Abstract:
Dual hexagon shaped playing fields composed of smaller hexagons of two different colors vertically separated for visibility with each player starting with the same number of three different shaped playing pieces with each piece being limited differently in movement and capture capability with such limitations designed to make each piece of approximately the same worth to a player in his effort to capture the opponent&#39;s pieces and conscript the captured pieces for his use.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     There is a continuing market or need for board games of many types. This invention is a new type of intellectually challenging game such as chess but differs markedly from the original chess game and the many variations thereof in prior art. In chess the pieces have differing values and greatly differing capabilities and a game may essentially be won when one player captures a major piece, such as the king of the opponent. 
     In this game there are three different groups of pieces with each group having different capabilities but with similar worth to the player in his effort to capture the other player&#39;s pieces. The player wins by using the synergistic effect of having the proper pieces in the proper location at the proper time. 
     In this invention the power or directions in which a piece may capture and the mobility are separate concepts and these are varied to make each of the three groups of pieces have approximately the same worth in their use to capture the opposing player&#39;s pieces. 
     The playing board differs markedly from the familiar chess board in that there are no all powerful positions and all playing pieces are of similar worth. With experimentation the inventor has found that a two level board, each level with a playing field having a total of thirty seven blue plus white hexagons and with each player having a total of ten pieces the game is sufficiently complex to be interesting and intellectually challenging and may be concluded in one to two hours. A second embodiment has dual playing fields with sixty one hexagons and each player starts with eighteen pieces. A game on the second embodiment could require three to five hours to conclude. 
     In a preferred embodiment of the playing pieces each of the three types of movable pieces has a walnut or walnut colored side and a maple or maple colored side. One player starts with the walnut sides showing and the other player starts with the maple side showing. Each player attempts to capture the other player&#39;s pieces and as he does conscripts them for his own by simply turning them over. 
     At the start each player has four pieces called the Halberd that have six directions of capture but can move only one hexagon at a time; has four pieces called the Saebel that have four directions of capture and that can move two hexagons of the same color at a time; and has two pieces called the Lantz that can move up to six hexagons but is the most limited in its direction of capture. The names A, B, C or many other names could also be used for the playing pieces. 
     The concept of momentum is introduced by allowing a player who wins four or more pieces to move more pieces at a time. The equipment may be used for a single game or as a campaign of several games. In a campaign a player who is losing may choose to lose to cut his losses on a particular game since the winner of total number of pieces wins the campaign. With the sixty one hexagon playing board available the campaign could be played using both boards. In some embodiments the sixty one hexagon playing fields could be on the lower side of the boards having the thirty seven hexagon playing fields so that the more difficult second embodiment could be used by inverting the playing unit on different games of the campaign. 
     Obviously one of normal skill in the art could make changes in the playing field size, the number of playing pieces, and even the playing rules, we wish therefor only to be limited to the spirit and purpose as outlined in these specifications and claims. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The equipment of the invention comprises similar dual hexagon shaped playing fields composed of preferably white and blue hexagons, held on rectangles one above the other and separated for visibility. Each one of the small hexagons is identified with a letter or number to aid the player in making certain that a vertical move is properly made. Each player starts with an equal number of playing pieces. Each playing piece has the same color on one side and the same but differing color on the other side. 
     The object of the game is for a player to capture the opposing player&#39;s pieces. In a preferred embodiment each player has two pieces of one shape and one capability for movement and capture, has four pieces of a second shape and a second capability for movement and capture, and four pieces of a third shape and a third capability for movement and capture. Each player has ten pieces at the start of the game. When a player captures a piece he conscripts the piece for his own team by turning the piece over to his team&#39;s color and placing the conscripted piece in his own back row. A player must then guard his back row to be able to make use of the conscripted pieces. Each of the three types of pieces has differing move limitations and differing capture capabilities. The inventor intended for each piece to be of about the same worth to a player in his efforts to capture the opponent&#39;s pieces. To win a player must consider the capabilities of his pieces in their location on both playing fields, the capabilities of the opposing player&#39;s pieces in their location on both playing fields, the particular location of pieces that may capture by a vertical movement, and the immediate and longer range consequences of his contemplated movement of each movable piece. The thought processes may be likened to that of a local battle field commander or the owner of a business. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 shows the body of the game, dual boards, each with a dual colored hexagon playing field and the movable pieces of the game properly placed in the start of the playposition. 
     FIG. 2 shows one of the play pieces. 
     FIG. 3 shows a second of the play pieces 
     FIG. 4 shows the third type of play piece. 
     FIGS. 5,  6 , and  7  show playing pieces similar in size and shape to FIGS. 2,  3 , and  4  but formed in a single layer with dual colors on each piece. 
     FIG. 8 shows the second embodiment of the invention. 
     FIG. 9 illustrates the upward vertical move of the Halberd and the horizontal move to capture an adjacent players piece. 
     FIG. 10 shows the possible non capture horizontal moves of the Saebel and the vertical move from a first color to a second color and the ability to capture an opponents piece that is adjacent to and on the first color after its vertical move. 
     FIG. 11 shows the normal movement of the Lantz in six horizontal directions where it may not move over or capture an opponents piece and a vertical move wherein it may capture an opponents piece. 
     FIG. 12 shows a special movement for the Lantz wherein a Lantz may move horizontally between hexagons to capture an opponents piece if the Lantz is moving directly toward an opponents back row. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention may best be described from the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the equipment to play the game in the first embodiment of the invention. The top rigid rectangle  1  may be a transparent, translucent or opaque material with opaque being preferable. The top rectangle  1  is supported about 6 inches above the bottom rectangle  3  with rigid or foldable legs  6 . The top playing field  5  is in the shape of a hexagon and is formed by eighteen hexagons of one color, preferably white and nineteen hexagons of a second color, preferably blue. All the hexagons except one in a central location are identified with letters or numbers. 
