Djambi
Djambi Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
Each player has:
- 1 Leader
- 1 Assassin
- 1 Reporter
- 1 Necromobile
- 1 Diplomat
- 4 Militants
In a two-player game, each player controls two armies.
The Board
Djambi is played on a board of 9×9 spaces. For games with 3, 5, or 6 players, the board changes and its spaces become hexagonal (see Variants, below, for the shapes used at each player count).
The central space is called the Labyrinth. No piece other than a Leader may stop there — every other piece may only pass through it.
Killed pieces are not removed from the board. Instead they are turned over to their "dead" face and stay where they fell (or are moved, per the rules for the piece that killed them).
In a standard 4-player game, Red opens, followed by Blue, going counter-clockwise around the table.
Setup
For a 4-player game, place the pieces as shown in the source diagram, each color filling a 3×3 corner of the 9×9 board. Numbering rows 1–9 from the back of Green/Yellow's side and columns 1–9 from Green/Red's side, the corners are laid out identically (rotated to face the center):
- Green (rows 1–3, columns 1–3): Leader (1,1), Assassin (1,2), Militant (1,3); Reporter (2,1), Diplomat (2,2), Militant (2,3); Militant (3,1), Militant (3,2), Necromobile (3,3).
- Yellow (rows 1–3, columns 7–9): Militant (1,7), Assassin (1,8), Leader (1,9); Militant (2,7), Diplomat (2,8), Reporter (2,9); Necromobile (3,7), Militant (3,8), Militant (3,9).
- Red (rows 7–9, columns 1–3): Militant (7,1), Militant (7,2), Necromobile (7,3); Reporter (8,1), Diplomat (8,2), Militant (8,3); Leader (9,1), Assassin (9,2), Militant (9,3).
- Blue (rows 7–9, columns 7–9): Necromobile (7,7), Militant (7,8), Militant (7,9); Militant (8,7), Diplomat (8,8), Reporter (8,9); Militant (9,7), Assassin (9,8), Leader (9,9).
Each Leader starts in the outermost corner of its own zone; each Necromobile starts in the innermost corner of its zone, closest to the Labyrinth. The Assassins all share the same rows and columns as the Assassins of the other colors, and likewise for the Reporters.
For a two-player game (see the source's first diagram), each player controls two armies occupying the two corners on the same side of the board (for example, one color across both top corners, the other color across both bottom corners), each corner still set up as above. Considering each Leader to be facing the center of the board, its Reporter sits to its left and its Assassin to its right.
Objective
Eliminate all rivals. There are two ways to do this:
- By killing the enemy Leader. A player who kills a Leader takes possession of all of that Leader's remaining pieces.
- By surrounding a Leader. The pieces of a surrounded Leader are recovered by the first player to occupy the Labyrinth.
Example: Yellow is put to death by encirclement. The presence of the three dead pieces along the edge of the board was, incidentally, not necessary for this. The first Leader to occupy the Labyrinth will own the pieces belonging to the encircled Leader. In this kind of position Red is not fully encircled, since its Diplomat can still escape, followed by the Militant and then the Leader.
Interpreting encirclement
At what point is a Leader considered encircled by corpses? Encirclement takes effect as soon as a Leader, or one of its adjacent pieces, is surrounded by corpses and can no longer make even the smallest move — even if a friendly Necromobile occupies some other part of the board.
- Variant 1: Only declare encirclement if the smothered side has no Necromobile left to unblock the situation. (This is the variant enabled by default on the Djambi.net website.)
- Variant 2: Declare encirclement as soon as a Leader can no longer reach the central space — because it has become inaccessible under a build-up of corpses — and that Leader's side has no Necromobile left to clear the way.
As soon as only 2 players remain in the game, Variant 2 applies automatically: whichever side then holds the central space within its zone of control is automatically declared the winner. It therefore pays to keep your Necromobiles for the endgame.
The Pieces
There are two types of pieces:
- Killers: Leader, Militant, Assassin, and Reporter.
- Movers: Diplomat and Necromobile.
Leader
- Type: Killer.
- Movement: Any direction, as many spaces as it wants.
- Elimination: Can kill a piece by occupying its space. The killed piece is turned to its dead side and placed on any free space on the board.
- Power: May occupy the Labyrinth (every other piece may only pass through it). While it occupies the Labyrinth, the Leader gets an extra turn after each other player's turn.
Example: the Red Leader kills the Green Leader, then protects itself from the Yellow Leader by placing the corpse on the long diagonal (the same defense works against Blue).
Militant
- Type: Killer.
- Movement: Unlike the other pieces, which move as many spaces as they like, the Militant moves at most 2 spaces, in any direction.
- Elimination: Can kill a piece by occupying its space. The killed piece is turned to its dead side and placed on any free space on the board.
- The Militant is the only Killer (among Leader, Assassin, and Reporter) that cannot kill a Leader.
Example: a Militant limited to a maximum move of two spaces, against a piece with ordinary movement (such as the Necromobile) that can move as many spaces as it wants.
Assassin
- Type: Killer.
- Movement: Any direction, as many spaces as it wants.
- Elimination: Can kill a piece by occupying its space. The killed piece is turned to its dead side and placed on the space the Assassin itself occupied just before the killing.
- Power: May enter the Labyrinth in order to kill a Leader. It then gets one extra turn to flee the Labyrinth (no piece other than a Leader may remain there).
Note: after a killing, the Assassin does not choose where the body is placed — the corpse simply occupies the space the Assassin vacated to make the capture.
Reporter
- Type: Killer.
- Movement: Any direction, as many spaces as it wants.
- Elimination: Immediately after moving, kills the piece adjacent to one of its orthogonal sides, of its choice. It may choose not to kill anyone. Killed pieces are not moved from their space. The Reporter cannot kill while it is being used by an enemy Diplomat.
Diplomat
- Type: Mover.
- Movement: Any direction, as many spaces as it wants.
- Elimination: Does not eliminate anyone.
- Power: When the Diplomat lands on an enemy piece, that piece is relocated by the Diplomat's owner to any free space of their choice.
Example: the Blue Diplomat sends a Yellow Assassin to stand opposite the Green Leader.
Necromobile
- Type: Mover.
- Works exactly like the Diplomat, but with dead pieces instead of living ones.
Example: using the Necromobile to protect one's pieces — here, Red protects its Leader by inserting a corpse in front of the enemy Assassin.
Variants
The rules above describe the standard 2–4 player game on the 9×9 board. The source material also illustrates the alternate boards used for other player counts, without further changing the piece rules described above:
- Djambi for 3 players: a hexagon-shaped board of hexagonal spaces.
- Djambi, original: the standard 9×9 square board described above.
- Djambi for 5 players: a pentagon-shaped board of hexagonal spaces. BoardGameGeek lists this 5-player variant separately under the name "Pentachiavel."
- Djambi for 6 players: a larger hexagon-shaped board of hexagonal spaces.
End of Game
The game ends when one player has killed the Leaders of all other players.