Albiorix

Albiorix is an Icehouse game in which two players attempt to emerge victorious from a civil war of ideologies on ancient Mars. The game is played with two stashes (one per player) on a 5x5 board. Each player starts with a varied collection of playing pieces comprised of two Icehouse pyramids, and one single Icehouse 3-pip pyramid. This singleton acts much like the king in Chess as controlling your opponent's singleton is the condition for victory in Albiorix. You are able to move a piece if the topmost pyramid is in your color OR if the piece contains a pyramid identical to your current singleton. Direction and range of movement is dependent on the sizes of the two pyramids that make up the piece, with higher value pieces loosely corresponding to larger freedom of movement. Capturing does not occur in a traditional sense, but instead the two pieces involved (captor and prisoner) remain on the board and are re-structured according to the acting player's whim [provided the two newly formed pieces consist of no more than two pyramids and the topmost pyramids are not larger than the bottom pyramids]. When both singleton pieces are your color, you win. Albiorix was designed by Don Sheldon and placed 3rd in the Icehouse Games Design Competition, Summer 2008.