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The RulesThe Battlefield consists of a two dimensional grid apon which the players move their pieces. Each player is refererred to as aRuler. The game utilises only three types of pieces; Castles, Knights and Peasants. Castles are fixed position pieces which occupy a single location on the grid. The Castles generate additional Peasants and Knights (referred to as Subjects) as the game progresses. Normally each Ruler starts with a single Castle on the board and a number of Peasants and Knights. The game is played across a number of rounds; during each round each Ruler is given a turn during which he may move each of his Subjects. Subjects may only move one place during each round to any one of the eight adjacent locations, providing the location is not already occupied. As Peasants are moved they capture each location on the grid through which they move. As Knights move they have the ability to attack the pieces of the other rulers. A Knight may either move or attack in a single round but not both. A Knight may only attack a piece which occupies one of the locations adjacent to the Knight. When a Knight attacks a piece, the attack reduces the Strength of the attacked piece by a random amount (between 15 and 30), if the piece's strength drops below zero then the piece is killed or in the case of a Castle captured. When a Knight captures or kills a piece the Knights strength increases by 20. At the start of each round each Ruler's Castle may generate additional Peasants or Knights. The number of Subjects created is dependant on the number of locations owned by the Ruler. The Ruler scores each time a location or piece is captured. That is the complete set of rules to the game and as such Battlefield Java is very simple to learn. The hard bit is to design a Ruler which operates within the set of rules more successfully than anyone elses Ruler, as measured by the final score. |