Team Chess (Women's Team)

{if Female = true}You sit over with the other women,{else}You elect to join the women's team,{endif} while Giovanni pulls a hexagonal board from beneath the table and places it on top. Faexina simply stands up without further word, saying, "well, I believe it's my place to observe then." You look confused, but then Irina says "there's a number of reasons that she made that decision, not least of all that she's the one in charge of security. For her to sit out of this game simply makes the most sense of the three of us pre-established here." Irina continues, "I presume you know the basic rules of the game?" You nod. "Well, we've had to make a number of changes to accommodate six players. As you can see, the board is hexagonal, which means that a rook would have rather . . . unique challenges." She continues. "Pawns keep their movement rules, while rooks can move indefinitely in any direction. Priests keep their diagonal movement, meaning that they must stay on their color - this essentially means that they adopt the movement of the old rook, traveling through space edges to do so - if two pieces are on either side of the edge, the priest may not move along that edge. The grand advisor keeps their combination of priest and rook, being able to move in any combination of either piece. The cavalier moves two in one direction and one in any new direction, keeping its ability to jump over pieces. The emperor retains their ability to move one space in any direction that the grand advisor can." You nod along, vaguely understanding the changes.

You look at the board and see three sets of light colored pieces and three sets of dark colored pieces.

(sorry for the low-resolution image; this was far easier than explaining it in words. modern chess notation for pieces incorporated, even for pieces whose names have taken an alternate path in this world)

"We've named the six armies for ease of reference. The central light army is the aasimar army, the other two light armies are the elven and Tonite armies. The central dark army is the human army, the other two dark armies are the dwarven and gnomish armies." You're seated at the elven army, and Irina, predictably is seated at the head of the aasimar army. I bet she was the reason the head of the light armies is the aasimar army. "As for why the side with the advantage is the side with elves, aasimar, and non-imperials, that would be because we win too much when we go first," Aaron pipes up. Irina shoots him a sharp look, "yes, but nothing wrong with stating things gently, Aaron." Ah, that explains that then. "Wait, but there's no dwarves or gnomes among you lot." "And nor is the Tonite among us playing the Tonite army" Qilen retorts. Wait, one of them is from Tono? Still, you suppose that's fair that not everyone is playing their titular representation - there's two elves among the six individuals, after all. You look across the board, where Giovanni is sitting opposite you, controlling the dwarven army; Qilen is sitting at the helm of the central human army. "Oh and one last thing. You're permitted to leave your emperor in check in this variant, as the emperor must be captured for your army to fall out from their leadership."

"As chair of the aasimar army, it is my duty to make the first move then." Irina moves her right-hand cavalier in front of her emperor, which is followed by Qilen responding with the same. Violet simply responds by moving her central pawn towards you, which is followed by Aaron, sitting next to you, moving his central pawn in the same fashion, which following the order of moves so far would bring it to your turn.

You study the board for a moment. Looking at how each piece moves, it's actually surprisingly intuitive how the priest moves: it can move to any other white space in a straight uninterrupted line. This also makes them surprisingly weak attackers, however, since they can never attack the starting space of any emperor. That then makes the grand advisor and rook also intuitive, which would mean that Violet and Aaron are currently playing aggressively, with their grand advisors having a direct line of attack on the central emperors. Irina and Qilen, on the other hand, have positioned their cavaliers defensively, likely in an attempt to block priest-like grand advisor moves. Then there's the cavaliers. Oh, that's an interesting move. You start to move your cavalier, but then notice why no neither Violet nor Aaron have done the same to the person sitting next to them: that piece could immediately be recaptured by the enemy rook. However, if you were to move it the other way after that first half of the move instead, it could immediately be recaptured by the enemy cavalier. Best keep that cavalier in place then. You suppose then that you should move to liberate your grand advisor's movement. You move your emperorside priest pawn forward one, towards Qilen, to which Giovanni immediately responds in kind. I suppose the fact that he mirrored my move means I didn't fuck up.

Irina then moves her corollary pawn centerward, towards her central cavalier. Qilen, on the other hand, moves the same corollary pawn rookward, mirroring Giovanni's move and pressuring Irina's emperor, causing the cavalier to be soft pinned to her emperor. This moves it along to Violet's turn, who moves her pawn directly into the line of fire of Giovanni's pawn. Aaron responds by moving his advisorside cavalier out two and a half spaces forward, towards the center. You look towards both Violet's position and Aaron's position, recognizing both that Aaron's position is **** to a potential attack by you, with him having moved to attack rather than defend his emperor against Irina's grand advisor; and that Violet's position is ****, with her having placed her pawn directly into the line of fire. You deliberate for a moment, but then realize that it would take you multiple moves to capitalize on Aaron's weakness, while Violet is **** on Giovanni's next move. Thus, you elect to move your grand advisor to the center of the board, defending Violet's pawn, causing Aaron to instantly look annoyed. You look puzzled, and wonder why Giovanni is simply resting his chin in his hands, expectantly. "You gonna move?" "Not until your turn finishes." Turn finishes? What is he talking about? This causes you to look even more confused, but then Irina whispers into your ear, "you're supposed to announce check when you've put your opponent's emperor at direct threat." Your cheeks go crimson from embarrassment as you see that your advisor is now checking Aaron's emperor. "Check."

You only now realize that Giovanni's advisor itself is pinning your pawns to your emperor as he draws a line with his finger on the black tiles from advisor to pawns, causing you to look at Giovanni, giving him puppy dog eyes. He chuckles, and says, "if you thought being cute was enough to compromise my play, you're mistaken. If that were the case I would be defenseless against the three women already in the group." Violet's cheeks redden slightly, while Irina simply rolls her eyes. {if Female = true}"And what about me?" "Ah, we're supposed to do our best to avoid turning you on during this period, especially since Qilen can take a while to decide whether or not he wants someone in the group." Huh. Fair enough, you suppose. You'll just have to avoid getting turned on yourself, at least until after Qilen votes.{endif} Giovanni continues, moving his rookward advisorside priest's pawn to the left, creating a pawn triangle in front of his rook.

That brings you all back to the top of the turn order, Irina moves her right-most pawn to the right, freeing her rook's movement. Qilen moves his left-most pawn to the left, causing his rook to eye your advisor. Violet simply responds by moving her center pawn right, towards Qilen. She smiles at Aaron, saying, "looks like you'll be helping Faexina cook dinner, then." Aaron frowns, trying to find some sort of way out of his situation. Then he smiles, bringing his cavalier right and then back. "Think again." You look at the board, and see that you can no longer attack Aaron, and Giovanni's pawn structure is impenetrable. Then, you look to Qilen's board. "Qilen, what's defending your rook?" "Huh, I don't suppose anything." You take the bait, and take his rook. Irina follows with her advisor in the same column as yours, seemingly reinforcing it. Reinforcing it from wha- you question is hastily answered, as Qilen moves his remaining home row cavalier forward, trapping in your advisor. Violet looks to you, "are you ready for some actual teamwork?" She moves her advisor to capture the pawn that had been interposed between Qilen's emperor and her advisor, now directly threatening Qilen's emperor - the only way Qilen can get out of this is by capturing the checking advisor.

Aaron captures Violet's advisorside priest with his own emperorside priest. "You know, we really should make it so that priests can't capture each other from game start. But then teasing you about leaving your priest unprotected by your advisor wouldn't be so fun, Vi." "If you hadn't cheated with illusion magic so much, Aaron, you would feel a mage hand spell to your ass right now, Aaron." "Oh, you're almost making me regret having cheated, Vi." You, unsure where to move your advisor to help, simply leave it, attempting to create additional pressure by moving your right-most pawn to the right. Giovanni frowns, clearly not liking the board state. "I have to say," he looks at you, "your classically reckless move seems to have paid off for you." He moves his emperorside priest forward, much to Irina's dismay, who moves her advisor forward, onto the gray space next to where Giovanni's priest now is. Qilen frowns, clearly not happy with the situation. He spends the next several minutes thinking, eventually moving his emperor to capture Violet's advisor. Violet simply smiles, moving her rook forward four spaces. "Check," she says. Aaron responds, moving his left-most pawn to the left, exposing his rook to Irina's rook and vice versa.

It's your move, and you analyze the board. Violet's previous comment to you implies that you should support the play right now, but there's a lot going on. Clearly she and Irina are attempting to put pressure on Qilen's emperor, which is in check, so you ask yourself how he can get out of it. First, Giovanni could capture the rook, using his priest. So you decide to nullify this threat, capturing it with your rook. Giovanni frowns, clearly not happy at all with what you did. He simply sighs, and captures your emperorside priest with his priest. Irina then proceeds to capture Qilen's advisor with her own, delivering a second source of check. It's now Qilen's turn, who moves his emperor to the next white space available. Violet now moves her rook to the white space in front of Qilen's cavalier, causing Aaron to capture Irina's rook with his own rook. That brings it to your turn. Presuming that Irina will check Qilen's emperor, he won't have anywhere to move to, other than capturing the checking piece. That still requires you to deliver a second check to seal the deal, however. You capture Qilen's priest, saying "check." Giovanni responds by capturing another of your pawns with his out and about priest.

