This is a simple game I just dreamed up (literally: I awoke from a dream in which I was playing something like it, then tidied up the idea while awake). You'll need a play area marked out in a regular pattern of positions (e.g. a lattice of squares or a honey-comb pattern of hexagons) and a set of pieces – I'm thinking of draughts (USAish: checkers) pieces – per player. Each player's pieces are all (to be deemed) identical; and distinguishable from those of any other player. You'll also need a pair of dice (I'm thinking of the cubes known to gamers as D6, but this isn't crucial as long as they're identical). I'll leave initial set-up, and selection of order of play, as a matter for the players to invent in any mutually-agreeable manner.
Players take turns to charge contiguous groups of their pieces around the table, killing opposing pieces that they run into. Each turn, or charge, comprises a sequence of steps, each of which moves a contiguous group of pieces, each onto a square adjacent to the one on which it began the step. The number of steps in your charge is determined by a roll of the dice at the start of your turn. There are two types of step: if the dice-roll was a double, you get to make flexible steps, otherwise rigid ones. In a rigid move, all pieces you are moving must move in the same direction (one step each); in a flexible move, each piece's direction can be selected independently.
If, in your charge, a move causes one of your pieces to move into the space
occupied by an opposing piece, the two pieces occupy the space together (I think
of one draughts piece sitting on top of the other) for the rest of your charge;
your one of them cannot move again until the end of your charge, when the other
is removed from play. These pieces are in combat
in the interval.
Two pieces are adjacent if they start the step in positions sharing a common
edge; a group of pieces is contiguous if, between any two in the group, there is
a path within the group stepping always between adjacent pieces. A step must
move each piece in a contiguous group (a flexible step must move each
piece, it can't declare a piece as moving
nowhere, just so as to let that
piece serve as a bridge between two parts of a contiguous group). A piece in
combat cannot be counted in a contiguous group for a move, since it cannot move.
It may be worth providing for defensive
moves. After your opponent
has rolled the dice, and you've seen the result, you're allowed to borrow one
step off your next turn's dice-roll and use it to make a defensive step. This
is just like a rigid (attacking) step except that it can't move any of your
pieces into combat, i.e. onto a square occupied by an opposing piece. In the
case where your opponent rolls a double, you could be allowed a second defensive
rigid step at the half-way point of your opponent's charge.
It might be interesting to provide for capture of opposing pieces, turning them into your own, e.g. if you manage to surround a group of them (cf. go). This would either need pieces that change type when flipped over (e.g. othello pieces) or be limitted to capturing as many as you've lost pieces in earlier play, for use in replacing the captured pieces.
Written by Eddy.