Gamehelpcommanderchess

Description

Commander Chess, or Cờ tư lệnh (literally "Chess Command") is a xiangqi variant created by Hải Quý Nguyễn.

Cờ tư lệnh is played with 38 pieces (19 per player) on a board that is 11 lines wide and 12 lines long. It is played on the vertices of the grid. The board is divided into two land territories by a river in the middle of the board. The three files on one side of the board form the sea.

Object of the game

To win you must capture the opponent's Commander, or all units of a single division of the opponent's army:

• Sea - Both Navy ships. 2 pieces total.
• Land - Artillery, Tanks, Infantry. 6 pieces total.
• Air - Both Planes. 2 pieces total.
• Commander - 1 piece total.

Pieces and movement

• All pieces move orthogonally (like a castle in standard chess), some also can also move diagonally (like a queen in standard chess).
• A piece can move up to the number of spaces as detailed below.

The pieces on both sides, with their abbreviations, movements, and rules, are:

1 Commander [C]: moves any distance orthogonally; captures 1 point orthogonally; may occupy Headquarters; may not "see" (line-of-sight) the opposing Commander on an open file. Similar to Xiangqi (Chinese Chess).

2 Infantry [In]: 1 point orthogonally

2 Tanks [T]: 2 points orthogonally; may capture on sea squares it cannot enter, remaining stationary; carries C, In, or M

1 Militia [M]: 1 point orthogonally

2 Engineer [E]: 1 point orthogonally; carries all pieces, only across river; controls airspace 1 point any direction

2 Artillery [A]: 1–3 points any direction; may only move across the river at reefs, but may shoot and capture across the river at any point.

2 Anti-aircraft gun [Aa]: 1 point orthogonally; may capture on sea squares it cannot enter; controls airspace 1 point.

1 Missile [Ms]: 1–2 points orthogonally or 1 point diagonally; controls 2 points of airspace.

2 Air force [Af]: 1–4 points any direction; may return to its departing point after capturing or carrying, unless capturing opposing Af; carries C, In, or M; destroyed on passing through opposing airspace.

2 Navy [N]: 1-4 points any direction on sea, sea banks, and river banks; captures as it moves at sea; shoots 1–3 in any direction at land targets; controls airspace 1 point.

2 Headquarters [HQ]: stationary and does not capture; may house only C; protects C, but not itself, from In, M, Aa, and Ms

Airspace

When moving Planes[Af] may be shot down by the opponents anti-aircraft pieces.

• Anti-Aircraft Pieces (range): [Ms]Missile(2), [Aa]Anti-Aircraft(1), [N]Navy(1).

• Note this range a circular radius.

• Pieces join together to form a single ring-of-fire(ROF).

• A plane can commit kamikaze (capture the opponents piece) while staying in opponents anti-aircraft range (ROF); In this instance, when 2 or more Anti-aircraft pieces are present they together form a single ring-of-fire(ROF) area. Only when the plane leaves ROF or captures its target does it get shot down and removed from play. But if the plane leaves the ROF before reaching it's target then it will be shot down, and will be unsuccessful in performing kamikaze.

• The last [Af] plane committing kamikaze against the opponents last [N] Navy will win the game, even though the plane gets shot down.

• A plane can get shot down during it's own turn due to anti-aircraft pieces, when this happens a player cannot undo their turn.

General rules

• Pieces capture as they move, and never jump, unless noted.
• Pieces can cross the river but not occupy sea points unless noted.
• [N]Navy piece may not cut across land when moving diagonally.
• Pieces which check the opposing Commander are promoted, gaining 'hero' status and gain special abilities.
• Hero status will mean a piece can move 1 additional space. The piece will also be able to move diagonally. [Af]Planes become stealth planes and are immune to ALL anti-aircraft.

Stack: Pieces that can carry other pieces

Stacks are a group of pieces all at the same location. They may form groups of 2 or 3 pieces.

A stack of pieces can all move in a single turn. The stack may move as a single group or any piece from the stack may instead disembark and move elsewhere. Multiple captures are possible. See the user interface section for specific instructions on moving with the stack.

The following list are pieces that can be carriers followed by the pieces and restrictions of what they can carry:

Stacks maximum group of 3 pieces (1 carrier and 2 other pieces)

• [N]Navy. May carry any combination of [C]Commander, [In]Infantry, [M]Militia, [T]Tank, [Af]Plane.
• [Af]Plane. May carry any combination of [C]Commander, [In]Infantry, [M]Militia, [T]Tank. but not 2 tanks.
• [T]Tank. May carry 1 [In]Infantry and 1 other piece. [C]Commander, [In]Infantry, [M]Militia.

Stacks maximum group of 2 pieces (1 carrier and 1 other piece):

• [HQ]Headquarters, may hold [C]Commander. HQ does not move
• [E]Engineer, may carry heavy weapons [A]Artillery, [Aa]Anti-aircraft, [Ms]Missile Also specifically must be carried across the river from one side to the other.

Examples of unusual play

• Both navy and land pieces may be placed on the coast. A [N] Navy has a gun and may capture a land piece, if it does then it will only capture and move if this land piece is on the coast, otherwise the [N]Navy piece will remain still and capture.

• [E]Engineers may only carry pieces from the limited number of river bank spaces, and move just the 1 space across the river. All other stack movements with the engineer are not allowed.

• [A]Artillery, [Aa] Anti-aircraft and [Ms] Missile may capture (shoot) across the river (but stay still) where normally they would not be able to cross the river.

• [A] Artillery can only jump over pieces when capturing another piece. Otherwise, they cannot jump over pieces.

• On the Sea/Land border (coast) land pieces do not block the movement of a Navy piece and vice versa. So these pieces are not being jumped over. One is on land, the other is in the sea, but both are on the coast.

• A commander that exposes themselves to the opponents commander will immediately lose. (Line-of-sight).

• Pieces that can jump and are not blocked by ANY piece. [Af] Plane, [N] Navy and the Navy gun. [A] Artillery(but only when capturing),

• without Enforce Check, it's possible to move into check, if you do this with your commander, then the opponents piece will become heroic.

User Interface

• Some pieces stack on top of each other. It is recommended to use the squares to the right of the board from top to bottom. It automatically selects the stack to be moved as 1 group, if you would like to split up the pieces then user must select the pieces individually.

By selecting a box you will see the colour of the box change and the text.

GREEN means this is the selected piece and the piece you are currently moving.

RED means this piece is being carried and will not move separately.

GREY means this piece will move later after you have moved the current GREEN (selected) piece.

'Stay' will mean that the carried piece will disembark and stay in its current position.

• When playing with 'Enforce check' option a player needs to RESIGN if there are no playable moves.

• There are various 'confirm' options available from the context menu (3 lines, burger menu).