Warlord Notation To note games in Warlord it is useful to declare board orientation. White always stars out on the eastmost edge, and Black on the westmost edge, with the towers on the northern half of the board (at 5,2 and 5,7). Notation is given in this format: Piece, Direction. Pieces are denoted by naming the piece (P, K, A, S, W), and direction by the cardinal points (n, ne, e, se, s, sw, w, nw). Before the name of the piece, it is usually necessary to distinguish it from the others of its type by giving s for "southern" or n for "northern." Exceptions to this are as follows.

1. Since peasants may not be easily identified otherwise, they may be noted by Column, comma, Row rather than with a P. Columns and rows are counted 1-8 starting from the southeast corner (white's leftmost corner).
2. Peasant dashes and long knight moves note Distance from 2-7 after Direction.
3. Marching is given by the movement of the rearmost piece (pushing the others), followed at the end with an m for legibility.
4. Kills are noted at the end with an X; trades are noted with T. Multiple kills require multiple X’s. If there is confusion about who dies after a move, then names of pieces or coordinates of dead pieces are given after the X.
5. For analysis, questionable moves are denoted with ?, stupid moves with ??. Likewise clever moves are noted with !, and inspired moves with !!. (This follows chess convention.)

Some Opening Moves

1. The Classic Opening: nS se m
   
   This sets up a strong presence in the northern side of the board. The equivalent move, nS sw m, is is also a good open for white, but after one player has made such an opening, it becomes a trade if the other player follows suit.
   
   
2. South Opening: W se (or 7,8 se m)
   
   This straightforward opening advances the warlord to control the middle of the board. A more aggressive opening is to march the peasant and archer along with the warlord; this can be somewhat dangerous in that it cuts off the warlord's avenue of escape, but it can lay arrowfire on the opposing ranks, hampering their mobility.
   
   
3. North Opening: W ne (or, 3,8 ne m)
   
   This is a less popular opening, in that it tends to clutter up the tighter northern side of the board. It lends itself well to aggressive play, however, especially against novice opponents. Jenny's Opening is a good response to this.
   
   
4. Jenny's Opening: sA s
   
   This is an excellent defensive opening for white, but Jenny's open is also useful for black. The various Discovered Openings for southern knights are usually a sensible followups to allow the southern archer a line of sight to the northern half of the board.
   
   
5. Discovered Opening: sK nw (or nK sw for the northern archer)
   
   Advancing with knights at the start of the game is dangerous; they are better suited to mid and late game aggression. But moving the knight back gives the northern archer to move forward, or to the side, and gain a discovered line of sight along the southeastern diagonal. This is useful as a defensive tactic, largely because having a line of sight in that direction is almost always valuable, but leaves forces well contained and does not commit an attack in any direction.
   
   
6. Mark's Opening: 2,7 e2 (or 3,6 se)
   
   This opening allows Black's southern archer to ultimately advance into 1,6 (or 1,3 for White) a strategic location with a line of sight to the enemy tower. However, be prepared to defend the peasant by moving the southern spearman forward as needed.

Sample Game #1

# 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

Black sK sw sS ne sA se m nA n nK sw ns se m nA e sA sw nA se m X nA ne S e Victory

White 2,2 w2 sS nw nK se nA w W sw W sw X sS nw X nA e sK nw 3,3 nw X --

The moves in this game mostly speak for themselves. White mounts an offensive on Black's southern side, which Black largely ignores, and instead of rushing to defend, he develops his north flank in move #6, and then again in move #7. White, apparently believing that Black is merely giving away his pieces, seems all to happy to take them. It is only in move #8 that White attends to his defensive structure, but here it is only to move an Archer out of harm's way. It isn't until Black marches forward in move #9 that White begins to realize that he is out of position, but the severety of his danger is not manifested until move #10, when Black's archer takes aim at the Tower, allowing his spearman to move in for the kill.

