Quattuor Reges
Quattuor Reges Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview
Quattuor Reges is a 2 player game played with 32 pieces representing a classic deck of cards (7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace in four suits).
The suits are divided between the players: Diamonds and Hearts for the Red player, Clubs and Spades for the Black player.
The Red player goes first and can move a single piece (see Movement). After the first turn, Black and Red alternately make up to 2 moves with their pieces each turn, one with each suit.
The goal of the game is to reach the last rank of the board with a Queen, a King, or an Ace.
Game Board
The board consists of 15 ranks of squares arranged similarly to a hexagonal grid. 6 ranks on each side of the board make up Red and Black territories, with the remaining 3 ranks being the neutral territory. In addition to the winning last rank, player territories contain 2 special squares on the 4th rank, called Bases (see Rescuing Pieces).
Before the game begins, each player arranges their pieces in their territory in secret, after which all piece positions are simultaneously revealed. Each space can be occupied by at most one piece at a time.
Movement
Each piece has a maximum number of steps that it can make during a single movement, each step being to one of the 6 neighboring spaces on a board. Pieces cannot move through occupied spaces, but they don't necessarily have to move in a straight line.
The movement range is 4 spaces for the 8, 3 spaces for the 7 and the 9, and 2 spaces for all other pieces. The movement options become restricted if any of the King is captured (see Capturing Pieces).
If a Queen, a King, or an Ace of a player ends its movement on the last rank of the opponent's territory, that player immediately wins.
Capturing Pieces
An opponent piece can be captured by moving a valid piece to its space. The captured piece is removed from the board (but can be returned to it later, see Rescuing Pieces). The valid captures are as follows:
- Ace captures Court pieces (Jack, Queen, King) and other Aces
- Court pieces capture Number pieces (7, 8, 9, 10), with an exception that 7 captures Jack, not vice versa
- Number pieces capture Ace
- Number pieces capture other Number pieces that have smaller value
- Court pieces capture each other in a circular fashion (King captures Queen, Queen captures Jack, Jack captures King)
The capturing piece must stop at the space where the captured piece was, even if it hasn't used up all its movement.
If an Ace makes a capture, it may retreat to the space it was at the start of the turn for free.
If a King is captured, all other pieces of its suit except the Ace cannot be moved until the King is rescued (see Rescuing Pieces). Therefore, capturing all of an opponent's Kings and Aces also results in an immediate victory, as the opponent is out of valid moves.
Rescuing Pieces
Each side of the board has 2 special spaces called Bases, located on the 4th rank of the player's territories. If a piece ends its movement on an opponent's Base, it's immediately captured, but can in return rescue one previously captured piece (including itself). The rescued piece is placed on one of the player's own unoccupied Bases. If both Bases are already occupied, no piece can be rescued.
A rescued piece cannot move on the same turn even if its suit has not moved yet. However, if a King is rescued and its suit has not moved yet, other pieces of that suit immediately become available to move.
If an Ace captures a piece on an opponent's Base, it still has an option to retreat without being captured itself.
If a piece other than a Queen, a King or an Ace ends its movement on the last rank of the opponent's territory, it is also immediately captured in the same fashion, but can make up to 2 rescues.
Game End
The game ends immediately once a Queen, a King or an Ace reaches the last rank of the board, or all Kings and Aces of a single player are captured.
Quick Reference: Piece Movement and Captures
| Piece | Movement | Can capture |
|---|---|---|
| Ace | 2 | Ace, King, Queen, Jack |
| King | 2 | Queen, 10, 9, 8, 7 |
| Queen | 2 | Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7 |
| Jack | 2 | King, 10, 9, 8 |
| 10 | 2 | Ace, 9, 8, 7 |
| 9 | 3 | Ace, 8, 7 |
| 8 | 4 | Ace, 7 |
| 7 | 3 | Ace, Jack |
Setup Tips
Detailed setup tips, along with other strategic advice, can be found in the Quattuor Reges Strategy Primer (see Strategy Primer below).
It's best to avoid placing Aces on the front rank of your territory, as they risk being immediately captured by an 8 crossing the neutral territory in a single movement.
