XCONFLICT An adapatation of a Parker Brothers' Game Starting the game You may play Conflict with 2, 3 or 4 people. Specify the X terminal of each player in order on the command line. For example, the command "xconflict :0 machine1:0 machine2:0" would start a three player game with your machine as the first host, machine1 as the second host, and machine2 as the third host. Make sure that you are allowed to write to the screens of each of the hosts, or you will get an error (see the xhost command if this applies to you). What's on the screen? An xconflict window will appear on each terminal. At the top are the control buttons, Rules and Quit. If any player presses Quit, the game ends for all players. To the right is a display of the dice, which are used in moving pieces. Just below is the message area, which at startup tells you which player number you are. Play progresses in order starting with player 1. When it is your turn, a message will appear in the message area telling you so. Below the message area are some rows of pieces, one for each player. In addition there is an extra row of pieces below, which are called reserve pieces. Note that the reserve pieces are divided into groups, again one group for each player. Each piece is surrounded by a terrain square, indicating the kind of terrain that piece may move on. This will be explained in greater detail later. The remainder of the window contains the board--a rectangular array of squares. Every square represents a certain type of terrain, which limits the types of pieces which may move onto that square. The fuzzy squares (which are brown on color screens) represent land, the wavy squares (blue on color screens) are water, and the solid white squares are impassable to any piece. Four squares on the board are marked with a plus symbol (+). These are home bases, the most important squares on the board. Each player owns one of these squares and must defend it from invasion at all costs. Eight other squares contain box and dot patterns; these are mines. Each player owns two mines. On color screens, mines and bases are color coded to the player who owns them. On monochrome screens, mines belong to the nearest home base, and you must remember that player 1 starts in the upper left, player 2 in the upper right, player 3 in the lower left, and player 4 in the lower right. The pieces There are five kinds of pieces, each drawn with a different symbol in the rows of pieces at the top of the board. On color screens, each row is drawn with a different color to indicate ownership. On monochrome screens, player 1 owns the top row of pieces, which are colored white and face right. Player 2 has black pieces facing left, player 3's pieces are black and face right, and player 4's pieces are white and face left. The first piece in each player's arsenal is the cannon. The cannon moves on land and may capture any other piece. Next is the anti-aircraft gun, which also moves on land and may capture any piece. The most powerful piece is the airplane, which moves freely on both land and water. However, the airplane cannot capture an anti-aircraft gun or a submarine. On the water each player has ships and a submarine. They may capture any other piece. You begin the game with three cannon, three ships, and one airplane, anti-aircraft gun, and submarine. On reserve you have one cannon, two ships, and an airplane. Movement A piece moves on adjacent squares in any direction, including diagonally. A piece must move the number of spaces on one of the dice, and each die must be used to move a different piece. The move must pass through only squares of permissible terrain (for instance, a ship may never move through a land square), and further a piece may not move through the same square twice on one roll of the dice. To move a piece, press the first mouse button on the square containing the piece, or on your row of movable pieces above the board if you want to enter a new piece onto the board. New pieces must start at your home base, so their maximum range on one roll is 6 spaces away from your home base. Draw a path for the piece by pressing the first button on another square of the board. The squares need not be adjacent; a path will be drawn between the old and new squares if possible. You may undo one square of the move at a time by clicking on highlighted squares in the reverse of the order in which they were drawn. To erase a path entirely, click on another piece to select it. When you have determined a path and a final square for a piece, click on the second button to move the piece. Special rolls If you roll doubles, you get another turn. After you move your pieces for your first turn, the dice are rolled again. You may move one of the pieces that you moved on the first roll; it is only forbidden to move the same piece twice in one roll. There is no limit to the number of possible consecutive doubles. On a roll of 7, you may select any of your reserve pieces for immediate use in the game. Simply click on a reserve piece with the first button, and the piece will move into your list of available pieces. Mines You own two mines, which are a kind of safety square for your pieces. If a piece passes through or lands on a mine owned by another player, both that piece and any piece that may be resting on the mine are destroyed. Takeovers If one of your pieces ends its movement by landing on an opponent's home base, then you have taken over or captured that player. All of his pieces and mines become yours. In addition, all the pieces and mines of players that he may have captured earlier are also yours. Your two rows of movable pieces are combined into one line in the list above the board. You may immediately use any of his pieces or reserves as if they were your own. Captures can become complicated in three and four person games. The key point to remember is that the color of the piece which makes the capture determines ownership (where color is interpreted as the different combinations of black, white, facing right and facing left on monochrome screens). The following example illustrates the hierarchy of ownership. Suppose that in the first capture of the game, red takes over orange. Red now controls all the red and orange pieces on the board. Later, the red player captures green using an orange piece. What happens if yellow now makes a capture? There are three possibilities: (1) Yellow captures green. Since green has made no previous captures, nothing else happens. (2) Yellow captures orange. Orange previously captured green (while under the control of red, but this is irrelevant). So yellow gains both orange's and green's pieces. (3) Yellow captures red. Red owns orange, who owns green. Yellow thus gains all three, winning the game. One last detail: suppose that red captures orange; he may now use orange mines as his own. Let us pretend that red decides to put one red piece and one orange piece on the two orange mines. If someone else takes over orange, that player will take ownership of the orange mines. So red will have a piece on an enemy mine at this point, and the piece will be destroyed. Winning The last player alive wins. This may be accomplished either by taking over all enemy home bases, or by wiping out all of your opponents' pieces. Other rules If you have only one piece that can move, then your unused die roll is automatically discarded. The home base squares are considered as both water and land, so that any piece may make a capture. With fewer than four players in a game, the unused players are universally hostile, meaning that their mines are fatal to all players. However, any player may take the mines by capturing the home base as usual. It is not necessary to capture unused players to win the game. Miscellaneous One reason that the original Parker Brothers board game didn't last is that its rules are extremely unclear. The details of takeovers are especially confusing. I have modified the rules as listed above and invented when necessary. The most obvious addition is the submarine, which is meant to balance the omission of the old rule that airplanes can't land on mines. The board is too small. After losing a few games because someone rolled a measly double twos with an airplane on the corner of the center island, this will become clear. I originally wrote this game to permit flexibility in board size and composition, as well as adding new pieces and terrain types. The game has the potential to simulate global war if there were an editor to allow such a thing. I may take on this project if there is enough interest. E-mail me a note if you enjoy the game, and pass on any suggestions you have. Andrew Kirmse