     The bottom rectangle  3  is similar to the top rectangle and is preferably made from a rigid opaque material. The bottom or lower playing field is formed from two different colored hexagons and if the top playing field is formed from blue and white hexagons the bottom playing field will have eighteen blue and nineteen white hexagons. When a player moves a playing piece straight down as is required the piece will be on an opposite color from the starting point. The hexagons on the bottom field are identified the same as on the top field so that a player may identify the hexagon to make certain he is moving vertically as required. 
     In the preferred embodiment each player starts the game with ten playing pieces in place as shown. The ten playing pieces consist of two of a trefoil shape called a Lantz, four of a star shape called a Saebel and four of a truncated triangle shape called a Halberd. The pieces for the first player with the maple side up or the maple pieces are labelled  9  for the Halberd,  10  for the Saebel and  11  for the Lantz. The pieces for the second player with the walnut side up are labeled  12  for the Halberd,  13  for the Saebel and  14  for the Lantz. The pieces and their differing capabilities are fully discussed with the numbers being consistent in all the drawings. 
     In FIG. 2 the dual layer Halberd is shown with maple side  9  and walnut side  12 . In FIG. 3 the dual layer Saebel is shown with maple side  10  and walnut side  13 . In FIG. 4 the dual layer Lantz is shown with maple side  11  and walnut side  14 . When a piece is captured by a player it is conscripted into the player&#39;s group by simply turning it over; thus there are always twenty pieces on the board. 
     FIGS. 5,  6 , and  7  show a Halberd  17 , a Saebel  19 , and a Lantz  21 , respectively. Each of the pieces are a single layer and have an upper color  23  and a different lower color  25 . 
     The inventor intended for a winning player to consider the concepts of logistics, of equal worth pieces, of equal worth positions except for starting positions, of economics, of campaigning and of momentum. The Halberd, the Saebel, and the Lantz each have differing capture abilities and differing movement abilities. Momentum is achieved by allowing a player who has 14 pieces to move two different pieces at his turn; allowing a player with 15 pieces to move three different pieces for his turn and allowing a player with 16 or more pieces to move four different pieces for his turn. 
     In the preferred embodiment one player starts with one Halberd  9  on hexagon K and one Halberd  9  on hexagon X on the lower level playing field, or lower playing field  7 , FIG.  1  and one Halberd  9  on hexagon N and one Halberd  9  on hexagon T on the upper playing field  5 , FIG. 1 with Halberd  9  being with the maple side up. The other player starts with one Halberd  12  on hexagon Q and one Halberd  12  on hexagon W on the lower playing field and one Halberd  12  on hexagon M and one Halberd  12  on hexagon Z on the upper playing field with Halberd  12  being with the walnut side up. The Halberd has six directions of capture while moving one hexagon horizontally. Thus the Halberd may capture an other players piece that is adjacent to any side of the Halberds location. It must always move to an unoccupied hexagon to move vertically. It cannot capture vertically. Starting from it&#39;s own back row only it may move one move of two non-capturing hexagons but since it cannot jump the hexagons must be unoccupied. 
     When a player captures and conscripts a piece he must put the conscript in his (the player&#39;s) back row. Thus a player must guard his back row to make maximum use of conscripts. If he has no vacant spot in the back row he must hold the conscript out of play until he does have a vacancy. 
     In the preferred embodiment a first player starts with one Saebel  10  on hexagon G and one Saebel  10  on hexagon  1  on the lower level playing field  7 , FIG.  1  and starts with one Saebel  10  on hexagon G and one Saebel  10  on hexagon  1  on the upper level playing field  5 , FIG. 1, for a total of four Saebels. Each Saebel as shown in FIG. 1 the second player starts with two Saebels  13  similarly located on the lower field  7  and two Saebels  13  on the upper playing field  5  for a total of four Saebels must always end it&#39;s move on a hexagon that is the same color as the starting color. The Saebel always moves two hexagons and can jump two hexagons provided that it does not end its movement adjacent to the starting hexagon. As shown in FIG. 10 the Saebel has four directions of capture since it must end its move on its starting color and therefor captures always on the second hexagon from its starting position after first moving vertically. It may jump past an occupied hexagon on the first hexagon of its move. 
     As shown in FIG. 9 the Saebel may also go directly vertical to an opposite color for the first part of its move even if the hexagon below is occupied and it may capture on the second part of its move because it will then be on its own color. 
     When a maple colored Saebel is captured it is turned over by the new owner to become part of the new owner&#39;s walnut team but must be placed on its original colored hexagon on the new owner&#39;s back row. This further emphasizes the necessity for each player to maintain control of his back row. 
     A first player starts with one Lantz  11  on hexagon N and one Lantz  11  on hexagon T of the lower playing field  7 , FIG. 1 for a total of two. The first player does not have a Lantz on the upper playing field. The second player does not have a Lantz on the lower playing field  7 , FIG. 1 but has one Lantz  14  on hexagon Q and one Lantz  14  on hexagon W on the upper playing field  5 , FIG.  1 . As shown in FIG. 11 the Lantz can move horizontally across any number of hexagons in any of six directions and can move across members of its own team and can land on either color unoccupied hexagon. It cannot capture in a straight line and cannot move across a member of the opposite team in a straight line movement. The Lantz can capture an opponent&#39;s piece located above or below in one vertical movement or can move vertically to an unoccupied hexagon. As shown in FIG. 12 the Lantz also has a special horizontal forward capture. When going directly forward toward the opponent&#39;s back row the Lantz can move forward between one pair of hexagons to capture on a hexagon which will be either decreasing or increasing alpha-numerically by one from the starting position. As an example a Lantz on the lower playing level on hexagon T could move between hexagon R and X to capture an opponent&#39;s piece located on hexagon U; Lantz is moving from T to U. The Lantz on hexagon T cannot move between hexagon R and N because it would not be moving directly toward the opponent&#39;s back row and would land on hexagon K which is not a one letter increase or decrease. This specialized forward move can only be made to capture an opponent&#39;s piece. 
     In some embodiments the following table indicating strengths and weaknesses of each piece is affixed to the top rectangle on either side of the playing field to aid the novice player. 
     
