Duelling Circles

Duelling Circles, also called Circles or Rounds, is a traditional board game for two players that dates to the days of the First Empire that has maintained its popularity despite its age. It consists of a board of 24 squares, laid out in 3 lines of 8. Each player has the same number of tokens (3 for a short game, 5 for a moderate length game, 7 for a full length traditional game, and 14 for a double length game, typically only played by serious competitors. The objective is to remove all of the opponent's tokens from the board.
Each player has 8 home tiles that are considered safe on their side of the board, and 8 combat tiles that are shared in the middle of the board, and moves their tokens around the board in rotation - traditionally this requires a full 8 tiles in combat tiles and a full 8 without, all moving in the same direction as the opponent, but there are a variety of advanced rules that allow for more complex gameplay. The third and sixth tiles of the home row are rallying tiles, which allow the player to move again on their turn.

The Traditional Game

In the traditional game, both sides begin with 1 token on the entry tile - the 7th tile, or second to last tile, of the home row, and one token placed ahead of it, with the remaining tokens in reserve. Each reserve token is considered one move away from the entry tile. Reserve tokens do not count when determining victory - if a player's last token is taken, they lose, regardless of how many tokens they have in reserve.
A turn consists of two flips of coins, to determine how far one can move a piece, and then, once the move is complete, to determine which tile of the combat row is lucky, meaning a token in this tile is safe on the opponent's turn.
The first flip, traditionally done with a gold Crown (or Kinilani Council), an electrum Demi, a silver Stater, and a copper Penny, determines how far the player can move one of their tokens, based on how many coins show the obverse face (heads, for coins minted with the likeness of a ruler on one face). If none are showing, they move on to the end of their turn, otherwise they select one token either on the board or in the reserves and move it that many squares ahead. A token may not land on a friendly token or an opposing token on the lucky tile in the combat row (as determined at the end of the previous turn conversely a token landing on any opposing token not on the lucky tile takes it, removing it from the game permanently. This is also called killing or routing the token. Finally, a token landing on a rallying tile allows that player to flip their coins again before ending their turn, allowing them to move another tile. If tokens are positioned such that no token may move the required number of tiles, then the turn is lost.
At the end of the turn, the player flips 3 coins - the Demi, the Stater and the Penny - to determine the lucky tile - a tile in the combat row where no tile can be killed on the opponent's turn. The demi determines this tile is in the first or last half of the row, the stater determines if it is in the first or last quarter within that half, and the penny determines if it is the first or last tile in that quarter. The Crown has no influence in this, for luck is the one thing on the battlefield over which the commander has no control.
In modern games, the coins are replaced by a set of dice - a numbered octahedron to determine the lucky tile, and any of a tetrahedron, hexahedron, octahedron, dodecahedron or icosahedron with half of their verticies painted black and half painted any other colour - coloured faces representing the obverse face of a coin. High quality sets tend to use one of each shape, while most cheaper sets use a hexahedron for the 4 movement dice, as it is the simplest of these shapes to produce.

Variants

There are several variants of Rounds. The simplest is called "No Reserves," and is played with all of the players tokens lined up in the home row from the start, from the eighth and final tile of the home row as far back as the second tile (when playing a full game). This rule is often used with beginners, as players often forget to use their reserve tokens after the first few turns. However, it removes the ability to quickly deploy tokens later in the game and in the full seven-token game, the number of tokens in the home row tends to limit options until the player has lost a few tokens.
One popular variant is the counterflow rule, which has pieces moving in opposing directions in the combat row. This changes the strategy significantly, as normally a player can strategically position a token 2 tiles behind one of their opponent's tiles to maximize their odds of removing that token on their next turn; in this variant this is just as likely to allow the opponent's token to take their token on their next turn. This fundamentally alters the strategic aspect of the game.
The Kinilani variant is popular among highly skilled players around the world, as it adds a great deal of complexity to the game. It is generally played in a full or double length game, with one or two pieces being assigned each of the 7 colours used in Kinilani colour symbology, and an associated ability. (Some players will play 3 or 5 token variants by either randomly selecting their tokens from a bag or picking the colours they wish to play with, though this is fairly rare, partly because some tokens have specific interactions with other tokens). In these rules, a token can be said to attack a tile, by which it means a token in that tile is taken, sometimes even if it is one of the player's other tiles.

• The Cerulean token attacks the tile it moves to and the tile ahead of it with its magic billowing forth, taking friend and foe alike.
• The Ultramarine token attacks the tile behind it, but cannot land on an opposing tile.
• The Green token can share a tile with any friendly token except the Black.
• The Orange token attacks the tile it moves to and the tile behind it, its fiery magic leaving ash in its wake, taking friend and foe alike.
• The Red and White token is a friend of the opponent's Red and White - these tokens can be placed in the same tile, but neither token is taken. If one of these tokens reaches a rallying tile, that player gets two extra moves instead of just the one
• The Violet token attacks the token ahead of it, but cannot land on an opposing tile.
• The Black token representing decay can land on any token, and takes that token, friend and foe alike. If an opposing token takes the black token by landing on it, the opposing token is also removed from the game.

History

Deuling Circles is an ancient game, dating to the First Empire. It represents two armies of mounted or chariot archers moving in a cantabrian circle, loosing their arrows as they approach before circling back and withdrawing to safety to ready their next shot. This tactic allows a mounted archer to keep moving, minimizing their chances of being hit, while allowing the formation to maintain a steady stream of arrows fired at their enemy. It was typically employed against infantry, as the superior speed of the horses would keep them out of reach of the enemy while allowing them to continue their attack. This means the situation represented by the game - of two circles shooting at each other - would be highly unlikely in a real battle. Indeed, the counterflow rule variant is attributed to scholars who suggested that would be the superior application of this tactic, as it would be easier to shoot an approaching target, while the mainstream thinking is that it would be preferable to shoot at a retreating enemy and that a wise soldier would seek to avoid being in a position to be shot at by the enemy as much as possible.