Games of Soldiers

SCALA

Copyright (c) 1986 José W. Díaz - Skill Games

This game is played on the following board:

GROUP - A set of connected (orthogonally or diagonally) stones.

TURN - On each turn, each player moves or jumps one stone.

MOVE - A stone may move to any adjacent (orthogonal and diagonal) empty cell.

JUMP - A stone may also jump over any stone (friend or foe) landing on the opposite empty cell (it must be empty). A player may make on the same turn, multiple jumps with the same stone, and may change direction after each jump.

It is not valid to move or jump to its own first cell.

CONNECTION - After each move or jump, the stone must be connected (orthogonally or diagonally) to another stone of its group. Some other restrictions:

It's not valid to produce two groups with the same number of stones, if both groups have stones of both colors.

It's not valid to separate the two colors completely.

CAPTURE - If, after a move or jump, a set of stones are no longer connected to its group (the same group of the moving stone), they are captured (friends and foes). This implies that there are only one connected group on the board, after each move.

GOAL - Wins the player who advances one stone into the opponent's first cell (the cell marked in the first diagram with a color dot).

Some valid moves/jumps
The white stone at h8 may move to cell [1].
The white stone at g6 may jump, for example, to one of the cells [2].
The white stone at h4 may jump to cell [3] or the white stone at h5 may move to the same cell.
The black stone at i8 may make a triple jump through cells [4].
The black stone at f5 may jump to cell [5].

Capturing
The white stone at h5 jumps right to cell [1] disconnecting the 3 marked stones which are captured.

Some invalid moves
Black stone at i8 cannot move to cell [1], it would be disconnected of the group.
The marked stones cannot move/jump to cells where it create 2 groups of equal size (6 stones each).

	Some valid moves/jumps The white stone at h8 may move to cell [1]. The white stone at g6 may jump, for example, to one of the cells [2]. The white stone at h4 may jump to cell [3] or the white stone at h5 may move to the same cell. The black stone at i8 may make a triple jump through cells [4]. The black stone at f5 may jump to cell [5].
	Capturing The white stone at h5 jumps right to cell [1] disconnecting the 3 marked stones which are captured.
	Some invalid moves Black stone at i8 cannot move to cell [1], it would be disconnected of the group. The marked stones cannot move/jump to cells where it create 2 groups of equal size (6 stones each).