ROYAL CARPET

Copyright (c) 2001 Don Green

The game is played on the following board with this setup:
    
 

Each player also has 4 soldiers starting off-board.

MOVE  - Each player, on each turn, must do one of the following things:
Drop a soldier into an empty cell;
Move a King or a soldier.
SOLDIER MOVE - A soldier moves to any adjacent empty cell (orthogonal or diagonal).
KING MOVE - A King jumps over an adjacent friendly soldier or King, into the immediate opposite empty cell (or over the edge). A jumped piece is removed. If it is a soldier, it can be dropped again on a later turn. If it is a King, it will be removed and will not return to the game!
After the first jump, the King must continue jumping while other jumps are available. It is not mandatory to maximize the number of jumps.
If a King jumps over the edge, it is removed from play and enters an end-zone and does not enter the game anymore.
GOAL - Wins the player that has two Kings on the end-zone.

An example

Red placed a soldier at cell [1]. After Black's move, the Red King at a8 jumped over the soldier, removing it from board.


This game entered on the 2001 8x8 Game Design Contest and was considered among the best entries. There is a ZRF to play Royal Carpet with Zillions.