Goal

The goal of Cyvasse is to capture your opponent's king.

Pregame

Before the first move can be made, each player must place all their pieces on the board. Each hex on the board may hold only one unit at a time.

When both players are satisfied with the arrangement of their army, the game can begin.

Who Goes First

The first move is awarded to the player whose King is closest to the middle row of the board. In the case of a tie, the first move is chosen at random. Now the game is ready to begin.

Game

Now players exchange moves until one of the kings is captured. A move is made up of moving one of your units to a new space, or attacking an enemy.

No Legal Move

If it is your turn and none of your units can move or attack, your turn passes to your opponent. The game tells you when a turn is passed.

If neither player can move, the game ends in a draw.

Moving

All units have a Movement attribute, which explains how they may traverse the board. The magnitude of a unit's movement is how many jumps it can make in one turn. For all non-Range units, an attack counts as a jump.

Units may not move through other units. The exception to this rule is the Dragon, which may fly over all units and mountains, unless they are enemy Range units (Crossbowman, Catapult and Trebuchet) or the enemy Dragon.

Combat

With the exception of the Range units, a combat is made by moving to the hex occupied by an opponent's piece. Range units instead choose to attack or move, but may not do both in one turn.

A combat is fought between two pieces, an Attacker and a Defender. The Attacker is the unit initiating the combat; the Defender is the unit being attacked.

When the Attacker attacks a Defender, the Strength of the Defender is compared to the Strength of the Attacker. The piece with the higher Strength wins, and in the case of a tie, the Attacker wins.

There are two exceptions to this rule. The first is a Trump. Some units have a Trump against other units, and it works on offense only: when a unit attacks a unit it trumps, the Attacker wins, whatever the Strengths. A Rabble that attacks a King takes it, even though the King has more Strength. A Trump never protects the unit that holds it, so a Dragon that attacks a Trebuchet still takes it, though the Trebuchet trumps the Dragon. The second exception is that Range units defend at Strength 1, whatever they attack with, so any unit can take one.

A Range unit may attack an enemy within its Range, unless a Mountain blocks the direct path between the Range unit and its target. Every Mountain blocks a shot, whichever army placed it, and no Range unit can shoot over one.

Besides the Trebuchet and the Catapult, the King is the one unit that trumps the Dragon: a Dragon that comes within the King's Movement can be taken by it. The Dragon can still take the King, and the Rabble, which trump the King, can take it too.