Diamond Combat
Redesigning the game of Chinese Checkers by changing its geometry.
Original board of Chinese Checkers
Change in the geometry:
The geometry of the redesigned board is inspired from a tessellation shown in the book 'Islamic Geometric Patterns' by Eric Broug. The interesting relation between the new and old geometry is that they can be seen as complements of each other within a hexagon.
Redesigned Chinese Checkers board.
Change in the gameplay:
The redesigned board could accommodate more pieces per player. So, we experimented with the types of game pieces to modify the gameplay. Thus came the concept of the Common and Super pegs. The common pegs move like the game pieces of the original game of Chinese Checkers; however the super pegs are more powerful.
Game objective:
1. Each player must try to fill his destination space with ALL his pegs placed the same way they were at the start of the game i.e. super pegs and common pegs separately, in their respective holes.
2. The player who succeeds in doing this first, wins.
Setup:
1. Place the pegs as shown in the figure.
2. Use a die to decide which player will start the game.
How to move:
1. Players take turns to move single peg of their own colour.
2. In one turn, a peg may either be simply moved into an adjacent hole OR it may make one or more hops over other pegs.
3. For a common peg where a hopping move is made, each hop must be over ONE adjacent peg and into a vacant hole directly beyond it.
4. For a super peg where a hopping move is made, each hop must be over ONE or TWO adjacent pegs and into a vacant hole directly beyond them.
5. For both common and super pegs after each hop, the player may either finish his turn or, if possible and desired, continue by hopping over another peg.
How to capture:
1. For a super peg after a hop, if the peg lands on the super peg of another player, it gets to capture that super peg and remove it from the board.
2. A super peg can't capture a super peg adjacent to it.
3. A super peg can't capture a common peg.
4. A super peg cannot be captured once it reaches it's spot in the destination space.
How to revive:
1. A player can revive his captured super peg if one of his remaining super pegs reaches it's spot in the destination space, AFTER the capture has been made.
2. The revived super peg must be replaced anywhere in the home space of the player it belongs to.
How to win:
1. The player who succeeds in placing all the pegs in the appropriate destination space first, wins the game.
2. If all the super pegs of a player get captured, he loses and is out of the game.
Prototyping and packaging:
