Murus Gallicus

Murus Gallicus is a two-player breakthrough game in which players try to create impenetrable walls of stone reminiscent of Julius Caesar’s Gallic Wars.

The object of the Murus Gallicus is to reach your opponent's home row or to stalemate your opponent.

The game is played on a rectangular board consisting of an 8x7 array of cells. Each player starts with a set of 16 tokens referred to as stones; one light set and one dark set. The board is placed between players so that there are seven rows and eight columns. To start the game, each player takes a set of stones and stacks two stones on each of their eight home cells; their nearest row. The Roman player uses the light set and goes first. The Gaul player uses the dark set. Players alternate turns.

The basic units of the game are towers and walls. A tower consists of two like-colored stones in a cell. A wall is a single stone in a cell. Only towers move. The main function of walls is to block the opponent's movement and secondarily they act as stepping stones which can be used later on to create new towers. Towers move by sowing as in Mancala with a stacking limit of two and only like-colored stones may be stacked. Each of the destination cells must be empty or contain a friendly wall. Tower stones can be used to remove adjacent opponent walls. This is done by sacrifice! Material remains equal throughout the game but slowly erodes for both players as players defuse threats. A player is stalemated if unable to move/sow or sacrifice at the start of his or her turn. Going flat out (stalemating yourself) in order to stalemate your opponent can be very satisfying.