Dragonflock

Dragonflock
Matthew and Lily Rogers
Dragons intimidate each other and lay waste to hapless towns
:Players	Players:	2
:Time	Length:	Medium
:Complexity	Complexity:	Low
Trios per color:		3
Number of colors:		2
Pyramid trios:
Monochr. stashes:		2
Five-color sets:		3
- - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - -
Volcano board
Setup time:		1 minute
Playing time:		10 Min - 30 Min
Strategy depth:		Medium
Random chance:		None
Game mechanics:		Stacking, Capture
Theme:		Dragons
BGG Link:
Status: Not Specified (v1.0), Year released: 2012

Scenario

Dragons are powerful and nearly indestructible, as well as highly territorial. But when they flock together, look out! Two opposing clans of dragons seek to devastate the inhabitants of each others' territories.

Equipment

Dragonflock was originally designed for two full monochrome stashes of five trios each (two medium pyramids from each stash will be unused), to be played on a Volcano board.

Those with a lean pyramid supply can still play with three similar five-color Treehouse sets: Use green and blue against red and yellow (or cyan and purple against orange and clear), with no distinction between paired colors.

More attractively, for those wealthy in pyramids: Use white, black, and/or clear pyramid stashes for the larges, another two colors for the mediums, and two further translucent colors for the smalls.

Setup

Board setup with extra colors: red versus green dragons, white and clear mountains between yellow and purple towns

Each of the two players sets up pyramids of his own color on the two ranks of the board nearest to him.

• In the nearest rank: medium - small - medium - small - medium
• In the second rank: all five larges, with smalls on top of the two ends.
• In the center square of the board: one small of each color -- it doesn't matter which is on top.

See the images in the infobox and at right.

Nivinivinack for the first move.

Piece Conventions

::S	::M	::L
dragon	town	mountain

• The small pyramids (pawns /.\) are dragons.
• The medium pyramids (drones /..\) are towns.
• The large pyramids (queens /...\) are mountains.

Goal

Destroy the towns of the opposing player, and get out of enemy territory. Victory can be declared at the end of either player's turn when all opposing towns are destroyed and no dragons remain in the far rank of the board.

Stacking Rules

Game nearing its end: Only one (purple) town left! A green flock in red dragon territory, and red blocks in the valley and green territory.

• Only one dragon (of whatever color) can occupy any mountain at any time.
• A town can only support/resist one dragon (of whatever color). As soon as a second dragon is stacked on a town, that town is devastated and removed from play. The dragons remain.
• Two dragons of the same color stacked together form a block. No dragon of the other color may be stacked in the block.
• Two dragons of different colors stacked together form a dispute. Neither dragon may move until the dispute is resolved.
• The addition of a third dragon to a dispute resolves it into a block for the two matching dragons. The player with the block then displaces the outnumbered dragon to any neighboring square (orthogonally or diagonally).
• Three or more dragons of the same color stacked together form a flock. No dragon of the other color can enter the square of the flock or any square adjacent to it. Any opposing dragons in the immediate zone around the flock when it is first formed are displaced out of it by the player with the flock to any neighboring square (orthogonally or diagonally). (Flocking will thus incidentally resolve any disputes in squares next to the flock.)

If there is no available neighboring space into which to displace a dragon as a result of flocking or resolving a dispute, then the flocking/resolving player may put the trapped dragon on any unoccupied mountain.

Moving

::S	Individual dragons can move
::SS	Blocks of dragons cannot move
	Disputes cannot move
::SSS	Flocks of dragons can move
::M	Towns don't move. How could they?
::L	Mountains don't move. How could they?

Players alternate turns moving. Each move is the move of a single dragon or a flock one space, orthogonally or diagonally. Blocks cannot be moved; but the dragons can be moved from them individually. Disputes cannot be moved; and the individual dragons cannot move until the dispute is resolved.

Mountains and towns don't move, of course.

The Central Dispute

The two dragons that start in the center of the board are trapped there, and neither can move until a third dragon intervenes to resolve the dispute. It is their dispute that has touched off the long-slumbering animosity between the two clans.

Notes on Flock Movement

If a flock moves into a space occupied by a lone opposing dragon, the player with the flock moves the other dragon one or two spaces from its position. A flock cannot move into a space occupied by an enemy block. A flock cannot move into a space adjacent to an enemy flock.

Because of the rule that only one dragon may occupy a mountain, a flock once formed will be confined to the "valley" between the two lines of mountains (the third rank of the board), or the home territory of one dragon clan or the other (the first and fifth ranks of the board).