Irina looks at the board, and captures Qilen's emperorside cavalier. "Check." Aaron simply chuckles, stating, "looks like you and Qilen will both be making dinner, Irina." Qilen moves his cavalier to capture your advisor, which draws Violet to use her rook to capture Giovanni's pawn. "Check," she states. Aaron moves his rook to capture Irina's priest, stating, "check." Giovanni frowns, simply capturing Violet's rook with his emperor. "Seems so indeed, Aaron;" Irina moves her advisor, capturing Qilen's emperor. Since Qilen isn't on the board anymore, that brings it to Violet, who moves her cavalier to capture Giovanni's leftmost pawn. "Gio, Irina may be basically out of the game, but I'm not gonna let you spitroast me on the board with Aaron." "Aww, but it's so much fun in real life, don't you think?" Violet's cheeks turn crimson, seems she has been in just such a scenario before. It's Aaron's turn, who indeed captures Irina's emperor. Irina stands up and ruffles Qilen's hair on the way out. "Come on then, it's high time we started dinner." Qilen happily follows. You look astonished, "I thought she was a lesbian?" "She is," responds Aaron. "But because Qilen is just shy of being asexual altogether, they kind of have a brother-sister connection." Ah, that explains that then.

Looking to your situation, you take heed of Violet's forewarning, and check Giovanni's pieces. Neither rook can attack you. His priest can capture your priest. His advisor would be able to, if it weren't for your pawn being right next to Giovanni's pr- oh. You capture Giovanni's priest using your own priest, leaving your emperor safe, for now. Giovanni then moves his cavalier to between Violet's pawns. "Check." Still blushing, she moves her emperor to the left by one. Aaron captures your rook with his priest, causing you to lose all board presence. Giovanni now sighs, looking at the board once more. After about half an hour of staring, Violet's cheeks seem to have normalized, and he states, "seems I don't have any good moves." He moves his cavalier next to Violet's center pawn, centralizing it. Violet simply smiles. "Get so lost in thought that you ignored the obvious threat again, did you?" Giovanni snaps back to the board, and blushes as he realizes that Violet's threat from her cavalier hasn't become any less real. Guess that frees you up to improve your position, then. You move your left-most pawn further left, exposing it to Aaron's pawn, yet he fails to oblige, moving his cavalier to two along the column from your pawn. Violet of course captures Giovanni's advisor, making good on her earlier threat. Giovanni simply scowls and recaptures it, using his rook.

It's your turn, and you struggle to figure out what to do, eventually settling on moving your cavalier to in front of those two previously pinned pieces. Aaron takes pause, and responds by capturing your left-most pawn with his pawn. Giovanni now moves his cavalier in front of his emperor, followed by Violet advancing her pawn to where Giovanni's left-most pawn had been originally. She looks to you, "mind giving me some support?" You oblige, moving your rook to in front of her currently right-most home row pawn. Giovanni sighs, and states, "seems I'm about to lose my whole army. Do you think you can take them both at once, Aaron?" "Not a chance. Between Vi's sacrificial attacks and the newcomer's support, I might be able to hold them off for several more hours, but the game's as good as won for them." "Very well, we surrender." You look confused, what are they seeing that you're not? Giovanni obliges your confusion, "Aaron's best move is to capture Violet's priest, which to be fair had he done last turn, would have worked wonderfully to stop what's happening now. However, that won't stop her pawn from promoting into an advisor next turn, with your rook moving immediately next to it to prevent my rook from capturing the newly promoted advisor. From there, her new advisor has free reign along the dark diagonal to do whatever it wants. From there it would be trivial to either windmill my pieces or frustrate Aaron's every move.

"That seems to be the game, what do we want to do now? Seems we still have some time before dinner," Aaron says "We could just talk," Violet responds. No one seems opposed to the idea, so the four of you sit and talk until Faexina comes in and informs you lot that dinner is about ready. "I thought you were doing security, not making dinner?" Aaron says. "I was, and that's how I know that dinner's just about ready." Ah. You follow the group to the dining room, where Irina and Qilen are bringing the food to the dining table.