Acknowledgments

Thanks to Mrs. Swift for letting me work on this occasionally.  Also thanks to Andy Pearson, who provided helpful ideas and feedback on the web site and on version II.

How long does the game take to play?

A game takes around 100 moves to complete.  If both players make two moves a day, that's 25 days.  If both players make two moves a week, that's a very long game... 

A real-time game takes around 45 minutes. 

What is the inspiration for the game?

The concept of hidden piece values is borrowed from Stratego (and from cards).  But the original inspiration for this game is the "battleroom" in the novel Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card. 

Do the various pieces have names?

Before I added the mythical theme to the game, the pieces were identified using the main color of the piece followed by its value on that color:

Piece	Name
	Green 9
	Green 8
	Green 7
	Green 6
	Green 5

Now with the theme, the green pieces are:

Piece	Name
	Elf 9
	Elf 8
	Elf 7
	Elf 6
	Elf 5

The blue pieces are the Tackle  and the Ranger .

Why are the piece designs so weird?

Although it takes a little getting used to, the design on the pieces is supposed to be "visually intuitive."  That is, the piece most powerful on green  has the most green on it.

Advice to the beginner: learn to recognize the Nines , the Eights , the Tackle , and the Ranger .  That's only four symbols to worry about, but it covers twelve key pieces.  The rest will follow.

How does the player ranking system work?

Every time you complete a game, your player ranking is adjusted.  The winner gains points; the loser loses points.  The winner always gains the same amount as the loser loses.  However, the loser's rank is not allowed to drop below 1.0.

The adjustment amount is some number between 0 and 1, and it depends on the difference between the player's ranks before the game ended.  Here's a table showing adjustments for various differences in rank (winner's rank minus loser's rank):

Difference	Adjustment
3	0.05
2	0.12
1	0.27
0	0.50
-1	0.73
-2	0.88
-3	0.95

For you math people, the formula is:

A = 1 / (eD + 1)

Example: if two players both ranked 1.3 play each other, their scores are adjusted by 0.5 -- the winner's rank to 1.8, and the loser's rank to 0.8.  Since the loser dropped below 1.0, the loser is reinstated to 1.0.