CANNON 

Copyright (c) 2003 David Whitcher

Cannon is played on a 10x10 square board with the following setup:

 

SETUP - Each player drops the Town in any empty cell of his first row except in the corner cells. The Town cannot move. SOLDIER - A soldier may: Move to an adjacent (orthogonal or diagonal) forward empty cell Capture an adjacent (orthogonal or diagonal) forward or sideways piece. Retreat backwards (orthogonal or diagonal) two cells if it is adjacent to an enemy piece. CANNON - A cannon is a (orthogonal or diagonal) line of 3 adjacent friendly soldiers. A cannon may: Make a non-move capture (i.e., a cannon shot ) two or three cells in line with the group as long as the position immediately in front of the cannon is not occupied. Shift along it's length in any direction without capturing. TURN - On each turn, each player must move a soldier or use a cannon. GOAL - Wins the player that captures the opposite Town or stalemates the opponent.

 

An example Green's move. Green captures g3:f2. After e1:f2, f5-e4, h1-g2, e4-e3!, f2:e3, h3:g2 and wins

Some words from the author: Don't let your soldiers get lost  (advance beyond the point that they may threaten your enemy's town ).Try to get your soldiers in formations to make multiple cannon with the fewest men. Remember a cleaver retreat may be the key to victory! There is a ZRF to play Cannon with Zillions.

David is writing a program to extract statistical information for the Cannon games from Zsg files. He's used Zillions of games to create hundreds of Comp vs. Comp games and dozens of Hum vs. Comp games. He also needs of a bank of Hum vs. Hum games so if you play this game, send those transcripts to cannonmaster@hotmail.com.