About RampartChess
RampartChess is a strategic hybrid of chess and cardplay, where two players compete to checkmate their opponent's king using a combination of tactical piece movement and deck-based casting.
Quick reference
- Materials & setup: 1 standard deck of cards (White uses Spades, Black uses Clubs). Pieces per player: 8 Raiders (pawns), 1 Rook, 1 Knight, 1 Bishop, 1 Queen, and 1 King. The board's bottom half is Diamonds, top half is Hearts. Houses sit on the Jack, Queen, and King cards on the back rows.
- Piece movement: Raiders move 1 space in any direction and capture diagonally, but can never cross back over the rampart (the mid-board barrier). Knights, Rooks, Bishops, Queens, and Kings all move as they do in standard chess.
- Casting & houses: Casting requires using exactly 3 cards totaling 21. Raiders are the only pieces allowed inside an enemy house. The Jack's House unlocks spawning and striking; the Queen's House unlocks spawning your Queen; the King's House restricts the enemy King to card squares only.
- Raising (spawning): Use 1-2 Raiders on card squares plus 1-2 deck cards to make 21. Discard the deck cards, then place a captured Raider or Queen on an empty square in your own territory.
- Striking (capturing): Requires a Raider in the enemy Jack's House. Use 2 Raiders on card squares plus 1 deck card to make 21 and capture an enemy Raider.
Official Rulebook
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