Eruma

Eruma is a two-player recreational and competitive board game that dates from at least fourteenth-century Litcht. It is an abstract strategy game that has no hidden information or chance.

It is played on a square board of 49 spaces, 20 dark and 29 light, arranged in a seven-by-seven grid. At the start of the game, each player controls fourteen pieces: one banner, two toxtofin (archers), four cabalon (cavalry), and seven astatin (footsoldiers). The players take turns performing a required move followed by an optional capture. The starting player is the winner of the previous game or the player controlling the white pieces.

The object of the game is to score more points from captures than the opponent before the "battle is decided." A battle may be decided in one of three ways: either banner enters the central "hilltop" square, either banner is captured, or either player cannot perform a legal move. A draw is possible.

Setup
Eruma consists of 28 pieces, equally split into "armies" of white and black consisting of one banner, two toxtofin, four cabalon, and seven astatin. Each player controls one army, and arranges their pieces according to the game's starting arrangement: The banner occupies the rear-most center square, flanked by the two toxtofin and beyond the four cabalon. The front row is entirely astatin, with the center astati beginning one square ahead of the other six.

The game is played on a grid of colored squares, as pictured on the right. The board is composed of seven columns (called files, denoted "a" to "g" from the white player's left) and seven rows (called ranks, denoted 1 to 7 from the white player's back rank).

Turns
The winner of the previous game is the starting player. If no winner exists, the white player is the starting player. Play alternates between both players with each taking a single turn.

A turn consists of a required movement of one of the player's own pieces, followed by an optional capture of an opponent's piece that involves the moved piece.

Gameplay ends when the battle is decided (often shortened to simply "decided"). The current turn is finished if a capture is possible, otherwise points are scored and no more turns take place.

Movement
A movement consists of a piece of the current player's own color entering a different unoccupied square according to the piece's movement rules. A movement to an occupied square or to a square that does not satisfy the movement rules is considered an illegal move and must be substituted for a different move. Movement is required even if it would put the player in a detrimental position.

Banner
The banner may move one space in any direction. It cannot move off of the board.

If the banner's movement ends in the central square (referred to as the hilltop), the "battle is decided" and the gameplay ends after the current player's capture, if any.

Toxtofi
The toxtofi's movement does not follow a set pattern like the other pieces of Eruma. Instead, a toxtofi may move any number of spaces in the direction of an adjacent (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal) dark space. The toxtofi does not need to end its movement on a dark space. It cannot move off of the board or through other pieces.

Cabalo
The cabalo moves any number of spaces horizontal or vertical. It cannot move off of the board or through other pieces.

Astati
The astati may move to any of the three immediate squares towards the opponent's side of the board, or to the space directly towards the player's side of the board. It cannot move off of the board.

Attacking
A piece is considered attacking if an opponent's piece is located within any of the attacking piece's movement squares. The opponent's piece is referred to as attacked.

Guarding
A piece is considered guarding if another piece of the same color is located within any of the guarding piece's movement squares. The second piece is referred to as guarded. A piece guards itself.

Capture
Following movement, the player may optionally capture a single opponent's piece, removing it from game and earning points equal to the piece's value. A capture is only possible if all the following rules are met: As a piece guards itself, the number of attacking pieces in the capture must outnumber the number of opponent pieces. Thus, a minimum of two attacking pieces are required to capture an opponent's piece.
 * The target piece is attacked by the moved piece
 * The target piece is attacked by more pieces than it is guarded by

When a capture occurs, the captured piece is removed from play. No other pieces are moved. If the captured piece is a banner, the "battle is decided" and gameplay ends.