Asalto Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• How to Play
• Beginning the Game
• Moving the Pieces
• Capturing Enemies
• Ending the Game
• Variation

How to Play

Asalto is played by two players on a board resembling that used nowadays for solitaire. The differences are that the playing spaces are linked by lines, including some on the diagonals, to indicate allowable directions of movement. One end of the board is also marked out as the fortress, encompassing nine squares in total. One player has two officers, and the other has twenty-four rebels.

Beginning the Game

1. Players decide at random who takes which side. In subsequent games the players should swap sides.
2. The rebels are placed on the board, filling every space outside the fortress, as shown in Illustration 1 (the asalto board, with rebels set out for play; officers will be placed on any two points of the fortress).
3. The two officers are placed anywhere in the fortress, at the discretion of the player who controls them.
4. The rebels make the first move.

Moving the Pieces

Movement and capture are shown in Illustration 2 (moves of the pieces: officers can move in any direction, but only where a marked line exists, so an officer on a point without diagonal lines cannot move diagonally; rebels are subject to the same limitation, and may not move away from the fortress).

5. A rebel may move along a marked line in any direction which does not lead him away from the fortress.
6. An officer may move in any direction along a marked line, within, away from or towards the fortress.
7. Only one piece may occupy a point at any one time.
8. Officers cannot leap over each other, and rebels cannot leap at all.

Capturing Enemies

9. An officer can capture a rebel by leaping over him onto the vacant space beyond.
10. Such a capture must be along a marked line, and the officer cannot turn a corner while leaping.
11. If the officers' player fails to make a capture when one is available, then the rebel player may point out the capture and remove the officer who failed to make it (called huffing), before continuing with his own move.
12. This is the only way an officer can be captured, as the rebels cannot leap.

Ending the Game

13. If the nine points of the fort are occupied by the rebels, they win the game.
14. If the officers are trapped by the rebels so that they are unable to move, they lose the game and the rebels win.
15. If both the officers are huffed, then they have lost and the rebels win.
16. If the officers capture so many rebels that their task becomes impossible, then they win the game.
17. The precise number of rebels needed to win the game varies according to whether one or two officers remain on the board. But if only eight rebels remain on the board, they will be unable to occupy the fortress and so their cause may be considered lost.

Variation

On some boards, most of the horizontal lines are specially marked, using doubled lines or lines of a different colour. This is for the related game German Tactics.

Rebels may not move along these specially marked lines, but officers may. See Illustration 3 (movement in the German Tactics variation: routes along dotted lines may be used only by officers; capture of rebels is by the same method as in asalto).