Putting pieces of only one suit in a single area will make it harder to mount a successful defense in case of an attack, as only one piece in this area would be able to react each turn.
General Considerations
Queens, Kings and Aces are the most important pieces, as they alone can be used to achieve victory. Therefore, it's important to consider whether your defense against them is appropriate along the whole width of the board. For example a single Ace is sufficient to protect against an attack by a combination of any of the winning pieces. However, if the attacking piece is accompanied by an 8, a single Ace defense will become inadequate and would need to be reinforced by other pieces, for example a 9 that might be quick enough to intercept the 8.
After the defense is solidified, it's necessary to look for weaknesses in the opponent's defenses where a timely attack could breach through to reach the final rank of the board. Such an attack is usually performed by a pair of pieces of different suits, protecting each other from possible capture along the way. For example, if a side of the opponent's territory is protected by a King, a Jack and an 8, an option would be to attack with a Queen and a Jack. The Queen would push towards the victory with the Jack protecting it from a possible capture by a King, and the opponent's Jack and 8 becoming powerless without extra reinforcements.
Piece Utilization
- 7s are good for protecting Kings against Jacks and Aces, the only pieces that can capture them
- 8s are especially useful for hunting Aces or quick piece rescues by slipping past the defenses to the last rank
- 9s can often protect Aces against opponent's 8s as their movement range is only a single space less
- 10s are the slowest Number pieces, but they provide protection both from Aces and all other Numbers. Their relatively low value makes them useful for forcing exchanges
- Jacks provide protection against a combination of Number pieces and Kings
- Queens are good offensive pieces as they can only be targeted by Kings and Aces
- Kings are extremely important since they provide mobility to their suit, but can also be used as offensive pieces in suitable circumstances
- Aces have a good balance of offensive and defensive power and sometimes can capture pieces without forcing an exchange due to their retreat power, but they need to be protected from Numbers to be effective
Strategy Primer
The following strategy primer is a community document written by BGG user Hellheart (top-ranked player on Board Game Arena at time of publishing) and posted to the game's BGG file page. It assumes you already understand the rules above.
This guide assumes that you understand the rules of the game, how the pieces move and capture. There's a tutorial on BGA that will walk you through the basics, and it is recommended to play or watch at least one game to have a basic sense of how the interface looks and how the game flows.
Quattuor Reges shares a lot with chess, but unlike chess there's currently no resources to help with basic understanding. This guide aims to address that. Its goal is to describe some common traps and impart a broad understanding of the core strategic concepts in Quattuor Reges. Those concepts inform and guide play choices throughout the game, and are a big part of a player's success at the game.
Part 1: Key Terms
Move Notation: Compass directions are used for each space, relative to a piece's starting position, with each successive move separated by commas.
Major/Minor: 7-10 are "minor pieces," Jack-Ace are "major pieces."
Threat: Any piece can present a capture threat, trade threat, and/or backline threat. A capture threat ends in a piece advantage after all recaptures. A trade threat maintains piece equality but not necessarily material equality. A backline threat can successfully reach your back rank.
Tempo: An advantage measured in suit moves, sometimes over multiple turns. Tempo is at its most powerful when considering backline threats.
"Forced" Suit Move: A misnomer, since even King and backline win threats do not require a response. A move is called a forced suit move when there is believed to be no alternative move that could even maintain parity — though that judgment is sometimes wrong.
Stuck: A broad term used to denote a piece that needs to stay where it is. Pieces defending other pieces are "stuck to" them, and a piece protecting an area is "stuck defending" that area.
Overloaded: A piece is overloaded if it is the only way to defend against more than one threat. A suit is overloaded if, within a single turn, more than one piece of that suit would need to move in order to maintain threats and defense.
Part 2: Setup
Poor setups are common and devastating for new players. Effective setups tend to share 3 characteristics: alternating suits, side and middle coverage, and vertical depth.
- Alternate the suits on a side by rank (Ace-Hearts, King-Diamonds, Queen-Hearts, etc.). If done right, the 7 should not share the Queen's suit.
