Knights & Kender - A Brilton Madley Game
Object
Knights & Kender is a board game for two players. One player plays the Kender, whose object is to maneuver their pieces past the City Gate, which is the Knight's home row. The other player plays the Knights, whose object is to capture all the Kender before they enter the city. The game ends when either team achieves their goal.
A checkerboard or chessboard. 12 Kender tokens (red checkers work well for this), 2 Knight tokens (chess knights or black checkers)
What You Need to Play
Setup
The Kender and Knight players first agree on the terms of victory (detailed later in the rules). The Kender player places the 12 Kender tokens on the black squares in the first three rows of the board, as they would in a normal game of checkers. The Knight player places each of the Knight tokens in any free square on the last row of the board. Once all the pieces are fielded, the game begins.
Playing the Game
Kender
The Kender player always moves first, and must move one piece per turn. Kender pieces may move diagonally forward one square to the left or right, as in a normal game of checkers. Kender may also "leapfrog" or jump diagonally over another piece (either a Kender or a Knight). A Kender may leapfrog either forward or backward, left or right. A Kender may leapfrog as many times as there are available jumps, but they can't jump over the same piece twice in one turn. Kender may not capture pieces.
Knights
The Knight player may move both Knight pieces, one, or none on her turn. Knights move as knights in chess, namely, two squares forward, backward, left or right, and one square to the side, in an "L" shape. They cannot occupy the same square on the board simultaneously. Knights may capture Kender pieces by landing on them. They may also capture any adjacent Kender by moving onto the Kender's square. This capture counts as its move for the turn. Knights cannot capture diagonally, nor can they leapfrog.
Winning the Game
In a normal game, the Kender player wins by maneuvering a Kender piece into the Knights' home row. If a Kender piece is blocked by a Knight in the home row, it may leapfrog over the Knight, winning the game. The Knight player wins by capturing all the Kender pieces.
Game Variations
Try one of these variations to make the game easier or more challenging.
More than one Kender - Try to get 2 or even more Kender past the City Gate One Knight Move per Turn - Only one Knight may move per turn.
With a little experimentation, you can create a balanced game between any players.
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