Terrace Rules
(Copyright (c) 1995 by Siler/Siler Ventures. All Rights Reserved)
Terrace is played on an 8x8 board consisting of 16 'L' shaped terraces. Two corners of the board are "High" and the other corners are "Low". A normal 2 player game begins as shown below. Each player has pieces of 4 sizes ('A', 'B', 'C' and 'D'). 'A' pieces are the smallest, 'D' pieces are the largest. 'T' pieces are the same size as 'A' pieces and are each player's "key" piece.
The object of the game is to capture your opponent's "T" or move your "T" to the lowest square on your opponent's side of the board.
H---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---L
8 | D | D | C | C | B | B | A | T |
+---+ + + + + + +---+
7 | A A | B | B | C | C | D D |
+---+---+ + + + +---+---+
6 | | | | |
+---+---+---+ + +---+---+---+
5 | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
4 | | |
+---+---+---+ + +---+---+---+
3 | | | | |
+---+---+ + + + +---+---+
2 | d d | c | c | b | b | a a |
+---+ + + + + + +---+
1 | t | a | b | b | c | c | d | d |
L---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---H
a b c d e f g h
- Moving on the same level
- In a single move a piece can move to any vacant square on the same level which it can reach without jumping over an opponent's piece. It can jump over its own pieces. It cannot moves across the centerpoint of the board.
- Moving up
- A piece can move straight up or diagonally up one square at a time to a vacant square on the next higher level.
- Moving down
- A piece can only move straight down, one square at a time, to a vacant square on the next lower level (diagonal moves down are for capturing only).
- Capturing
- A piece can capture any piece which is the same size or smaller by moving diagonally down to the next lower level into its square. The captured piece is removed from the board. You *may* capture your own pieces.
- Movement Notation
- The official Terrace notation is:
s-rc1-rc2 Normal move s-rc1-rc2:d Capture movewhere
- s is the piece being moved (A,B,C,D,T)
- rc1 is the starting position of the piece being moved
- rc2 is the final position of the piece being moved
- d is the piece being captured by the move
Movement Examples
Moving on the same Level
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
4 | C . . | |
+---+---+---+ + +---+---+---+
3 | | . | | |
+---+---+ + + + +---+---+
2 | d d | c | c | | | |
+---+ + + + + + +---+
1 | t | a | b | b | | | | |
L---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---H
a b c d e f g h
The pieces at d2 and d1 can move to any of the spaces marked with a '.', but can not move to a1 due to the opponent's piece at location b4.
Moving up
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
4 | C | |
+---+---+---+ + +---+---+---+
3 | | | . | |
+---+---+ + + + +---+---+
2 | d d | c | c | . | | |
+---+ + + + + + +---+
1 | t | a | b | b | . | | | |
L---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---H
a b c d e f g h
The piece at d2 can move up to any of the spaces marked with a '.'
Moving down
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
4 | C | |
+---+---+---+ + +---+---+---+
3 | . | | | |
+---+---+ + + + +---+---+
2 | d d | c | c | | | |
+---+ + + + + + +---+
1 | t | a | b | b | | | | |
L---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---H
a b c d e f g h
The piece at b4 can move down only to b3.
Capturing
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
4 | C | |
+---+---+---+ + +---+---+---+
3 | d c | | | |
+---+---+ + + + +---+---+
2 | d | | c | | | |
+---+ + + + + + +---+
1 | t | a | b | b | | | | |
L---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---H
a b c d e f g h
The piece at b4 can capture the piece at c3, but not the piece at a3. Why? The piece at a3 is larger than the piece at b4.