- Each edge must be, at most, 2 spaces away from a piece of rank 10-King. Each horizontally central square in your front two ranks must be in range of a piece of rank 10-King, and probably also a 9. Either an Ace must be biased towards the horizontal center, or both a Jack and King must be within 4 spaces of it.
- Aces and 7s should not be in your front two ranks. Pieces should be spread vertically such that no walls are created and major pieces can move horizontally without significant detours.
It's possible to deviate from these principles and still play well, as long as the setup still fits the above characteristics overall.
Alternating suits allows for flexible responses and enables effective major piece combos (King-Queen and Queen-Jack). It also allows a minor piece threat to be created on either side with either suit.
You want to respond to an 8 or 9 at the edge with exactly one move, which needs to lock down that edge. One of your pieces ranked 10-King will be stuck defending each edge for most of the game. It is very hard to stop a piece that infiltrates your center. You will often be forced to sacrifice pieces or tempo to survive, if you don't just lose outright. Protect your center.
8s are powerful pieces that can often safely threaten your Aces and 7s. You can avoid this by allowing your 9 to be stuck to your Ace or 7, or by making sure your Aces and 7s are two or more spaces behind other pieces.
Walls of pieces are a very common mistake for newer players. It looks like the pieces protect each other well, but backline maneuverability is absolutely crucial in this game.
Part 3: Core Strategic Concepts
Games of Quattuor Reges are won by exploiting imbalances. These can be tempo imbalances, positional imbalances, or material imbalances. Regardless of the cause, the end result is similar: a threat that can't be effectively defended. A game becomes more imbalanced as the number and severity of unaddressed threats increases. In chess this can lead to "tension," and it will create complicated board states that can be very dangerous ("sharp positions"). Inexperienced players do not handle these positions well.
Players can learn how to recognize and respond to their own imbalances, preferably before the threat is even made. This is commonly done by remembering why a game was lost (because it hurt) and how it could have been prevented (by watching the replay). This skill also helps a player spot and exploit the opponent's imbalances. It is then a matter of learning how to effectively attack those imbalances, often while simultaneously defending your own.
Some piece combos naturally work well together, although this often leaves them stuck to each other. Understanding how these combos work and how to protect against them is a core strategic concept. Queen-Jack protects against the King, but a Queen can be used to separate the combo. Queen-Queen needs backline responses from Aces and/or Kings of opposite suits. Having the right pieces in place to respond is a lot of the unseen skill in Quattuor Reges.
Do not get too caught up in your own moves. If you're racing to the backline with a tempo advantage, what your opponent can do is irrelevant. At almost all other times, your opponent may be able to turn your clear advantage into a losing or completely lost game. Stay vigilant!
Both threats and responses involve a suit, so overloading an opponent's suit is a core attacking and counter-attacking concept. If a capture threat exists on the King of Hearts and Queen of Hearts, and no diamond move can save either, Hearts are overloaded. A player may be forced to sacrifice the Queen of Hearts, or to try to overload the opponent's suit with a Diamond move. Note that it's possible to trade or even sacrifice pieces of an overloaded suit for advantage elsewhere. Thus, backline win threats and King capture threats are the most effective ways to overload a suit.
Overloading pieces is more difficult in Quattuor Reges than it is in Chess, but it can be very easy to overload a suit. Be aware of possible threats to your Kings and Aces, and do your best to keep ahead of major piece backline threats. A good rule of thumb pulls from the Chess concept of Opposition: if a King might become a backline threat, keep a Jack or Ace on the same column and horizontally mirror its moves. It's not always that simple in practice, but it's very difficult to get outmaneuvered using this principle.
It takes some time to adjust to how much the board state can shift when each player makes two moves on their turn. When making a difficult move, it helps to go through most of the opponent's possible responses in sequences of two moves, including counter-attacks, before confirming any pair of moves under consideration. Two-move sequences form many of the traps new players frequently fall into.
Part 4: Common Traps
Trap 1. Red to move. The Ace of Spades can be taken here. The BGA interface will not show the Ace of Spades as under threat, but the capture happens in a single turn because the King of Diamonds doesn't share a suit with the 8 of Hearts.
