INTRODUCTION

Strategic Reserve is a two-player game of skill and luck. It's played on a 6x6 square board, initially set up with 6 red and 6 blue checkers, arranged in a square of alternating colors.

RESERVE

You begin with 6 checkers of your own color in your "reserve" - basically a bunch of checkers on the table on your side of the board. Checkers that you place on the board come from your reserve.

DICE

Two dice are used - one purple and one green. A dice roll defines one square on the board. The purple die value is the horizontal coordinate. The green die value is the vertical coordinate. Horizontal coordinates span from your left column to your right column. Vertical coordinates span from your near row to your far row.

PLAY

Begin your turn by rolling the dice. Remove zero or more enemy checkers, based on the dice roll (explained below), and return them to your opponent’s reserve. Then place a checker on the board.

GROUP

A group is a group of at least one orthogonally (horizontally or vertically) interconnected, like-colored checkers. A group is never a subgroup of a larger group.

HITS

1. If your dice roll hits an enemy group, remove that group, return it to your opponent's reserve, and place a checker onto any unoccupied square on the board. 2. If you hit a friendly group with your dice roll, remove all enemy groups adjacent to your friendly group, return them to your opponent's reserve, and place a checker orthogonally adjacent to your friendly group. 3. If you don't hit any groups with your dice roll, place a checker onto any unoccupied square on the board.

OBJECT OF THE GAME

Empty your reserve. When you remove the last checker from your reserve, you win.

BGA ADAPTATION NOTES

Strategic Reserve is a very unusual game, and there has been some confusion about the rules. I always try to do what has never been done in my designs. Apparently, I really batted it out of the ballpark with Strategic Reserve.

Apologies in advance for the all caps, but I really want to add emphasis.

PLACEMENTS NEVER CAUSE CAPTURES.

ONLY DICE ROLLS CAUSE CAPTURES.

Your turn begins with a dice roll.

ANY RESULTING CAPTURES ARE AUTOMATIC AND IMMEDIATE.

Your turn concludes with a placement.

What happens is that IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING YOUR PLACEMENT, it's your opponent's turn, and their dice roll and possible captures happen automatically. This can create the illusion that, somehow, your placement caused the captures.

IT DIDN'T.

Again, sorry about the all caps. Just trying to get the point across.

I understand the reluctance to read rule sheets, especially from indie abstract designers like me. Around 95% of such rule sheets are very poorly written. The writer is very familiar with their own game, and they assume that you will read their mind, and understand. They're unwilling or incapable of making their rule sheets clear, comprehensive, and unambiguous.

I'm the exception. If you read my rule sheets carefully, and study the diagrams (which were designed to answer your possible questions), you will understand. Sure, it's possible to take a sentence or two out of context, and wonder about their meaning. But taken as a whole, any one of my rule sheets will virtually guarantee that your picture of the rules is totally accurate.

What I'm getting at here, is that if you read the rule sheet for Strategic Reserve, you'll know that placements don't cause captures.