Archon chess was and still is a classic game for me. The premise is simple. Take the general rules of chess: 16 pieces including 8 pawns like pieces for each player, each different piece has its unique characteristics and a 64 square board. But now add the twists: when 2 pieces occupy the same square, you enter a real time action battle. The winner of the battle wins the square and the losing piece is captured.
This game combines the general board strategy of chess.
Archon chess was and still is a classic game for me. The premise is simple. Take the general rules of chess: 16 pieces including 8 pawns like pieces for each player, each different piece has its unique characteristics and a 64 square board. But now add the twists: when 2 pieces occupy the same square, you enter a real time action battle. The winner of the battle wins the square and the losing piece is captured.
This game combines the general board strategy of chess. It adds in the wholly separate game-play of action. Both game-play models used in this game are fairly simple as well, so all players can easily pick up what the game is about and how to play.
Some additional interesting
game mechanics are found in this game as well. To win, you must not capture the "king" piece, but instead defeat all of your opponent's pieces or capture 5 specific tiles on the board. The "king" pieces of each side (wizard for white and sorceress for black) can each cast spells during the game that can heal pieces, summon elementals (a new piece added to your army), etc... Also, the board has a day and night cycle which cycles through every 5-6 turns or so. During the day, light pieces have more life, during the night the black pieces gain that advantage. This provides some strategy on when to attack or retreat.
One of the coolest aspects of the game is the pieces themselves. Each unique piece has a different movement range on the board (much like regular chess) but is not limited as strictly as chess. The "pawn" pieces can only move a 2 squares at a time, but the can move in any direction. The Djinni or Dragon piece can move about 6 squares at a time in any direction. In battle, each creature is balanced by the following: attack, attack speed and range, attack damage, delay time before you can attack again, movement speed and life. The dragon for example moves quickly, has high life, shoots a projectile and causes heavy damage. The counter balance is every time it attacks it requires a long time to be able to attack again.
In my opinion, Archon chess is a classic game which is the perfect example of good game-play trumping the need for good graphics.