Sample Game #2

# 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19.

Black nS se m sP e2 ? nS ne nK nw sA se sK se2 W se sS ne sA se ! sS ne W se X nK e2 X sP w2 nK w nK w nK e4 X nK se X nK sw2 X S ne

White sK ne sA s 7,3 nw X nK sw sP nw m ? sP s2 4,4 se nS w W nw m X sA n W sw nA sw m nS w sK sw nK w4 T !! W ne 5,3 w2 sK nw3 X K sw T Victory

This game showcases excellent strategy. In the outset, black gives away a peasant and ten finally a spearman in move #9 before dominating the southern side of the board. Black is almost in position to win at this point. But, struggling to set up a careful defense and hold off the advance of black's peasant (at 2,5) in move #10 and spearman in move #11, white manages to consolidate his defense by move #12 and buys enough time to mount an offensive of his own. Note that the position of white's warlord not only protects the space at 4,4 where black would like to move his spearman, but also places him dangerously near black's tower. Black is slow to realize the gravity of this threat, and in moves #13 and #14 continues to focus his attention on the southwestern corner; white's warlord, while uncomfortably close, cannot strike on its own. But white opens the way to do just that in move #15, a daring strategic sacrifice which would have seemed sheer insanity if not for the position of white's warlord near black's tower, and the position of black's knight which white manipulated out of position in white's moves #13 and #14. Realizing too late the danger to his tower, black's knight rages furiously across the board, slaughtering piece after piece, but these efforts are futile and cannot stave off white's ultimate victory in move #19.

Sample Game #3

# 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

Black 6,7 se m nS se m sS ne nA se m ? eP n2 nS se X nK ne X sK ne sK se3 X wP s2 sK w3 ! S e nK e4 XX

White sS nw 3,3 sw sA nw m nK nw nS sw m W sw wP nw T sS nw XX sK se S w X eP sw m S e Surrenders

Note: This is an older game using a different starting position and slightly different rules: Peasants cannot dash through enemy attacks, and the archers are placed at the corners of the board, rather than behind the knights. Otherwise, this game follows a fairly typical development, with two moves worth commenting on, Black’s 4th move ("?") and 11th move ("!"). In the 4th move, Black has taken a risk by exposing his northern column, and White does not hesitate to exploit this opening. Only by dashing a peasant over to protect the column does Black stave off disaster. The resultant position, while somewhat precarious, ultimately brings a win through moves 12 and 13. Black’s 11th move represents a devious ploy to set up an assault on White’s Tower. By pulling his knight back, Black appears preoccupied with the losing battle in the southwest, trying to prevent White from advancing with his spearman by sending the knight into what would be his blind-spot at the south flank. White responds by bringing in reinforcements, but in move 12 Black moves his spearman into position to attack White’s Tower, and with Black's southern knight poised to complete the capture, White is forced to scramble for cover and ultimately surrender.

Meet the Cast

Peasants: Clever little units, those peasants. Peasants are the glue that holds an army together; an army left without most of its peasants can still attack fairly easily, but is extremely vulnerable to enemy knights and archers. The peasants' ability to dash allows them to prevent archers from being too aggressive, and they can fend off overrunning knights by laying hits on the spaces around themselves. They also get in the way from time to time, if you don't plan around their positions, but their ability to dash and march usually keeps this from being too much of a problem.

Spearmen: The spearman is a somewhat curious unit in its flexibility. While overall more powerful than a peasant, the spearman isn't exceptionally good or bad at any one thing. Left in the rear, the spearman helps to provide some structure for the defense, but peasants are really better here because they can atack more spaces. And put in the front, spearmen are effective at conquering land and making kills because of their long reach which lets them attack enemies with impunity from the front, but their inability to lay attacks to their flanks or rear moderates their offensive strength somewhat.

Archers: In stark contrast to peasants, the archers have a destabilizing effect on the board, because they add hits to spaces all across the battlefield, and are themselves vulnerable to being killed by attacks from adjacent squares. Furthermore, they cannot lay any attacks to the flank and rear to help defend against aggressive knights. This archer destabilization is the reason why the board setup had to be very carefully arranged into its current position - the archers had to be placed into positions where they were not laying hits on enemy spaces which were already exposed. When using archers, watch the position of your enemy's peasants. Archers are devestating in the front ranks, but a peasant can kill an archer from four spaces away just by dashing, and this is why it's important to move peasants forward if possible, to keep enemy archers at a respectful distance.