       
         
               
               
               
               
             
           
               
                   
                   
               
               
                   
                 Piece 
                 Movement 
                 Direction of Capture 
               
               
                   
                   
               
             
             
               
                   
                 HALBERD 
                  1* 
                 6 
               
               
                   
                 SAEBEL 
                 2 
                 4 
               
               
                   
                 LANTZ 
                 6 
                 2 
               
               
                   
                   
               
               
                   
                 *Halberd can move two Hexagons from its own back row  
               
             
          
         
       
     
     FIG. 8 shows a second embodiment of the invention in which both the upper playing field  31  and the lower playing field  32  are enlarged to sixty one alternating color hexagons. In this embodiment the playing pieces are the same shape and are moved according to the same rules as the first embodiment but at the start of the game each player has eighteen pieces for a total of thirty six pieces. Each player has nine pieces in the back two rows of the upper level  31  and each has nine pieces on the back two rows of the lower level  32 . Each player has eight truncated triangle shaped pieces that may be called Halberds, six of the star shaped pieces that may be called Saebels, and four of the trilobal pieces that may be called Lantzs. These are shown in FIGS. 2,  3   4 , and in a slightly different version in FIGS. 5,  6 , and  7 . 
     Starting positions for this embodiment are as follows: 
     a first player has a Saebel  10 , a Lantz  11 , a second Saebel  10 , a second Lantz  11 , and a third Saebel  10  in order as listed on the back five hexagon row on the lower playing field  32 , and has four Halberds  9  adjacent to each other on the row in front of the back row and 
     the first player has exactly the same arrangement of pieces directly above the lower playing field  32  on the upper playing field  31 ; and 
     the second player has an arrangement of pieces the same as the first player&#39;s pieces but on the opposite end from the first player&#39;s pieces and of a different color from the first player&#39;s pieces.