2. Guard j7-j9
2. King´s Knight h11-Block i9
Bollwerk 178 chess game
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It is not allowed to place supplementary stones in your own end zone. The attacking player may place supplementary stones in the opponent’s end zone. The defender can blow them up with a bomb or remove them using the Knight.
From their starting row the Guards can also move two fields forward (vertically and diagonally), but without being able to capture.
The Spy can captured by the arrow. But white don´t want to give the Queen away for a Guard and the Spy in move two.
3. Guard J8
3. Guard D12-F10
4. Guard c7-c8
4. Guard c12-b11
5. Guard j8-j10
5. Gold Runner f9
It appears to me that there will be a great many opening move options. Is there an ‘ openings book’ available for this game?
To be honest the ‘bomb’ piece reminds me of the mine sweeper game 
No, not at the moment. I think that opening theory will never play a big role in Bollwerk 178, because there are more than 2000 options for just the first move.
Am I understanding correctly that the Chancellor moves like both a knight and a rook ?
Interesting concept, players will have to rely on intuition more than proven play concepts like chess does.
Ah ....I just realized the ‘178’ refers to the 178 squares on the board.
Yes, the Chancellor moves like a Knight and a Rook. It´s the only piece that can place two supplementary stones per move.
Does the average Bollwerk game take a long time? I would imagine it taking a few hours?
Yes, the board has 178 squares. It´s a large board, but the game is allways good playable.
Do people play Bollwerk 178 mainly online or can you buy the board and pieces?
I just did a simple goole search but could not find any physical sets available
I think a game takes on average 40-50 moves.
It´s like chess, you can play a rapid game or with long time limits. But you have average much more options than in normal chess, so you have to think a little bit more.
At the moment there is only a prototyp of the game. No online version of the game available.
A Kickstarter campaign is planned for the end of of the year 2020.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bollwerk178/bollwerk-178
Hope we can produce the game. In my opinion it´s a fantastic game
I looked at your website, is it available in English ?
This is just my opinion but I would suggest making some cool short videos explaining the concept, pieces and moves then posting them here and to youtube.
Good idea. Thank you.
Yes, the website is in German and English.
Before we start a game of Bollwerk 178, lets talk about the pieces.
A video of the game is on Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4GPYG9gK0I
Movement of the pieces.
The Knight:
The Cannon:
The Cannon moves and captures like the cannon in Chinese chess (Xiangqi).
The Chancellor:
The Marschal:
The Queen:
The Spy:
The Spy can jump over pieces and captures other pieces exclusively by jumping over them (principle as with Halma).
The Gold Runner:
The Gold Runner can enter directly adjacent squares of a different colour without being able to capture.
The King´s Knight:
The Elephant:
The Elephant can jump over other pieces.
The Guard:
Guards can also move one square horizontally, but without being able to capture.
Guards can jump over their own guards as often as they like in all directions per move (this also allows them to move backwards).
Starting position:
Additionally each player has 25 supplementary stones at their disposal.
The goal of the game is, occupying the opponent’s end field with a piece or a bomb. Whoever captures all his opponent’s pieces or immobilizes their opponent also wins.
The supplementary stones:
The arrow:
Jumping pieces can skip the arrow, all others are blocked by it. Only the Elephant and the King’s Knight can land on fields where an arrow has been placed. The arrow is destroyed and removed from the game.
The block:
No piece can move over a block. The only exception is the cannon, which can capture over a block.
The bomb:
Whoever places a bomb on the opponent’s end field wins the game. Bombs can blow up arrows and blocks by placing them on their fields. The blasted arrow or block is then removed from the game together with the bomb used. Bombs can also be placed on free squares. They then have characteristics like an arrow, which means that jumping pieces can jump over it while the other pieces are blocked by it. A dropped bomb cannot be removed.
Red border arrow and red border block:
Same characteristics as the normal arrows and blocks, with the difference that it can be collected by moving a piece to the square the red border arrow or the red border block is placed in.
Each piece can drop off all supplementary stones within it´s possibilities.
The Knight can remove supplementary stones (arrows and blocks) from the board.
The Chancellor can place two supplementary stones per move within its possibilities.
There are three options for making a move:
For detailed movement of the pieces and the game rules, please visit our website
www.bollwerk178.com
Let´s make the first move.