Asalto

Alternate Names

Officers and Sepoys (England), Assaut (France)

No. of Players

Two

Equipment

An Asalto board, two “officer” counters, and twenty-four “solider” or “sepoy” counters are required for play. Nine positions at one side of the board are of a different color and are designated the “fortress”.

History

This game is almost certainly derived from the much older game of Fox & Geese. The earliest references to Asalto specifically come from late 18th century Germany.

Objective

The more numerous soldiers win in either of two ways: they occupy all nine positions of the fortress or they trap both of the officers so that they are unable to make any legal move. The officers win if they successfully defend the fortress and capture enough soldiers to make both of their objectives impossible.

Play

A game commences with the counters positioned as above. Alternate turns entail the movement of a single counter of your color along a line to an adjacent vacant position. The soldiers move first but are limited to moves towards the fortress. More specifically, the soldiers must move along a line from their position that is along the shortest route to the nearest position in the fortress. Some positions have more than one equally distant route that a counter may travel. In these positions, the player may choose which route to move the counter along, provided that both are to vacant positions. Once inside the fortress, however, they may move in any direction without leaving the fortress.

The numbers in the above diagram represent the number of potential moves available to a soldier at any position in order to always move towards the fortress. (remember that a soldier may move any direction once inside the fortress.)

The officers may move in any direction and also jump and capture soldiers along a line to an immediately opposite vacant intersection. Officers may make multiple jumps, changing direction any jump if desired. If a capture is available to an officer, it is compulsory to do so. If more than one jump is available, however, the officer may choose which jump to make. If the officer fails to make a compulsory jump the soldier player may remove that officer as a bonus before their next turn. A player must make a legal move on their turn, even if that move leads to a capture. There is no passing.

Sources

  1. Provenzo, Asterie Baker and Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr. Play It Again, Historic Board Games You Can Make and Play. Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1981. ISBN 0-13-683367-5