Knights: Writing as the creator of Warlord, the knight is my favorite piece. Knights make Warlord more dynamic and more exciting simply because they can do something no other piece can do: move as far across the board as they like in a single move. (Horses are pretty useful like that.) They help to open up the playing field and connect things on opposite sides of the board, and their overrun ability adds variety to the way kills can be made, forcing players to think not only in terms of the number of hits they have on any square from adjacent spaces but to remember that knights can defend spaces by threatening to overrun anyone who moves onto certain spaces attacking them.

The knights seem to play two roles in the game. Early on, they function much like peasants do; the board is too clutterred for them to move very far, and defensive structures tend to be too strong for them to overrun anything. But as the board thins out, and especially as the peasants start dropping, knights begin to take a more active role. Now it is more difficult to attack enemy knights, since they can always run away without pieces blocking lines of movement, and it is also difficult to defend against knights, since they can threaten to overrun so many spaces, and this only gets easier as your opponent's defensive structure crumbles. Knights allow for phenomenal double and triple kills, and sudden (often chivalrously suicidal) captures of the enemy tower. Knights are just great fun.

The Warlord: The warlord is a difficult piece to use effectively. Since he is the single most powerful piece on the field, yet has the most restricted movement, he concentrates a great amount of an army's power in one limited area. Very much of an army's posture as aggressive or defensive hinges on the position of the warlord, and the warlord is the easiest piece to overextend. Keeping the warlord in front of your tower will ensure that your tower is difficult to take; moving your warlord over to the enemy's flanks will allow you to pick off their pieces, but the enemy warlord can often sweep in towards your tower if you get too carried away.

One question that often comes up with the warlord which rarely seems relevant with other pieces is "should I march?" The warlord can't kill anything by himself, and having an entourage of peasants trailing along behind him can be very effective. Yet, having peasants behind him at both the north and south prevents the warlord from retreating. It's very easy to trap a warlord in that position by laying a single attack on him with an archer or spearman; he can't march to get away! Towards the end of the game this is less of a problem, since the warlord can very often move forwards to escape pressure laid on him by enemy warriors. Nevertheless, it's usually good to leave one of his rear flanks open to allow for retreat (especially towards the tower).

The Tower: Being the focus of the game, the tower is of course the single most important piece. However, the immobility of the tower makes it difficult to use militarily. Your tower can nevertheless serve as a base of operations and even a useful defender - remember that the princess who inhabits the tower attacks all adjacent spaces just like a peasant. Towards the end of the game, when horsemen scream across the battlefield like bloodthirsty gods of war, it's not a bad idea to have your archers and spearmen hiding in her skirts for protection. And, in this position, they can also be most useful in defending the tower; if the battlefield gets very thin, it's usually better to keep a large force in the center of the board rather than trying to strike out on the northern or (especially) the southern flank.

The History of Warlord

In the beginning, I wanted Warlord to be something like a cross between checkers, chess, and Hnefatafl. I liked the idea of a relatively simple game with a "medieval" feel. Consequently, the initial rules and setup for the first version are shown here:

Warlord - represented by a king Castle - represened by a queen and two rooks standing together in the same square Knight - represented by a knight Archer - represented by a bishop The peasants are represented by pawns.

Originally, the movement of individual pieces was much more limited, but also, there was no Marching. Also, in the first verson of Warlord, a piece was killed whenever it couldn't return an attack made against it. Units fighting one another were said to be "engaged," and a unit under attacks it couldn't return was "overwhelmed." This worked the same as under the current rules in almost all circumstances, but in rare instances there were differences. For instance, if a knight moved behind an archer and a peasant, in the modern version, the archer would be killed. In the original version, however, the knight would have to engage the peasant to keep it from killing him; he could turn his attack on the archer, but then he wouldn't be able to fend off the peasant's blows and would be killed. This older way of playing tended to favor the defender.

