Great Wall

Great Wall is a two-player abstract strategy game of archery and facing, fought atop the Great Wall of China. Two armies of shielded warriors face off across a long battlement, each commander starting with ten warriors kneeling in reserve on the towers at either end. Every warrior carries a broad shield strapped across its back that guards its rear and both rear flanks; it can only be felled by an attack from its front or an open side, so where a figure faces matters as much as where it stands. On a turn a player takes one action. Place deploys a warrior from reserve within two clear steps of the supply chain that runs from a central Legendary Field through friendly warriors. Move steps a warrior up to two fields in any of the eight compass directions and then sets a new facing; standing still to rotate is allowed. Shoot fires an arrow along the warrior's facing that fells the first exposed target and chain-fires onward in that victim's own facing — shields reflect head-on arrows and deflect angled ones, and friendly fire is real. Spin strikes all eight surrounding fields at once, removing any neighbor whose shield is not turned toward the blow. Fallen warriors never return, and an enemy standing on your Legendary Field cuts off your reinforcements until it is driven off. The game ends the moment a player's total force — warriors on the wall plus warriors in reserve — drops below four, and the opposing commander is declared the winner. —description from the designer

Players: 2
Playing time: 10–25 min
Age: 8+