Barca is a two-player strategy board game invented by Andrew Caldwell. It is played on a 10x10 checkered board with three types of animal playing-pieces that move like the queen, bishop and rook in chess. Two distinguishing features from a typical chess variant are the absence of capture, and the fundamental role of a rock-paper-scissors dominance relationship among the three types of pieces: elephant, lion and mouse. Each player controls six animals comprising two of each animal type . The object of the game is to occupy three of the four “watering hole” squares that are located near the center of the board. A player's animals may occupy squares next to each other, but, for opposing sides, the mouse fears the lion, the lion fears the elephant, and the elephant fears the mouse. An animal may not move to a square adjacent to an animal that it fears (with one exception noted below for a “trapped” animal). An animal is said to be “afraid” when it is adjacent to an animal it fears. For example, if a player moves a lion adjacent to the opposing player's mouse, then that mouse becomes afraid. An animal is said to be “trapped” if it is afraid and its only available moves still leave it afraid. On a player's turn, if the player has one or more animals that are afraid, but all such animals are also trapped, then the player may optionally move a trapped animal to a square where it remains afraid. This is the only case in which an animal may move to a square in which it will be afraid.
Barca is a two-player strategy board game invented by Andrew Caldwell. It is played on a 10x10 checkerboard with three types of animal playing-pieces that move like the queen, bishop and rook in chess. Two distinguishing features from a typical chess variant are the absence of capture, and the fundamental role of a rock-paper-scissors dominance relationship among the three types of pieces: elephant, lion and mouse. Each player controls six animals , two each of three types . The object of the game is to occupy three of the four "watering hole" squares that are located near the center of the board. A player's animals may occupy squares next to each other, but, for opposing sides, the mouse fears the lion, the lion fears the elephant, and the elephant fears the mouse. An animal may not move to a square adjacent to an animal that it fears (with one exception noted below for a "trapped" animal). An animal is said to be "afraid" when it is adjacent to an animal it fears. For example, if a player moves a lion adjacent to the opposing player's mouse, then that mouse becomes afraid. An animal is said to be "trapped" if it is afraid and its only available moves still leave it afraid. On a player's turn, if the player has one or more animals that are afraid, but all such animals are also trapped, then the player may optionally move a trapped animal to a square where it remains afraid. This is the only case in which an animal may move to a square in which it will be afraid.
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checkered board
checkerboard
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comprising two of each animal type
, two each of three types
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“watering hole”
"watering hole"
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“trapped”
"trapped"
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“afraid”
"afraid"
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“trapped”
"trapped"