PEASANT: The peasant attacked any adjacent square with a pitchfork. Peasants moved one space diagonally, either forward or backward.
Changes: Peasants couldn't dash.

ARCHER: The archer had no attacks. Because of this, they were killed instantly by any attack laid on them. Archers moved one space forwards, backwards, left, or right. The archer could spend a move to kill any piece standing along either forward diagonals (but not straight ahead, over other pieces' heads, or against the castle).
Changes: They couldn't move diagonally or fire straight ahead, but they could kill with one shot.

KNIGHT: The knight attacked any adjacent square with his longsword, as now. However, he only moved one or two spaces diagonally.
Changes: Knights couldn't overrun enemy pieces, nor move orthogonally or very far diagonally.

WARLORD: Attacked any adjacent square with his ax. The warlord moved one space diagonally, and carried a shield which negated one attack against him at all times.
Changes: None.

CASTLE: The castle attacked any adjacent square with thrown boulders, spears, and boiling oil.
Changes: The only changes the castle (tower) has undergone are cosmetic.

If you try these rules out for yourself, you'll find that they give the game a very checker-like feel. Individual moves are not very important, and the game develops very slowly. In a way, the game is remeniscent of the original way Chess was played in the Middle Ages; there was no castling, the bishops travelled by jumping exactly two spaces diagonally, and the queen moved only one space diagonally. (The modern game of chess is actually called "Mad Queen Chess," for obvious reasons.)

