Three Musketeers Game: Chess Variant

Publisher Blurb: The Three Musketeers (Chess Variant) is a two-player abstract strategy board game that represents renaissance warfare on an 8x14 board with alternating light and dark colored squares representing land, river, bridge, castle, and cathedral terrain. Each terrain type provides specific benefits or obstacles to the different game pieces. Opposing pieces, printed as blue and red chess pieces (but which may be substituted by actual chess pieces), are initially placed in specific locations designated on the game board. Each type of piece has a unique type of movement and capturing occurs when a piece, by its movement, occupies the square of an opposing piece, as in chess. Each side takes turns moving a single one of their pieces trying to gain positional advantage, capture opponents, and achieve their objectives. The Cardinal’s pawn type pieces are an important exception to normal movement rules. If a pawn is selected to be moved, a total of two pawns may move during a single turn. These are the only pieces that may do so. The Three Musketeer player’s knight type pieces may not move until the d’Artagnan rook type piece finishes a turn adjacent to each and activates it. Until they are activated, they face backwards on the game board and may not move. The game was inspired by Alexandre Dumas story, The Three Musketeers, and by Chess-like games such as Siege.