Genocide

From CleanPosts

Genocide is a two player game using a standard chess or checker board, but at least five sets of checkers. The object, as the name implies, is to wipe out every piece fielded by your opponent.

No two games of Genocide are ever the same, because there are so many options for game rules, called "toggles" (because a computer implementation of Genocide would begin by having you "toggle" which rules are in effect). Genocide has evolved through playtesting many toggles, each one perfectly valid, but to begin I will describe the current game of "Classic Genocide" as it stands.

The game starts with the back rows filled with single checkers, as shown here. The players flip a coin or otherwise decide who will go first, black or red. There are three Phases of play in Genocide:

1. Growth Phase 2. Movement Phase 3. Battle Phase

Growth Phase is accomplished by adding one checker to every stack on your own back row, of your own color, that is only one checker high. Several considerations present themselves during this phase:

• Since only one-high stacks can grow, each double stack must be cleared off in order to be eligible to grow on the next turn.

• Conquering and holding land on the opponent's back row is the key to winning the game.

• Since smaller stacks are easier to defeat in battle than taller ones, a player may wish to temporarily forfeit the ability to grow in favor of defending the site, with a tall stack, against attack.

Movement Phase is accomplished by allocating 12 Movement Points to any piece or pieces (of your color) on the board you choose.

• If "Stickyland" is toggled, then a stack must leave one piece behind on every square it travels to, as if the board was covered in glue. This makes the stack shrink as it moves.

• If "Tugboats" are toggled, then it costs the same number of Movement Points to move a whole stack as it does to move a single checker.

• Moving one piece off a stack to an empty square requires one Movement Point.

• Breaking a smaller stack off of an existing stack requires one Movement Point.

• If a piece or stack lands on an opponent piece or stack, it must stop. This is a Battle. You can't trample over your opponent without a fight.

• If "Supply Lines" are toggled, then movement of pieces over the top of your own pieces is free. For example, after the Growth Phase, you could move all the new pieces to one piece in the corner, clearing off seven growers and creating a stack 8 pieces high, all without spending a single Movement Point.

• If "Banking" is toggled, then unused Movement Points can be saved to be used on another turn. Otherwise they are lost.

Battle Phase applies to every stack with a mixture of red and black pieces. If none are present, then the other player proceeds to his Growth Phase.

• Each red checker cancels out one black checker. That's all there is to it.

• Matching the enemy stack with an identical number of pieces results in an empty square after the Battle Phase.

• Overmatching an enemy stack of n pieces with n+1 pieces leaves one of your pieces after the Battle Phase. And so on.

• If "Dice" are toggled, then each battle is waged by a roll of one red and one black die, with the difference between the two rolls being important. For instance, if both dice come up five, it's stalemate. If the red has four and the black two, then red kills two black pieces in the stack. And so forth.

Glossary of Genocide Terms

AMOEBA This is a sub-toggle of Supply Lines that requires continuity of your line directly back to your home row. If the enemy pinches off one of your Supply Line "pseudopods" then all the pieces forward of that cutoff point are removed from the board.

BOXCARS Originally, the players rolled two dice to determine how many Movement Points they had for that round. In the effort to make Genocide purely a game of strategy, not chance, the "Boxcars" toggle was created. It simply says forget the dice and pretend you always roll twelves.

BRIDGE On the special boards that simulate a real battlefield, a bridge is a piece of your own color that permits travel over water obstacles. If the bridge is permitted to navigate up and down the river it is called a FERRY.

CAPTURABLE TOGGLES This is a version where the very rules of the game are linked to spaces on your back row, and if they are captured by an opponent he can toggle them on or off in the middle of the game. It is not known what would happen if the toggle that allows capturable toggles is turned off.

HOTSPOTS In this toggle, a certain square on the board is considered your "headquarters" to be defended at all costs.

OCEANOCIDE This is a variation of Genocide played on a board that is mostly water. Only a few red squares are left, representing land, and only on land are pieces allowed to grow. It is different from Classic Genocide because occupying an opponent's islands allows your own pieces to grow.

OVERPOPULATION In this version, half of the board is occupied by red checkers and the other half black checkers before the game even starts. Unfortunately, this can lead to dull games where each move is a mirror image of the opponent's move. Semi-overpopulation leaves two empty rows in the center of the board, permitting some variation.

SLINKY Originally this was a stack or tower that occurred when Tugboats were toggled off. It had to move by unloading itself on another square one piece at a time, shrinking here, growing there, reminding one of a walking Slinky toy. Now the term applies to any large stack of checkers.

SYMPOSIUM This is the debriefing that occurs after each game where the players discuss the good and bad results and suggest new toggles for the next game.

UNANSWERED SLINKY This is a tower free to attack because the opponent either forgot, or did not have enough pieces, to engage it in battle.