The Evolution of Warlord

• At first, I had tried playing the game a little bit with just peasants, knights, and the warlord fighting over the castles. This was novel, and allowed me to see how the capture system worked - there has never been a game which allowed capture quite the way Warlord does (even Hnefatafal allowed one piece to survive next to two or more enemies). These test-games seemed to work, but they were clearly missing archers, which I quickly added in the form shown above to make the first true version of Warlord. The addition of archers required a very delicate piece-setup to prevent any pieces sitting in the line of fire to begin the game. It was from here that playesting with other people proceeded, and Warlord was an actual game, rather than an idea I mucked around with by myself.
• The first addition after this was Marching. Because of the nature of movement, only peasants and the warlord could march, although originally pieces could march even if they were under attack. This made it easier to overwhelm enemy units, because a line of peasants could "slide" forward to kill a lone enemy. However, typically that strategy merely resulted in trades. Marching helped a little bit, but didn't quite make the game playable.
• The second change was rather small; I moved the warlord forward one space in the starting setup. It became obvious that by the third turn, each side had moved one of their peasants back to allow the Warlord to come forward, so I simply started the game with the Warlord further forward to speed things up.
• Sometime after this point, I added the pikemen, an earlier form of the spearmen which were vulnerable to attacks from the flank or rear (because they couldn't match attacks made from those directions). This was the addition which felt as though it made the game "work." Before, it was easy to look over the board with a helpless feeling, not having any idea how to set up any offense; it was simply too difficult to pile up multiple attacks on one enemy. The pikeman changed all of this.
• Around this time, I pushed the castle forward into it's present position. I wanted games to end with less carnage; it seemed that it was necessary to virtually eradicate the enemy forces before proceeding to the tower, and this took too long. After the castles came forward, it was much easier to "play for position" and win with fewer pieces.
• The game ran smoothly for a while with few adjustments; it felt finished. Then the next batch of changes came simultaneously at the suggestion of my best friend Dan, who finally played the game and was irritated that knights couldn't charge forward - that is the way real knights fought. So, knights were allowed to move like chess queens and were given the ability to overrun.
• Another of Dan's suggestions which I quickly enacted was to keep archers' arrows from being able to kill outright. Thus, archers were given an attack against the two forward diagonals and the forward column. This required a certain rewording of the nature of the game, so the combat system changed; pieces now could withstand one attack but not a second attack, and pikemen and archers were given special vulnerability to preserve their nature as units which were killed from close-range attacks. (This didn't really change the flow of the game, merely the underlying explanation of how combat proceeded.)
• Around this time, the warlord was pushed forward one space into his current position.
• After a while, the knight's overrun ability started to feel too "brittle" and open to abuse - that is, you either couldn't really use it at all, or else you could use it to wreak terrible destruction, killing three or more units at once. A variety of tweaks were tried, but ultimately the pikeman's vulnerability was removed. The knight could no longer easily slaughter a pikeman by riding up next to him.
• At this point, it didn't seem correct to refer to pikemen as "pikemen" anymore, partly because true pikemen were utterly helpless in close (even against enemies directly in front of them) while spearmen were not - they could carry a shield in their off hand, while holding a spear as Lloyd shows they were used, underarm. Also, true pikemen stood in three ranks, with pikes of extreme length approaching 20 feet, suggesting that real pikemen should have more range than the pikemen in the game. Most of all, though, pikes have a more Renaissance feel to them because of their popular usage by the Swiss, and I wanted Warlord to invoke older and more primitive imagery. So "pikemen" became "spearmen." As the result of a similar discussion, the "castle" turned into a "tower" inhabited by a princess who is essentially the focus of the game.
• All of this made Warlord more fun and gave it a good balance. But the last important change which transformed it from a decent game to a riveting strategic competition was allowing all pieces to March. This made piece deployment much easier, opened up many more options, stopped pieces from stumbling over one another, introduced an aspect of realism, and represented the last important piece of the puzzle.
• As a tweak suggested by Nikolas Lloyd, peasants were given the ability to dash, but not through spaces under threat. Marching was originally given to them as a means of increasing their power, so giving this ability to all pieces reduced the peasant's power. Allowing them to dash opened the game up a little bit, and made endgames far more interesting, because with the board so sparse towards the end, dashing becomes an important way to deploy peasants. (Note that while dashing north and south adds playability and fun, in all realism peasants wouldn't be able to dash north or south at the front lines, so if you wish you may revoke their ability to dash sideways.)
• Recently, playtesting found that the position of the archers at the corners of the board allowed black to play a cheap trick in the opening moves, marching his northern spearman and peasant southeast, moving his southern archer north, and then bringing his southern knight back to open up a line of fire from the archer to the northeastern corner of the board. Defending against this proved nearly impossible, so the archers have been brought together into columns 4 and 6. This appears to not only clean up that mess, but prevent many of the cheezy spearman + archer kills which predominated earlier on, and forced the archers to be used more cleverly rather than simply marching them up the northern and southern edges of the board.
• Finally, the initial restriction placed on peasants, preventing them from dashing through threat was revoked. This rule was originally instituted to allow archers to play a more aggressive role, but in the new board setup they have a much easier time advancing. Since that restriction was a complication which, if anything, impeded exciting and strategic play rather than facilitating it, peasants were allowed to dash through threat.

Many, many other ideas and options were tried along the way; these only represent the good ideas that lasted. Fortunately I had several playtesters available to help me iron out the kinks, so thanks go out to Alexandra Connel, Dan Donahue, Jenny Graybill, and Nikolas Lloyd for their patience and advice.

Other Options and a Few Last Words

I tried Warlord with a variety of board setups and piece abilities, and this is the combination which worked best. There are, however, a few minor changes you can try for yourselves.

Firstly, you can try tinkering with the existing abilities, such as the knights' Overrun ability. Some possible knight variants are the option to trample through pieces they Overrun, or (consistent with real cavalry fighting) the option to lay their attack on any one piece along their path rather than directing attacks at the end of their move. Or, you can restrict peasant dashing to forwards and backwards only for greater realism.)

