Games Thursday : Tomb Chess - Ghoulish Ban Qi (半棋)
Tomb Chess is essentially similiar to the Half Chess (banqi) variant of Chinese Chess (xiangqi), albeit with wonderfully drawn undead and demonic pieces on a 6×6 chessboard / graveyard. Found this over at JayIsGames as usual 
Tomb Chess can be played against the AI or hotseat against another human or even as a spectator sport while two AIs battle it out (of course, not to the dead since half of these guys are already dead in the first place 
)
© FreeWorldGroup.com.
The two players take turns to either unearth tombstones to reveal an undead creature which might belong to you (highlighted in red) or your opponent (in green) or move any existing creature already uncovered. In Tomb Chess (and similiarly in Half Chess), all pieces move the same way - one square in any of the four cardinal directions unlike in standard chess.
Tomb Chess is therefore much easier to pick up and less time-consuming to play but requires a bigger pinch of luck as opposed to the standard rules of chess due to the random locations of your pieces. There’s is still some strategy involved in selecting the most favourable tombstone to uncover as well as the need for improvisation of tactics to deal with the current situation at hand.
© FreeWorldGroup.com.
There are 6 different ghoulish creatures (or pieces in chess) in Tomb Chess arranged in ascending order of power.
Ghostly Pawn (Strength 1 : 8 pieces) - Essentially Pacman’s iconic ghosts. Although they get butchered by every other piece, guard them well since they are able to kill Demon Kings with a single headbutt
© Touchstone Pictures. Image from Cherry Lane Keepsakes
Rook of Doom (Strength 2 : 4 pieces) - A dagger-wielding ghoul on a drawcart. Reminds me of wheelchair-bound Doctor Finklestein from Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Dark Knight (Strength 3 : 2 pieces) - Armed with a vicious mace to give Rooks of Doom and Ghostly Pawns a nasty bonk on their heads.
Satanic Bishop (Strength 4 : 2 pieces) - A mummified bishop to be exact.
Hellfire Queen (Strength 5 : 1 piece) - Inspired by the mythical Nagi, the Hellfire Queen that conquers all with a single swipe of her tail except for the Demon King.
Demon King (Strength 6 : 1 piece) - Bearing a slight resemblance to Demitri from Capcom’s Darkstalkers with extra pins on his head (probably as a conduit for the electricity he uses for frying his foes), the Demon King trumps everyone except for the lowly Ghostly Pawn.
Play Tomb Chess @ FreeWorldGroup.com.
MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Filler - Colour Strategy Game
Wodan : The Trial - Cute Strategy Game
Vantage Master Online - Tactical Fantasy Game
M.A.X - Mechanized Assault and Exploration @ Abandonia
Reminds me of the old battle chess back on windows in the 90’s… Knights, Kings, and Queens chopping each other up..
I’m suprised they don’t have more chess games like that… I could see one for Mortal Combat or any one of those fighting games… - or any game with a good amount of characters.
You mean this Battle Chess? I played the DOS version a long time ago, it was really well animated for its time
Computer chess doesn’t seem too popular nowadays since it’s incredbly hard to master and professionals probably prefer to play simple no-frills ones online with human opponents.
Fantastic stuff Roys, even though I would rather describe it as a Chess-Stratego hybrid… Still, great fun, smart game, fantastic graphics and would love some online multiplayer…
Oh banqi is relatively common where I live since there’s a lot of Chinese Chess players over here. Agree that Chesstratego is probably an accurate description for players not familiar with banqi
Played Sean O’Connor’s The General which is essentially Stratego a few years back but didn’t quite get it. Maybe I suck at grand strategy that’s why
Nah, I wouldn’t say that.. must have been the weather… besides these things take up a lot of time to master…
The strange thing is that I actually enjoy playing games of genres that I’m bad at : wargames, shmups, RTSes, even FPSes - maybe I’m just too lazy to play seriously after working long hours at the computer everyday
Yep, thats the one!
Had that one right on the desktop along with Wolf3d and Eye of the Beholder…. Those were the days!
Brings back good memories doesn’t it
Indeed!