How to play Martian Chess

Learn the rules to the board game Martian Chess quickly and concisely - This video has no distractions, just the rules.

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RULES:
The object of the game is to score the most points. There are 3 types of pieces: pawns, which are worth 1 point, Drones, which are worth 2 points, and queens, which are worth 3 points. Layout the board between two players and each player sets up their pieces starting in the back right corner live so: Queens, Drones, Pawns. Each player controls their half of the board, which is called a zone. The middle dividing line separating the two zones is called the canal.

Pick a player to go first then turns alternate. On your turn you must move 1 piece on your side of the board. Pawns move 1 space at a time in any diagonal direction. Drones move 1 or 2 spaces at a time either horizontally or vertically in a straight line. Queens move any distance in a straight line horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. Pieces may not jump over other pieces. You may not move a piece to the same space as another piece on your side of the board. If you move a piece on a space occupied by another piece on your opponent’s side of the board, then you capture that piece and remove it from the board and place it next to you.

You always control ALL, and ONLY, the pieces currently on your side of the board. If you move a piece to your opponent’s side of the board then it stops being a piece you can control until your opponent moves it back to your side of the board. You are not allowed to undo an opponent’s move, meaning if your opponent moves a piece across the canal, you may not move it back to the exact same space on your next turn. However, you could move it back on the turn after that one if you wanted.

If you have no queens or drones on your side of the board, you can move two pieces together to combine them into one. A pawn and drone can be combined to make a queen and 2 pawns can be combined to make a drone. This is called a field promotion. Remove the 2 pieces and replace them with a piece of the combined size. If there isn’t a piece available to promote to, then you cannot promote.

The game ends as soon as one player’s zone is totally empty. So if you only have 1 piece on your side of the board, you can end the game by moving it across the canal. Each player adds up the points based on the pieces they captured and the player with the most points, wins. If the game gets to a state of deadlock, any player may say during their turn: “call the clock.” From that point on, if 7 moves go by without a capture, then the game ends and points are scored. If a capture happens, then the 7 move count starts over. If the final score is a tie, then the player who ended the game is the winner.