Secondly, if you have miniature figurines you may want to try introducing new and different units. For instance:

• Slingers - Carry a sling and shield. Like archers, but 1) not vulnerable to death by adjacent enemies, 2) can only fire three spaces on a diagonal or four in front of themselves, and 3) may dash as a peasant, but do not have an attack immediately after dashing.
• Crossbowmen - Move one space any direction, no attacks, not vulnerable as an archer. Instead of moving, crossbowmen may fire a bolt in any direction, forwards, backwards, and on any diagonal, which kills any piece (specifically, the warlord) if it is already under attack by one other piece.
• Mounted archers - Like knights, but cannot overrun. Instead, they may spend a move to fire as an archer on the left diagonal or straight ahead (but not to the right diagonal).
• Shieldmen - Carry short swords and tower shields. Move one space any direction, have one attack only to the three forward spaces, to the right flank and to the right-rear. Any piece who stands next to the shieldman but out of his zone of attack is immune to attacks from the front and may not be Overrun from that direction unless the shieldman is simultaneously under attack.
• Wolves - Like knights, but don't have an attack on adjacent squares (thus they can only kill by Overrun) and can't move if occupying a square under threat. Wolves may March together up to two spaces, and may also March together when lined up in a row or column, in the direction of the line, rather than only on a diagonal.
• Ogre - Moves and attacks like a spearman with a mighty hammer. Ogres are too big to be Overrun, and can Overrun enemy units themselves when moving onto any of the three spaces in front of them.
• Chinese Thunder God - May spend a move to either teleport anywhere on the board, or to make an attack any number of spaces horizontally or vertically (but not over pieces' heads). Vulnerable to adjacent enemies as an archer.

...

Thirdly, you can change the starting positions of the pieces, or even the board itself. You might allow either player to setup his pieces in secret, or spend a certain number of points from a pool to buy units (as in fantasy wargames). The original setup pushed the tower further back to create a longer game, and used more peasants at the start to account for the resulting higher rate of attrition; you can try this out for yourself to see how well you like it. It was also common in ancient times to find rectangular boards or boards with an odd number of sides, so you might experiment with other board setups. One variant is a 7 x 8 board as shown here. The leftmost column has been excluded, another peasant has been added, and the tower and warlords have been moved one space back.

Or, you can try the simpler Kesch Variant which works without a Warlord.

Fourthly, you can allow peasants who reach the far side of the board to be promoted into a knight or warlord. I thought it was unrealistic for peasants to reach an arbitrary place on the board and suddenly 'become' another unit, but this is common to games like shogi and checkers and can add another element to Warlord if you find it interesting.

Lastly, you might try other periods in history. Here is a rudimentary outline for playing Warlord in the WWII era:

• Infantry (pawns): Move 1 space in all 8 directions, or dash as a peasant. Spend a move to Entrench it - place a quarter underneath the piece, signifying immunity to aircraft runs and tank overruns. Entrenchment is lost once the infantry leaves the space. Infantry are needed to take the town.
• Foward Observation Officers (rooks): Move 1 space in all 8 directions. 1 attack to the nine spaces in front of them in a 3x3 square, but cannot attack aircraft; vulnerable like archers (killed instantly by an adjacent attack).
• Tanks (knights): 4 spaces orthogonally or 1 space diagonally. 1 attack to adjacent squares, but can also kill enemy non-tank, non-aircraft units by overrunning (like a knight). Spend a move to attack three spaces along either forward diagonal or four spaces straight ahead, but not over other pieces' heads. Immune to FOO.
• Aircraft (bishops): Start from corner airfields and move like chess queens, but can "jump" over other pieces, and all other pieces can "jump" through them. One attack directed on all spaces they jump over. Aircraft are not killed by normal means, but they are destroyed if the airfield is taken, or if an enemy aircraft passes over them or overruns them. (An aircraft which kills another aircraft may not attack other pieces in the same turn.)
• Town (queen): 1 attack to adjacent squares. If an infantry unit occupies a square next to the town at the end of the turn and is not killed during battle, the town is taken and the game ends.
• Airfield (corner space): Airfields have no attacks, no defensive unit except the aircraft may reside them, and any enemy unit may move onto them. When an enemy unit takes the airfield, the airfield is destroyed, along with its aircraft, even if the aircraft currently occupies the airfield.

To play using WWII rules, you can easily use the normal piece setup with an infantry unit replacing the Warlord since there is no equivalent piece.

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Email the author at harkenbane@juno.com