Sunday, July 08, 2007

Sicic

Sicic is a game for two. Each player guides a group of Astronomers, aiming at copying the opponent’s Constellation. Sicic is played on two 8 × 8 squared boards, named the Earth and the Sky. Each player has 4 pieces that move on the Earth (the Astronomers) and 4 pieces to be placed in the Sky (the Stars). The Stars are the player’s Constellation. There are three phases: the Afternoon, the Evening and the Night. One of the player will be the first to move in every phase of the game.

the game

In the Afternoon, players alternate placing one Astronomer at a time on the Earth, on an empty square. In the Evening, players alternate placing one Star at a time in the Sky, on an empty square. In the Night, each player must move one of his Astronomer every turn.
The Astronomer can move in a direct line in every direction, any number of unoccupied squares.
He must land in an unoccupied square.
The Astronomer may choose not to move, in order to “pinch” one of the opponent’s Astronomers set in a neighbouring square. The result of a pinch is that the pinched Astronomer must move in the next turn. Moreover, it is forbidden to the opponent, in the second next turn, to pinch an Astronomer that occupies the abandoned square.

winning

The winner is the first player who manages to place his Astronomers in the same way as the opponent’s Stars. Translations, reflections and rotations are allowed. Also, a player can win by pinching an Astronomer that is not able to move.

a problem

The player with black Astronomers moves, and wins in his next move (the first board is the Sky, and the second is the Earth):


more info

Sicic is latin for "stellae inerrantes caeli imitatio consequi".
Stars are fixed, so paper and pencil could be used for the Sky and the Stars. Change the number of Stars and Astronomers, the shape and size of the board, to get simple game’s variants.
Sicic was invented by Jean Manuel Morales between June and July 2007. He hopes the game is original and fun to play.

Rules of Sicic in English.
Regole di Sicic in italiano.

3 Comments:

Blogger Aaron said...

Buon giorno! I had a question regarding "pinching." The English rules are somewhat unclear, but the Italian suggests that pinching is an actual action, taken in lieu of moving. Is this the case? So instead of moving a piece can instead "pinch" an adjacent astronomer forcing the pinched piece to move. The following rule then suggests that you cannot pinch the same piece twice? Is this correct?

Grazie mille!
Aaron
SuperDuperGames.org

5:19 PM  
Blogger Aaron said...

Just so you know I have gone ahead and implemented Sicic on my website http://SuperDuperGames.org. I have not added any restrictions on pinching until I can get some clarifications from you. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Grazie ancora per aver creato un gioco molto interessante!
Aaron

5:12 PM  
Blogger Jean Manuel Morales said...

Hi Aaron!

Thank you for you interest in Sicic! I played Sicic a lot with my sister. Is a really fast game: not more than 2-3 moves if played careless :-)

"pinching" rule
Yes, a player that pinches one of the opponent's Astronomer doesn't move. It's a pity the rules are not clear enough. Now they say:

The Astronomer may choose not to move, in order to "pinch"...

If you have some suggestions about making them clearer tell me!

Pinching twice
You can pinch a piece any number of times you want (if the opponent keeps moving it near to one of your Astronomers).

I try to explain the intended behavior with an example: I have an Astronomer in cells C3 and you have one in B3.

..X 3
..O 2
... 1
abc

You pinch me because you don't want my man to be in C3. You can pinch me again after my move C3-B3 and again after my move B3-B2 and after B2-C3, etc. But if after C3-B3 you moved C2-C3 I couldn't immediately pinch you off C3. I can't do it just for one move (my "second next turn" after your first pinch). I hope this is a bit clearer :-)

SuperDuperGames
I'm very happy you implemented Sicic on SuperDuperGames. I alread knew your site, since is well-stocked with a lot of good games. Shame I never tried it, but I think that now I have the ultimate reason :-)

Bye, Jean

4:08 PM  

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