This is NOT a trap if it's the King of Hearts and a Diamond move elsewhere can't overload Clubs. King of Hearts moves SW, SW to threaten the Queen of Spades and seems to overload Spades. The Ace of Spades can't defend without getting captured, but the King of Clubs blocks the 8 of Hearts and the Queen of Spades runs towards the Ace of Spades. The end result may not be holdable, but it buys a couple turns.
Trap 2. Red to move. Queen of Hearts can take Jack of Clubs and 8 of Diamonds can move SW, SW, SW, SW. This ends with Queen of Hearts and 8 of Diamonds traded for Jack of Clubs and Ace of Spades.
This doesn't just give Red a material advantage. Black has no pieces left on this side that can defend against the (barely visible) King of Diamonds. If it runs towards the corner, Black loses an enormous amount of tempo if they aren't already dead lost.
These trade-attack combinations are hard to see because you have to visualize both piece movements. But this is only possible because the Jack of Clubs is still under threat on Red's turn. Black could have moved the Jack of Clubs away, although this 8 of Diamonds is going to be an enormous problem no matter what Black does.
Trap 3. Red to move. Jack of Diamonds or Queen of Diamonds must move E, E or this is a disaster. King of Hearts moving E, E seems okay, but the 9 of Spades can move NE to threaten both 7s and both recaptures are Heart moves.
If there is no defensive response, 9 of Spades moving NE, NW threatens both Aces and the 7 of Hearts, forcing Red to at a minimum spend a diamond move on the Jack/Queen of Diamonds and probably a Heart move to recapture the 9 of Spades. Red is down material and at best even in tempo.
Protect your center. A broken center is absolute misery.
Trap 4. This board state illustrates how difficult it can be to evaluate positions and moves in this game, and can be a trap for either color. Black to move, having captured the Queen of Hearts last move. Red moved the 7 of Hearts to block the 9 of Clubs, and the King of Diamonds captured the Queen of Clubs.
These two pieces only gain Black a backline rescue with the 9 of Clubs, which gets back the Queen of Clubs that was just taken. Black would be up a piece and that is, bafflingly, the best it can do here.
The 9 of Clubs can move SW, SE, SE to threaten both a backline rescue and the Ace of Hearts. This is probably Black's best Club move. However, finding a strong Spade move here is difficult, and several of them can be disastrous.
Moving the King of Spades is required if the 9 of Clubs is run, because King of Diamonds NW, NE followed by Ace of Hearts moves NW, NW actually traps the King of Spades. King of Spades moving NE, NE is fine to maintain parity, and would be the fallback choice. King of Spades SW, SE is safe because the 7 of Hearts blocks the Ace of Hearts, but then Jack of Diamonds moves W, W and threatens the King of Spades and 9 of Clubs while protecting against the win. The Ace of Hearts could then move up to avoid capture from the 9, which Black would just use to rescue. Black is then forced to run the King of Spades until the 7 of Clubs can block the Jack of Diamonds, and has gained nothing from this maneuver.
However, there is one other promising Spade move available: 8 of Spades moves SW, SW, W. First and foremost, it protects the King of Spades from being trapped. It also threatens the Ace of Hearts from the other side. Red almost has the wild response of sacrificing the Ace of Hearts by doing the same move sequence, but the Ace of Clubs is just in time to prevent the King of Diamonds from winning. Red could move the Ace of Hearts towards the 9 to force it to choose between capture and rescue, and then Jack of Diamonds moves W, W to force the issue and protect against the King of Spades. Black has minor positional gains with no tempo loss after the rescue.
The moves made in the actual game were similar: 9 of Clubs captures 7 of Hearts, 8 of Spades moves SW, SW, SW, W. This forgoes the rescue for an additional trade capture. Red's best response is likely King of Diamonds captures 9 of Clubs and any Heart move that allows a Heart recapture. This keeps a diamond move free to protect against the King of Spades.
Both approaches are solid: keeping a raw piece advantage with a Queen of Clubs in the backline feels overall safer. The alternative approach trades a Queen, 8, and 9 for a Queen, Ace, and 7.