New rules draft

[dboyle@...]

Ok, here's a draft of the rules to a new game (as yet unnamed).  I 
first conned people into playing it on Friday, and what you see 
below is what came out of those few games.  I'd be happy to 
hear any comments or suggestions anyone might have.

Thanks.

*-*-*-*-*-*

NUMBER OF PLAYERS
2-4

THE BOARD

Place four tiles in a 2x2 square with their backs showing, 
forming a 4x4 grid.

THE PIECES

Turn all the coins so that their suit side is showing.  The each 
player picks one suit and takes a number of coins of that suit 
based on the number of people playing:

2 players - 6 coins apiece
3 players - 5 coins apience
4 players - 4 coins apiece

We also found it helpful for each player to put the pawn that 
matches the color of their suit in front of them, as a reminder to 
them and the other players during the game of which suit they 
were playing.


SETUP

First player is determined by long jump contest (just kidding, 
don't have a rule for this yet).

Starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise around 
the board, each player in turn places one of their coings on the 
board in an empty square.  The coin is placed suit side up, with 
the direction indicator pointing either to a side or a corner of the 
square, indicating the type of the piece (see below).  This 
continues until all players have placed all their pieces.


GAME PLAY

Starting with the first player, and proceeding clockwise around 
the board, each player in turn moves one of their coins according 
to the type of coin (indicated by the direction marker).

If the direction marker points to a corner, the piece can move 
diagonally, like a bishop in chess.

If the direction marker points to a side, the piece can move 
orthagonally, like a rook in chess.

Pieces move in a straight line, and stop if they hit a wall or land 
on an opponent's piece.  If you land on another player's piece, 
you have captured that piece.  Remove it from the board and 
place it in front of you, to be scored at the end of the game.  You 
cannot caputre your own pieces.

If your move does not result in the capture of another player's 
piece, then you must remove one of your own from the board.  
This piece is discarded, and does not count for anyone when 
scoring at the end of the game.

Play proceeds until there are no coins left of the board.


SCORING

If one player has captured more pieces than any other player, 
then that person is the winner.

One tie-breaker has been suggested (lifted deftly from T&E).  
Count the number of pieces of each other player you have 
captured.  Of those numbers the lowest number is the tie 
breaker (second lowest is second, etc).  So if you didn't capture 
any of another player's pieces, your tie-breaker number would be 
0, regardless of how many pieces you captured altogether.