-  . . . . . . . . . .   / 13
    e-  . . . . . . . . . . .   /
   f-  . . o o . . . . x x . .
  g-  . . o(o)o . . . x(x)x . .
   h-  . . o o . . . . x x . .
    i-  . . . . . . . . . . .
     j-  . . . . . . . . . .
      k-  . . . . . . . . .    O->
       l-  . . . . . . . .
        m-  . . . . . . .    <-X

Players alternate taking turns. Each turn the current player must move one of their pieces. The piece cannot return to the point from which it started the move.

A stone can move to an adjacent empty point or hop over an adjacent friendly piece. The stone can make a series of two or more consecutive hops, similar to Checkers. The stone cannot land on its friendly base, but may hop over it.

The column can move any distance in an unobstructed line, or make adjacent friendly piece hops as per a stone. The column can move back onto the friendly base at any time. If the column lands on an enemy piece, then that piece is captured by replacement; however, a column on its home base cannot be captured.

A player wins by moving any of their pieces onto the enemy base. A player also wins if all of the opponent's pieces are eliminated.

References and History

Batalo was invented by Scott Harmon (c) 1993.

The official rules can be found here: http://www.digitalharmonics.org/harmonygames/html/gameboard.html

Implementation and help file by Cameron Browne, August 2004.