This is a weird game, and a fairly recent one. It was invented in 1988 by Walter Zamkauskas, an Argentinean, and should provide no shortage of strategic fun for those who are looking for a unique challenge.
Equipment
The game is traditionally played on a 10 x 10 checkered board, although it can be easily adapted to an 8 x 8, which will merely provide a shorter game. Get the standard board here (or use a Draughts board) and the smaller here (or use a chessboard). In addition to this, you will need four tokens for each player (you can just use Chess pawns or whatever -- I don’t expect that you have four queens of the same color lying around), and a healthy stock of some small marker, like pennies or beads or Go stones or whatever. You’ll need quite a few -- up to around fifty -- and the color doesn’t matter (both players use the same tokens).
Rules
The game is set up as shown. Each, turn a player must do two things: move a piece (an Amazon) and place a new token (an arrow), in that order. Amazons move exactly like Chess queens, any number of spaces in any diathogonal direction. Arrows are “fired” by the Amazon that moved on your turn, and they travel out from the Amazon’s resting point to any space in any direction away from the Amazon. That is to say, the arrows move like Chess queens as well. They can stop at any point along their path -- they don’t have to hit something.
Neither Amazons nor arrows can travel over arrows or other Amazons. Once an arrow lands, it is stuck there, and nothing can pass over it. It acts as a barrier for all pieces for the rest of the game.
As the board fills up, some Amazons may become trapped by arrows. Once all of a player’s Amazons are trapped, so that he cannot move a single one of them, he loses the game. Simple, no?
