[spoon-discuss] Political Robot Grid Tafl

[Bill Adlam <sagitta_elegans@xxxxxxxxx>]

How about combining Political Tafl with Grid Robots?

The grid would be 2-dimensional and large - something from 30 to
aleph-null squares on each axis - with debris in predetermined places. 
Each player has a Hnefi, and can create pawns as described below.  

If a chunk of debris is flanked by two pieces belonging to the same
player or allied players, it is converted to energy or directly to
points, shared equally between those player(s).  An exception is when
the capturing piece is a Hnefi: in this situation nothing happens
unless the other piece involved belongs to a different but allied
player, in which case the debris becomes a pawn under the control of
the Hnefi's player.  

Enemy pieces can also be captured, and converted to energy or pawns
(pawns should provide more energy than debris, and Hnefi still more). 
If a Hnefi is captured, its owner's pawns become debris, and e is out
of the game (but can start again).  The Hnefi now doesn't need to
escape, but you have to risk moving it about if you want to build more
pawns.

Moves are submitted in advance - perhaps in the first checking period
of the nweek, with up to one move per nday of the other 2 checking
periods (this gives us some time at the start of each nweek to validate
the board state and plan our moves).  A move would give start and end
coordinates - if the player has a piece at the starting position on the
nday in question, it moves until it reaches the endpoint or encounters
an obstacle.  If we want to make things more complicated, players could
have more direct control over their Hnefis (which are their avatars)
than pawns (which are more like programmable drones).

The players will tend to clear the rubbish from the grid (which is
perhaps highly desirable).  We could finish the game when the grid is
clear, add more to keep the game going, or use an infinite board.  The
debris placement algorithm ought to make it impossible to move
infinitely far because there will always be an obstacle in the way.  We
could have an infinite grid, but have other restrictions on movement,
e.g. forbid pieces to move further than +-n from the origin in the nth
nweek of the game.

I think alliances are more workable if players are grouped into teams. 
Any player can start/join a team, subject to the restriction of no more
than 3 players per team.  This prevents too many players ganging up to
oppress someone, and also prevents everyone from combining peaceably to
mine debris, either of which would be bad for gameplay.

Sagitta

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