Zuhrer's Challenge

Such a flat expression on his face as he moved another piece over, taking another of the challenger's units. He'd done this before, there was no doubt. But there was something else in his face; a recognition that he had just sacrificed a piece, regardless of the minor victory. It said more, though, did that expression. It said that he'd done this before. Outside of the game.

— "Of Crown and Glory"

Zuhrer's Challenge was created by Zuhrer es Lowvire, the fourth emperor of the Empire of Lowvire. Initially, it was a hobby but when an argument in his court came to a complete stalemate, he offered to play the individual to decide the outcome of the situation.
The game is most often played on a 10x10 board, though it has variants that involve 8x8 boards or even 12x12 ones for longer games. The aim of the game is to eliminate all of the opponent's pieces by attacking them with your own.

The Rules

Zhurer's Challenge is played between two people on opposite sides of the game board. Each player has individually coloured pieces. Traditionally, these were dark wood and lighter wood, but some variants make their pieces out of metal.

In alternating turns, each player can move one of their pieces up to two spaces vertically or horizontally to an unoccupied space, where moving there does not require jumping over an existing piece.

Units can also 'stack'. This is the process of moving one token onto another friendly token's tile. On any given turn, only one unit can move into or out of a stack and the maximum size for a stack is 3.

— Starting Positions of Units

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The size of a unit stack affects it ability to move and attack: Single units can move vertically and horizontally up to two tiles and can attack in any direction (even diagonally) to the same range. Double stacks have their movement and range reduced to one, but otherwise act the same. Triple stacks are incapable of moving, but can still attack up to a range of one tile.

Offence and Defence

At the end of the day, the objective is to take all of the opponent's pieces. This is done with a very simple system of addition. If there are more units in range to attack a unit than there are units in the defending stack, the piece is taken and at least one unit from the attacker's forces must move into the space the foe once occupied (this can be a unit that was part of an offending stack). There are only a few exceptions and clarifications to be made to those rules: * If the strength of the attacking pieces equals that of the defending pieces, then the attacker can only succeed if all of the attacking forces are single-stacks. * It is possible for a unit to support a defender by being on the opposite side of the defending piece to the attacker and being within range to attack the defending unit. * Additionally, a unit can offer assistance by being in range to attack one of the attacker's supporters. This allows a piece to remove forces from the attacker's offencive.
It is only possible for a unit to take one of these actions. Thus, a unit cannot support an allied defender while simultaniously halting the attack of an offending stack.

These arguably simple rules are the reason that the game was considered playable by peasants and those of lower classes; as they'd be able to get their head around the rules while still maintaining the depth of strategy required to win using skill and knowledge.

History

Zuhrer's Challenge was invented over the course of a few years by Emperor Zuhrer es Lowvire, fourth of the Imperial Throne, aka the King of Solace, aka The Bald King. It was a personal hobby for him, as he wished to be able to show people the depths and complexity of combat tactics and strategy. This seemed to work as many of those who played found themselves baffled by the complexity of tactics under the simple rules of the game. Ideas of sacrifice, pressing an advantage, and of victories that bring great loss came closer to public knowledge than it had ever been.

^{Zuhrer plays a Velian diplomat in the first known game of Zuhrer's Challenge in the Grand Palace of Lowvire in Ambershield. (Circa 68 AoE)}

After the game's debut when Zuhrer trounced the diplomat from Velia in his court, the game found its way into the noble circles of Ambershield, the Lowvire capital. It then quickly became a game played both recreationally and for the purpose of solving disputes, as it had by Zuhrer himself.
The game then slowly spread across imperial territory and even minutely across its borders into other nations, becoming the most popular recreational game to date. It became an issue, however, when it was commonplace for nobles to play the game to make important decisions and eventually, using Zuhrer's Challenge to settle scores was illegalized as one of Gelaine's first rulings as the new emperor in 81 AoE.
It is still played recreationally to this day across most of the Imperial territories, but it's popularity took quite a hit from its illegalization. Thus it fell into background knowledge; it's only players those with not much better to do than pass the time.

Related Ethnicities

• Imperial

Components

While official boards can be found containing the requisite 10x10 board and 10 tokens of each colour, this game can conceivably be played on any tile surface, as long as there are as many distinct tokens as tiles along one edge of the board for each player.

Zuhrer's Thoughts

"Why shouldn't the peasants get to understand how war works? They're the ones that complain when nobody acts, but similarly complain when action results in their pain. That was the inspiration behind the game and also what it intends to teach. Inaction doesn't bring results, but action more often than not brings pain."

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"No, that's wrong; Having a lot of smaller units on the field is much preferable to having a single amassed force. Mobility is usually the deciding factor in an otherwise equal battle. Flanking and control is what brought us victory against the Azatel, not massive armies or superior arms. That is why the game rewards the use of single stacks."

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"There are an incredible amount of things to do screw up in war. Similarly, there are a lot of things that can go right. A good tactitian can decide which opportunity is the correct one to take. A good ruler can create these opportunities for their underlings. The game operates under a set of rules. Like how I will not tolerate any of my subordinates breaking the rules of war."

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As of a private imperial address conducted by an anonymous source.