Aeroplane chess

Aeroplane Chess

An Aeroplane Chess board.
Players	2-4
Setup time	< 5 minutes
Playing time	typically 30 minutes
Chance	High (dice rolling)
Skills	Dice rolling, Identifying optimal moves

Aeroplane Chess (飞行棋, literally Flying Chess) is a board game very similar to Ludo, being played by adults and children alike. One major difference to Ludo's board is that in Aeroplane Chess, there exists a danger space in the home zone that the player sitting opposite can pass by in order to send back any pieces back to the airplane hangar. Another major difference to Ludo's board is that in Aeroplane Chess, the outside spaces are filled with the 4 colours that correspond to the 4 players' colours, in a sequence. When a player's piece moves onto a space of his own colour, the piece can be moved to the next space of the same colour.

Equipment

• A specialized game board (see below)
• 4 sets of 4 similar coloured airplane pieces, typically red, yellow, blue and green.
• A 6-sided die.

Basic game rules

• 2 to 4 players, taking turns to throw the die. The player with the largest number starts to play first, and the rest of the players sit according to the left of him/her.
• When it is the player's turn, throw the die. If the die shows an even number, the player can move one of his airplane piece to the starting point. Pieces at the starting point and in the playing field may be moved upon all the die's rolled value.
• When a 6 is rolled, the player may, after finishing the movement of pieces, throw the die another time. However, if 6 is rolled three times in a row (including the first 6), all pieces moved by the previous two 6s are moved back to the hangar, and the current 6 is not used to move pieces too.
• Pieces of the same colour may be stacked together, but whether or not they can fly together, depends on the house rules agreed upon by all the players.
• If a piece is moved to a space of its own colour (with the exception of the final space just before entering the home zone), it is jumped four spaces in front to the next space of its own colour.
• If a piece is moved to a space of its own colour that indicates an arrow, the piece is moved along the arrow to its destination. It is also moved four spaces in front to the next space of its own colour, as per the previous jumping rule; if the piece is moved to the arrow space as a result of the previous jumping rule, then there is no need to move four spaces after the piece is moved along the arrow to its destination.
• If a player's piece is moved to a space containing an opposing player's piece, the opposing player's piece is moved back to the hangar and to be started from there again. Note: If the number of the player's pieces is less than the number of opposing player's pieces on a space, then the opposing players' pieces remain on the space and the player's piece moves towards until in front of the opposing player's pieces and then moves backwards. If the number is the same or more, the opposing player's pieces are moved back to the hangar.
• When pieces move to a turning arrow of their own colour, they are close to the final destination. They next move towards the centre of the board within the home zone.
• Pieces not able to rest in the final space are required to backtrack as per the die's value if it is too big.
• If a player's pieces are resting on the home zone's space that has a dotted line across it, they are at risk of being sent back to the hangar if the opposing player's piece manage to fly across the space via their arrow.
• Once a piece reaches the final space exactly, it is moved back to the hangar, but with its side overturned, to indicate that it has completed its journey.
• The fastest player to have all his four pieces finishing their journey is the winner. If ranking is required for the remaining players, then the next player to have their four pieces finishing their journey is the runners-up. And so on.