Lai Shai

Lai Shai is a two-player game that uses a 10 x 10 red- and white-checkered board. Its square, wood pieces are either red or black (with their designations painted on in gold paint) and placed on red squares only. Players' halves of the board are separated by a "chinese wall" that marks the boundary of their home court vs. their enemy court. Each player has the following pieces: 1 Emperor, 1 Empress, 3 Princes, 5 Guards, and 5 Archers. To begin a game, the pieces are arranged as follows: the red square in the player's lower left corner has a pagoda and gets the Empress, the red square in the lower right corner has a crown and gets the Emperor, between them (in the row nearest the player) are the 3 Princes, on the next row's red squares are placed the 5 Guards, and on the third row's red squares are placed the 5 Archers.

Players then roll dice every turn to determine how many moves each may make, depending on the difference between the numbers they have rolled. Moves may be made with any combination of the player's pieces, for example: one piece moving three times in a row, or three pieces each moving once. The pieces are moved only on red squares, with each type of piece having its own type of moving privilege. Movements must be from one red square to the next unoccupied red square; if the next square is occupied by an enemy piece but the one after is not, the enemy piece must be jumped and removed from the board, and points are scored depending on the point value for that type of piece.

Archers may only move towards enemy court until they reach the enemy's home row and are then turned over to become Princes. Guards, while in home court, may only move towards enemy court, but having crossed the Chinese Wall can then move in either direction. When a Guard reaches the enemy's home row it becomes a Prince. Emperor, Empress, and Princes may move in either direction from the start.

The winning player removes both his enemy's Emperor and Empress by jumping. Point totals have accrued throughout the game, and the instructions are not clear as to what this has to do with the ending outcome, though the text on the cover of the game box indicates these scoring rules may be optional. There are additional choices to be made to do with the effect the dice rolls have on movements and scores, some optional, some not.