A Game for Two Players
“The muster-place be Lanrick mead.”
The game is played on a chess-board, each Player having five men. The other requisites are a die and dice-box (or a teetotum with four sides), and something (such as a coin) to mark a square.
The board is regarded as containing eight ‘rows’ and eight ‘columns.’ It must be agreed which is the first row and which is the first column.
1.—Each Player throws the die, and the one who throws highest is ‘first Player.’
2.—The ‘first Player’ sets his men on any border-squares he likes: then the ‘second Player’ does the same.
3.—The die is thrown twice, all throws less then ‘three’ being neglected, and a square is marked accordingly, the first throw fixing the row, the second the column. The marked square forms, with the surrounding eight squares, the first ‘rendezvous,’ into which the men are to be played. [N.B.—Instead of neglecting all throws less than ‘three,’ the following rule may be adopted: If the throw be less than three, throw again; if it be then three or more, neglect the first throw; but if it be again less than three, double the first throw and add the second.]
4.—Each Player may move as many squares as there are men belonging to the one who has fewest, or any lesser number, either with one man, or dividing the move among several. Each man that is moved must be kept to one line, viz: either a line parallel to an edge of the board, like a rook, or a diagonal line, like a bishop.
5.—When one Player has got all his men into the ‘rendezvous,’ he removes from the board one of the men that have not got in, and sets the others (called ‘wanderers’) in the ‘rendezvous.’
6.—The men in the ‘rendezvous’ then ‘radiate,’ i. e., are moved to border-squares along the eight lines which radiate from the centre of the ‘rendezvous.’ For all but the centre man there is no choice of direction: each must be moved along the line on which he stands: but the owner of the centre man may move it along any vacant line: if all eight be occupied, he may set it on any vacant border-square.
7.—If there were any ‘wanderers,’ the winner of the last ‘rendezvous’ may then move his men to other border-squares, moving twice as many squares as there were ‘wanderers,’ and not being obliged (as in Rule 4) to keep each man to one line.
8.–A new ‘rendezvous’ is then marked, as in Rule 3, for which the winner of last is ‘first Player.’
9.—When one Player has only two men left, the other scores as many marks as he has men: the ten men are then set again, as in rule 2, the one, who was ‘second Player’ when last they were set, being now ‘first Player,’ and the game proceeds as before.
10.—The Player, who first scores five, wins the game.
March 1, 1879