The game combined the "capture the leader" and geometric movement aspects of games like Chess, Xiangqi or Shogi with custodial capture such as is found in games like Petteia or Hnefatafl. Because capture then involves a combination of two pieces, control of the board is consciously distinguished from simply the ability to move to any given space. Hence, it resembles Chess up to a point but players have to think about relative positioning of their own pieces in combination and of the opponent's pieces to see what areas of the board they control. Imperio is the Latin word which refers to having complete control over someone, to the power of life and death in principle. This game is about control of the board, which entails the power of life and death (so to speak) over the opponent's pieces. One has to think differently from most games average people today would know to achieve that type of control effectively.