Gamehelpvaultnestorgames

Goal

Vault is a 2-player combinatorial abstract strategy game designed by Néstor Romeral Andrés. Advance your pieces across a checkered grid by walking or leaping over friendly pivots to invade your opponent's back rank. If you start your turn with at least one pawn on the opponent's back rank, you win!

Components

Component	Icon	Description
White Pawns		White pawns controlled by Player 1 (8 pawns on the default 8×8 board).
Black Pawns		Black pawns controlled by Player 2 (8 pawns on the default 8×8 board).
Checkered Board		Square grid patterned with 4 distinct tonal squares (default: 8×8).

Setup

• White starts with pawns occupying the bottom back rank.
• Black starts with pawns occupying the opposite top back rank.
• White plays first; players alternate turns.

Your turn

On your turn, execute exactly one action:

1. Walk

• Move any friendly pawn one square in any direction (orthogonal or diagonal, like a chess King) to an adjacent unoccupied square.
• Walking cannot make captures.

2. Jump (Vault)

• Select a friendly jumping pawn and a second friendly pawn to act as a pivot.
• The jumping pawn leaps over the pivot in a straight line, landing straight across the pivot at the exact same distance on the other side.
• Jumps may be executed along any vector (orthogonal, diagonal, or knight-like angles). Intermediate squares between jumper, pivot, and landing site may be empty or occupied.
• Captures: If the landing square is occupied by an enemy pawn, that enemy pawn is captured and removed from the board! You cannot land on a friendly pawn or off the board.

Board tones & colour-blind support

• The board features a 4-toned checkered pattern .
• Because every jump doubles vector distances, the takeoff square and landing square of any valid jump are mathematically guaranteed to share the exact same board tone!
• Enabling Colorblind Support (Preference 100) displays distinct geometric markers on each of the 4 tones.

End of the game

• Back rank victory: If you land a pawn on the opponent's back rank and they cannot capture it on their immediately upcoming turn with a legal jump, you win at the start of your turn! (If they have no legal jump to capture your invading pawn, you win immediately).
• Stalemate: If a player starts their turn with no legal moves (neither a walk nor a jump), that player loses and their opponent wins.

Variants (table options)

• Board Size (Option 100):
  • 8×8 (Standard) (default): 8 pawns per player.
  • 5×5: 5 pawns per player.
  • 6×6: 6 pawns per player.
  • 7×7: 7 pawns per player.
  • 9×9: 9 pawns per player.
  • 10×10: 10 pawns per player (nestorgames edition).

Controls on BGA

• Selecting a pawn: click a friendly pawn to select it. Click red Deselect if you wish to choose another pawn.
• Walking: valid adjacent empty walk squares highlight in green. Click an adjacent square, then click blue Confirm Walk (or red Undo).
• Vaulting: click your jumper pawn, then click a friendly pivot pawn. Valid landing squares highlight in blue (or red for captures). Click the landing square, then click blue Confirm Vault or Confirm Vault (Capture) (or red Undo).
• Tooltips: hover over the pawn counter in player panels to view current pawn counts.
• Preferences:
  • Colorblind support (Preference 100, default: Off): displays geometric markers on the 4 board tones.
  • Sound effects (Preference 101, default: On).
  • Board orientation (Preference 102, default: Seat-relative [own pawns at bottom]; option: Fixed [White at bottom]).