Aujjri's Castle

Aujjri’s Castle Two Kingdoms race to capture the All-Powerful Gem. Born in a volcano, the Gem sits atop a Tower surrounded by a Pool of Lava. To reach the Gen requires the use of a movable Castle Stacker board. Two players will have to carefully arrange their Castle Stackers to allow their Pusher Pieces to access the Gem. Once pushed off the Tower, the Gem will have to be pushed to the edge of the board. The Player who, in the end, removes the Gem from the Pool of Lava is the Winner.

Lava Board The board is nine squares by nine squares with an area surrounding it. The red squares represent lava. The dark center square, called the Tower Square, and the dark area beyond the red squares, called the Win Zone, represent volcanic rock.

Setting Up & Understanding the Game To begin, stack the five red Castle Stackers on the Tower Square, making a five-layered Tower. This Tower will remain in place throughout the game. The small cubes, called Pieces, can go on top of the Tower. The black and white Castle Stackers cannot go on top of or over the Tower; they must remain on the red lava squares.

Place the red Piece on top of the Tower. This Piece is called the Gem. The Gem does not move unless it is pushed by a player’s Piece. The player who pushes the Gem into the Win Zone, beyond the boundaries of the red squares, is the winner.

Once the starting player is determined, that player is assigned the white Castle Stackers and Pieces, which they arrange along their back rank in a formation of nine two-layered stacks with a Piece placed on the first, third, fifth, seventh, and ninth stacks. Black arranges their Castle Stackers and Pieces in the same way on the opposite side of the board.

Note that there is no diagonal movement in Aujjri’s Castle, and that only the Gem can move into the Win Zone.

Taking Turns Starting with white, the two players take turns during which they can perform one of the following three actions. Keep in mind that the Pieces and the Gem cannot be made to fall in the lava; they always remain on a stack of Castle Stackers that has at least one layer. To avoid stalemates, a move cannot be made which causes a player to be unable to move. However, after three-fold repetition, the game ends in a draw.

(1) Moving A Friendly Piece A player can move, in any orthogonal direction, one of their Pieces to an adjacent, unoccupied Castle Stacker that is on a stack no more than one layer taller or shorter than the Piece’s current stack. A stack that is two or more layers taller than a Piece’s current stack acts as a Wall. A stack that is two or more layers shorter than a Piece’s current stack acts as a Cliff. Pieces cannot move up Walls and they cannot move down Cliffs unless they are pushed.

(2) Pushing An Enemy Piece or the Gem In accordance with the previous movement rule, a player can move one of their Pieces to an adjacent, occupied Castle Stacker, stepping up or down a single layer if need be, so as to push an enemy Piece or the Gem. The enemy Piece, or Gem, will be pushed to the adjacent, unoccupied Castle Stacker in the direction of motion, so long as the receiving stack is no more than one layer taller than the pushed Piece’s current stack. Without an acceptable, unoccupied receiving stack a push cannot occur.

Pieces Can Be Pushed Off Cliffs The Gem and enemy Pieces cannot be pushed up Walls, stacks two or more layers taller than the one they are on, but they can fall off Cliffs down to any layer, except onto the board’s zeroth layer, which is lava.

No Immediate Pushbacks A Piece cannot push an enemy Piece that has just pushed it. A Piece cannot undo a push that has just occurred. A delayed pushback can occur if an intervening move has been made since the initial push.

No Self-Pushing A player cannot push their own Pieces.

(3) Moving A Castle Stacker From the top of the stacks on the board, a player can move, in any orthogonal direction, one of their Castle Stackers as many squares as they would like, so long as it does not encounter a Wall, a Cliff, or an enemy Piece, all of which block further movement. Castle Stackers can go up multiple “Steps” in one move, so long as it is one layer at a time in one direction of motion.

Raising & Lowering Pieces A player’s own friendly Pieces, and the Gem, do not impede Castle Stacker movement. Friendly Pieces, and the Gem, are raised or lowered to accommodate incoming and outgoing Stackers such that they do not change their square on the board during a Castle Stacker move.

Trapped Under the Enemy Castle Stackers cannot be moved out from under enemy Pieces or other Castle Stackers.

Additional Online Notes Stranding your Castle Stackers on tall stacks is possible, so the strategy of the game is to carefully move your Stackers and your Pieces in tandem.