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Several days ago I realized my son has a sufficient number of Lego ® medieval men to build a couple of armies and make them fight on the battlefield! Both being chess lovers we used a standard chessboard to layout our fighters.

The white army 
The white army is traditionally good. No black magic or evil battle equipment, just POBE (Plain-Old-Battle-Equipment, LOL).

The black army
The black army is traditionally evil. Necromancers and siege weapons are welcome here.

Chivalry is the spice of every battle... so, after a couple of trials, we agreed on the following rules.

  1. You can lay out your army as you desire, but every piece must stand on the first row of your field.
  2. Both armies must occupy the same number of squares.
  3. Pieces are described by three numbers: Attack/Defense/Speed
    • Attack is the ability to damage an opponent
    • Defense is the ability to sustain damage
    • Speed is the number of squares a piece can move during a turn
  4. Before the battle begins, players agree to move any number of pieces per turn (1, 2 or even all pieces).
  5. A piece can move in any direction (as the King in Chess).
  6. A piece can't occupy or move through an occupied square.
  7. Pieces two-squared long can move 2 squares per turn (for instance catapult or knights). Every other piece moves 1 square per turn, apart from unarmored men, who moves at double Speed (2sq/T) since they are lighter.
  8. The following pieces have special abilities:
    • Necromancer: every ally occupying one of the 8 adjacent squares gets a +2A bonus / -1D malus
    • The Jester: every ally occupying one of the 8 adjacent squares gets a +1A bonus / +1D bonus
  9. Attack and Defense are the total of:
    • Natural values (1A/1D).
    • Bearing a weapon (+1A). It is unclear if the mage staff counts as a weapon!
    • Bearing a shield (+1D). It is unclear if the long shield counts for a double bonus (+2D).
    • Mounting an horse (+1D).
  10. Men bearing a spear can throw it to an enemy no more than 2 squares away. It is unclear if the spear can be thrown diagonally or at any angle! Once the spear has been thrown, it deals 2 damages and disappears.
  11. Men bearing a crossbow can hit an enemy no more than 2 squares away.
  12. The Catapult can attack from a distance of 3 squares. It has only two shots available but damages two squares per shot.
  13. Attacking from a distance takes away 1 point of movement. Therefore if a piece has 1S it cannot move and attack in the same turn (although it can defend itself if attacked).
  14. When men come to a square near one or more enemies there is an automatic melee attack.
    • The player who has made this move determines the Group Attack Strength, adding each Attack point from every piece that's adjacent to the moved piece and is in touch with an enemy piece.
    • The opponent does the same, determining its GAS.
    • The GAS is the total of the damage dealt to the enemy group. The player who deals the damage decides how many points damage are dealt to any defending piece.
  15. If a piece gets a damage equal to or greater than its Defense, it "dies" (or breaks) and it is then removed from the battlefield.
  16. After each attack:
    • dead or broken pieces are removed from the battlefield
    • mechanical pieces like the Catapult lose a number of Defense points equal to the damage received during the attack. This loss is permanent (though you can employ a gnome in your army if you want to repair damaged mechanics...)
  17. Living pieces (men, horses, etc...)  can't ever lose their Defense points after an attack (unless if you agree on using unconventional troupes such as zombies or mummies!)

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If you don't have a sufficient number of accessories (such as shields and weapons) you can use simple paper tokens to assign Attack and Defense points to your army. Building these tokens can be part of the fun!

You are welcome to throw your fireballs... er... comments!

The game goes on with the Expansion One.

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