Shield Bashers

It's the distant future. Or, as the distant future calls it, "now". Space flight is a reality. Peace is not. Ships battle daily for control of resources that twenty-first century humans only dreamt about. Energy weapons as potrayed in popular Sci-Fi simply don't work. But shields, that's another matter. Shield technology is the linchpin of every modern battleship.

Every battleship worth considering has three levels of shields; Primary, Secondary and Tertiary. Primary shields hide details of the vessel from attackers, and determine how secondary shields interact during an attack. Secondary shields do the damage, depending on how the primary shields prepared the victim. Tertiary shields can save your arse one time, for when you pick on the wrong ship to attack.

What's needed

Obtaining a Grey (or Gray) Stash
The grey stash is only available directly from Looney Labs. You need to join Looney Labs' "Mad Lab Rabbits" community, which will give you 10 points to spend on stuff in their "Dangling Carrot" store. The grey stash costs 9 points, but you can spend 1 point and 8 dollars, 2 points and 7 dollars, etc. If you only want the gray stash, you can use the extra point towards postage.

Each player needs:

A nest of White pieces.
A nest of Black pieces.
A nest of Grey pieces.
A nest of coloured pieces. A different colour from anyone else, obviously.

For a four-player game that's best achieved with a white stash, a black stash, a grey stash and a Treehouse set.

Setup

Four-player setup on chessboard (bandana).

The four-player game is setup as pictured on the right. The Cruiser should always be in the corner. The Frigate and Destroyer should be beside it as pictured. Which side they're on is up to the player.
The two-player game can use either the whole board, for a slower game, or half the board, for a faster game. In either case, the two sets of ships should be at opposite corners.
For three, five or six players use Elliott C. Evans' Tri-Chess board

Each player then creates their fleet. Example:

Expanded view of constructed ships.
Pieces below the primary shield would not normally be visible.

The top pyramid of each pile is always the coloured one. It indicates the owner of the ship and its class; 1-pip means Frigate, 2-pip means Destroyer, 3-pip means Cruiser. Each class of ship moves differently, see "Movement" below.
The second pyramid of each pile is always a 3-pip pyramid. It's the primary shield. It determines how the secondary shield interacts with an attacking ship. See "Combat" below. Also, because it's opaque it hides the rest of the ship's shields. That information is only revealed during combat -- at other times you have to remember, or guess, the details of an attacking ship. (Any player may check their own ships at any time, and other players can try and sneak a peek at that time.)
The third pyramid of each pile is always a 2-pip pyramid. It's the secondary shield. It's the one that does damage, or fails, depending on how the primary shield has prepared the defender.
The bottom pyramid of each pile is always a 1-pip pyramid. It's the tertiary shield. Its colour doesn't matter. When a ship takes its first point of damage, remove the tertiary shield from the stack. If a ship with no tertiary shield is damaged, it is destroyed -- remove it from the board.

Movement

Frigates (1-pip) can move 1 square "straight"
Destroyers (2-pips) can move 1 square diagonally
Cruisers (3-pips) can move 1 square in any direction.

All ships can only move one square at a time.

The Frigate can only move "straight" (see picture)
The Destoyer moves on the diagonal
The Crusier can move straight and diagonal

You can not move into a square occupied by one of your own ships.

Attempting to move into a square occupied by one of your opponents triggers combat. If the defending ship is destroyed in that battle, you remove it from the board and your ship completes its movement into that square.

Combat

Combat is initiated by attempting to move into a square occupied by an opponent's ship. It involves the primary and secondard shields.

Attacker's primary shield	Defender's primary shield	Secondary Shields
White	Black or Grey	Attacker's secondary shield must be the same as or lighter than defender's: Lighter: Win The same: Win Darker: Lose
White	White	Attacker's secondary shield must be darker than defender's: Lighter: Lose The same: Lose Darker: Win
Black	White or Grey	Attacker's secondary shield must be the same as or darker than defender's: Lighter: Lose The same: Win Darker: Win
Black	Black	Attacker's secondary shield must be lighter than defender's: Lighter: Win The same: Lose Darker: Lose
Grey	White, Black or Grey	Attacker's secondary shield must be the same as defender's: Lighter: Lose The same: Win Darker: Lose

If you lose you take one damage. If you have your tertiary shield, it is removed. If you've already lost your tertiary shield the ship is destroyed (remove it from the board). The attacker then automatically moved into the square that the defeated defender was in.

Note: You can not attack one of your own ships.

Combat Examples

All attacks in the example below are Red (left) attacking Blue (right). Note that the Blue destroyer (2-pips) has lost its tertiary shield in a previous battle. If it takes another hit it is destroyed.

In the examples below the ships are expanded so that you can see the secondary and tertiary shields. This is only for illustration.


White primary shield against Black primary shield Secondary shield needs to be lighter or equal Black is not lighter than grey: Lose Result: Red loses tertiary shield.	White primary shield against Grey primary shield Secondary shield needs to be lighter or equal Black is equal to Black: Win Result: Blue destroyed.	White primary shield against White primary shield Secondary shield needs to be darker Black is darker than White: Win Result: Blue loses tertiary shield.

Black primary shield against Black primary shield Secondary shield needs to be lighter Grey is not lighter than grey: Lose Result: Red loses tertiary shield	Black primary shield against Grey primary shield Secondary shield needs to be darker or equal Grey is not darker than Black: Lose Result: Red loses tertiary shield	Black primary shield against White primary shield Secondary shield needs to be darker or equal Grey is darker than White: Win Result: Blue loses tertiary shield.

Grey primary shield against Black primary shield Secondary shield needs to be the same White does not match grey: Lose Result: Red loses tertiary shield.	Grey primary shield against Grey primary shield Secondary shield needs to be the same White does not match Black: Lose Result: Red loses tertiary shield	Grey primary shield against White primary shield Secondary shield needs to be the same White matches White: Win Result: Blue loses tertiary shield.

Play

Determine who goes first in a friendly fashion. "Roll to see who goes first" springs to mind, if you have a die. A few rounds of Jan Ken Pon would probably work too.

Proceed clockwise around the table, with each player making one move and resolving combat if necessary.

A "turn" is a single player's move and combat, if any.

A "round" is X turns where X is the number of players still in the game.

Winning

You win if you're the last player with any ships on the board.

If there are only two ships left and there's a standoff because the more maneuverable ship can't win the battle, or for any other reason, a final battle can be forced by either player after five rounds without combat. The player declaring the final battle is the attacker. It's sudden-death, tertiary shields will not save the ship.

If there are only two ships left and play goes six rounds without combat, anyone who participated in the game can declare a draw.