DIABALLIK

Copyright (c) 2002 Philippe Lefrançois

This game is played on the following 7x7 square board:

 

TURNS - At each turn, each player can do the following things (with no specific order): Orthogonally move a friendly soldier into an orthogonally adjacent empty cell.  The player may execute another optional movement with this soldier or with another one (also to an orthogonally adjacent empty cell). Optionally, swap the King with a soldier provided that they are in the same (diagonal or horizontal but not vertical) line and separated by empty cells or cells with friendly soldiers. The King cannot move by any other means. GOAL - Wins the player that places his King into the last row.

In the player's turn, there are three possible actions and any order is possible. He may move, swap and move; or swap, move and move; or just move and swap... Since this is a fast game, player's may execute several games defining a number of wins to decide the match.

If one player simply tries to maintain his own army initial positions, it may be difficult for the adversary to win the game. Considering that, Philippe has a 'anti-play' rule: If a player makes a line which can not be passed, the other player can win if three pieces of him are in contact with this continuous line.

An example Green's turn. Green can win by executing the following sequence: 1) move b6 to c6, 2) move c6 to c7, 3) swap teh King with c7.

Check more information about this game here at the author's website.

[Dec, 2009] Check this Java application to play Diaballik against an AI programmed by Raphaël Couturier.