Knight Control

MM3: Knight Control

Use your knights to get powerups and control the board!

In Knight Control, players spawn modified chess knights in a grid to collect garnets, coins, and items. The game starts with a 15x15 grid that looks like this:

🪙 At the start of the game, there is a bidding round, where players select 5 distinct letters from A to K(and put them in an order). If you don't submit the 5 letters or your submission is invalid, you don't choose anything, and you get a randomized letter after all 5 positions are processed. You will receive one letter at the end of this process, which will be your spawning zone for the rest of the game.

🇦 Then, at the end of the round, all the 1st letters are processed. If multiple select the same letter on their first letters, none of them get the letter. The people who do get their letter claim that spot on the board. Then, the people who didn't get a spot have their 2nd letters processed, etc, and when all 5 positions are processed, if there are any more people left, the rest of the spot-giving will be determined by RNG.

🇽 Zone X will count as a "player's zone", but no player will have it and it won't spawn anything.

Then, each player receives 5 chips, and 10 rounds commence. You may exchange 1 garnet for 3 chips at any time, but not the other way around. Communal garnets can be spent with both players’ consent, and gives each player 2 chips. Chips are tradable, but if you trade chips with another person, both player's chip counts(after the trade) are revealed to each other. The chip counts are not public, but the board is after each round.

🤔 In each round, a player may do any combination(even nothing, this will be automatically chosen if you don't submit) of the following two actions:

Spawn: Spawn a modified chess knight in any unoccupied cell in your spawning zone. You automatically spend a chip to make the knight, and it starts out having a 1x2 movement(like a normal knight). Then, you can specify to use extra chips to increase one dimension of the movement by one per chip(so having a 3x3 knight would cost 4 chips in total). You may only spawn one knight per round.

Move: Move one of your knights. You may do this for free for your first move in the round, but every additional knight you move costs one chip. You may not move one knight more than once in a round. When you move to a space occupied by a knight that didn't move, you capture it. The captured knight is removed from the board. You may capture your own knight. If you capture a knight that is not your own, you receive a garnet immediately. You may only move your knight onto the 15x15 playing area or your own zone. If your knight lands on a space next to someone else's spawning zone, you may move the knight again. This second move can only happen twice on the same knight in a round(so you can get a maximum of 3 moves with the same knight). This special move does not cost an extra chip to perform.

🔁 Note that the actions are applied in the order Spawn, Move, Receive Items, Use Items, and each player's spawn is processed at the same time, etc. This means that a knight can escape from being captured by moving that turn. However, knights that simply intersect paths don't capture each other.

*️⃣ An edge case is if multiple knights go on the same cell on the same round. In that case, all knights on that cell are removed from the board. This check happens before the items are received. This removal does not count as a capture for anyone, so nobody can earn a garnet from this.

The board is public after each round. This includes each spawning zone, the remaining items on the board, and each knight along with its movement.

🛍️ When a knight goes on a cell with an item, the player who owns the knight collects that item. There are many different items, and they are all spawned on the 15x15 grid(and will be revealed in the announcements channel) when these rules are released(so before the letter choices). Here is a list of all the possible items:

Garnet: You get a garnet immediately. This is shown in the next garnet update.

Chip(s): You get the specified number of chips immediately.

ToL Piece: If you collect 10 of these, you get a ToL at the end of the game. These pieces are NOT tradable, but you may get multiple ToLs from this(2 ToLs at 20 pieces, etc).

Extra Move: You may choose to do an extra move with the knight that collected this item without paying another chip.

Extra Spawn: You may choose to spawn an extra knight this turn. You may not move it this turn, and the spawning chip is free, but if you want to modify the knight after spawn, that still costs. This item stacks, but is obviously useless past 9 spawns per round.

Portal: You may choose to teleport the knight that collected this item to any other portal on the board. You may only collect one portal per round.

Modify: You may modify the knight that collected this item. This refunds/costs chips depending on how you modify the knight the same way that spawning would, but the knight must always be at least 1x2 and have integer moves.

🎯 After all 10 rounds, ToLs are given out and the EC is chosen in the following order:

1. Any player who got a ToL from item(s) keeps it. If a player got multiple ToLs from item(s), they give out the ToLs to others. They may also nullify one or more extra ToLs if they wish to do so.
2. The player(s) with the most chips gained throughout the game(note that these chips may have been spent already) get a ToL. If more than 3 people tie for this, all of the ToLs handed out in this step are nullified. If you already have a ToL, then you can gift this new one or nullify it.
3. The EC is selected as the player with the least number of chips gained throughout the game(note that these chips may have been spent already) who doesn't have a ToL. If there is a tie, the MM winners(everyone who got a ToL not from someone else gifting them one) vote on the EC between these tied players. If there is a tie in that vote, the EC is randomized between the EC candidates who got the most votes.

Rule change:

The EC is selected as the player with the least number of chips who doesn't have a ToL.

Has been changed to

The EC is selected as the player with the least number of chips gained throughout the game(note that these chips may have been spent already) who doesn't have a ToL.

Rule change:

You may exchange 1 garnet for 3 chips at any time

has been changed to

You may exchange 1 garnet for 1 chip at any time

Clarification:

“Most chips gained throughout the game” include chips purchased from garnets, but not traded chips for either side.

Rule change:

You may exchange 1 garnet for 1 chip at any time

has been changed back to

You may exchange 1 garnet for 3 chips at any time

I am quite indecisive!

Clarification: You can only capture or be captured on the final move for a knight for a round. This also applies to the edge case, it’s only triggered by final moves.

Rule addition: Communal garnets can be spent with both players’ consent, and gives each player 2 chips.

Clarification: If you use a portal, both the portal you are teleporting from and to are destroyed at the end of the round. You are not required to actually teleport on a portal tile, you may stay, but that portal tile will still be destroyed. If multiple people use portals/go on portal tiles in the same round:

• Only the ending location matters
• All the teleports go through
• Capturing then occurs with the ending locations

Clarification: You may move a knight the same round you spawn it.

Clarification: You may not move into another player's spawning zone.

Clarification: Since you know all the information to know your number of chips anyway, I will send them when they change to your submissions channel.

Clarification: Extra spawns don't cost the spawning chip but still costs the other movement-enabling chips.

Clarification: Knights made with extra spawns cannot be moved the same round because using items is after moving.

Rule change:

Clarification: Extra spawns do cost the chips still.

Has been changed to

Clarification: Extra spawns don't cost the spawning chip but still costs the other movement-enabling chips.

Clarification: The item description for Extra Spawn has been changed to match that the extra spawn happens on the same round as you get it, but you can’t move it.

Addendum: If you submit something that is impossible with your current chip count, garnets will be traded in until it is possible, unless you don't have enough garnets to do so, in that case the entire submission will be invalidated.