Jaheijagaj
A game created by Jillybean
for her Halo Fanfic The Priestess and the Warrior
given complete rules by Tyler Parrott aka Dav Flamerock
The Unggoy glanced meaningfully at each other as they served dinner to the two Sangheili sitting on the pelt. The pyramid shaped Jaheijagaj board sat between them, its four classes of pieces scattered on the fur beside them.
"Jaheijagaj is as much about bravery and Honour as it is about skill and tactics," Fulsamee said as he sorted the last of the pieces out. "In a three or four player game, one wishes to have as many allies as possible. Being duplicitous will not aid you."
Looking slightly baffled, Jalahass caught some worms wriggling in her bowl and chewed thoughtfully. "So how do you start?"
Holding out one of each type of piece, Fulsamee set them out on the board. On each of the four sides he set out four pieces in a diamond shape. "Do you see on the bottom of the sets, your pieces are red, mine are blue."
"How very complicated," she retorted.
Grinning, Fulsamee paused to eat. "You might want to save the best of your witticisms for later, Priestess." Finished, he sat back. "Now. I cannot see your pieces and you cannot see mine. You can see the pieces on the boards on either side of you-"
"Not very well."
"Precisely. These are your Kiggyar, the half informed pieces. It's derived from Kig-Yar, yes." He smiled and thanked the Grunts as they left. "As there are only two of us playing they are not of much relevance . . . yet. The largest of your pieces is the strongest, but also the slowest. It may only move one space at a time, but it must be surrounded by enemy forces on all sides to be taken down."
Jalahass frowned and Fulsamee waited for her to reason something through. "There's not enough forces for you to take down this one. Even combined with the Kiggyar."
"These smaller pieces are your infantry. Three infantry clustered together spawn a fourth member."
"Why are there different sizes of infantry?"
"They represent your warrior's Honour. Those with greater Honour can overwhelm a warrior with less Honour. Now - to attack . . ."
Before I explain how combat works, let me go over the basics once again. The board is a pyramidical shape, and each player cannot see the pieces of the person across from them and can only partially see the pieces of the two people next to them (or the Kiggyar.) This is how I made the board:
A small addition of my own was the way in which a given piece might go from level to level. Since this is a Covenant game (specifically an elite game that grunts seem to like as well), I thought the ascending must be via a gravity lift, such as the one in Truth and Reconciliation and Gravemind. The blue hexes are the base of the lift, and the hexes outlined in blue are the tops of the lifts. Any piece that comes into contact with a blue hex instantly moves up to the outlined hex above. The black hexes are exactly the same - except down. They are simply holes one might fall through (this is Halo 2, there's no fall damage.) Once again, there is a black ringed hex where the piece lands. The reason you can see cardboard underneath the second and third levels is because I didn't want the paper to curl like on the top level (which is too small for cardboard anyway) and so that the outermost edge hexes could hold up the weight of the pieces.
Here I will put a picture of each level so you can see the layout of each.
The top level.
The third level.
The second level.
The bottom level.
Now for the pieces. There are four pieces - three infantry and one Wraith tank. The infantry have 3 different Honour levels - Trooper, Special Ops, and Honour Guard. They each have Honour values, determining how combat works and also keeping you alive. Troopers have 1 Honour value, Spec Ops have 2, and Honour Guard have 4. I made little red and blue pieces out of clay. Here they are:
The white pieces are a pair of Kiggyar I threw in there so you would know what they look like. The guys with big helmets are the Honour Guard. The Spec Ops and Troopers are a little harder to identify, so here's a close up of them:
The guy with the thing wrapped around his neck is a Spec Ops. I wanted to somehow show active camo, but obviously that's impossible. Instead I tried to give him arms, and this is how it turned out.
Other than their differing Honour values, the three types of infantry work the same way. They can move up to 4 spaces in one turn, and they can attack up to 2 spaces. Turns in Jaheijagaj are pretty much the same as turns in Chess or Checkers. You have three options: move a piece, attack a piece, or spawn another Trooper.
Combat for infantry is different from combat with tanks, so I'll explain the infantry section first. Whenever you decide to attack an opponent's piece, one piece (the "primary attacker") can move up to 2 spaces to occupy the hex where the attacked piece was moments before. If the targeted piece has more Honour than the primary attacker, than any number of other pieces may assist him ("secondary attackers"). They may move up to 2 spaces to occupy any unoccupied space adjacent to the attacked piece. The total Honour of the attacking pieces must equal or surpass the Honour of the attacked piece. If the attacked piece has more Honour than the primary attacker, than the primary attacker may gain more Honour and become the next stage piece. Thus a Trooper would become a Spec Ops or a Spec Ops an Honour Guard. Honour Guard cannot advance to be a Wraith tank. In addition, if the Kiggyar are close enough, you may use one (or more) of them as any secondary attackers. You may not, however, move them normally. They can only move to charge a piece. Either player may use the Kiggyar, and they can be slain normally, and they still advance a Trooper to a Spec Ops.
You can only spawn another piece if you have three infantry (of any Honour value) next to each other. If you do, you may announce you are spawning or creating a piece, and you may put a Trooper on any hex next to one of the three infantry. I made only 10 Troopers, 5 Spec Ops, and 3 Honour Guards for each side, for 2 reasons: One, I only had so much clay. I actually used up all of my blue clay making the 18 pieces. Two, if I didn't, the games could last forever, seeing as one person would leave 3 pieces in hiding and just keep spawning over and over.
The Wraith Tanks are huge pieces that take up roughly 4 hexes. They look similar to the ones in Halo and Halo 2:
They can only move 1 space a turn, but combat works differently for them. When a Wraith declares it is attacking a piece, you may move it 2 or 3 spaces in one direction to take out that piece. A Wraith cannot charge through an infantry that is adjacent to it, so you may use infantry to pin a Wraith while reinforcements show up to take it down. If the path is clear, a Wraith may charge an enemy piece, and when it finishes moving, all pieces it would land on are destroyed. This way the Wraiths can take out up to 4 troops at once. Because the 4 hexes taken up by the Wraith are spaced in a rough "T" formation, you can rotate a Wraith to make it move forward, as long as there are no infantry pieces in the way. You must also rotate a Wraith before it charges an opponent's piece, so careful placement of infantry can keep the Wraith from targeting certain pieces.
Defeating a Wraith requires surrounding it on all sides. If a wall is in the way, then that is less infantry needed. Also, having two enemy Wraiths next to each other make each tank count as 1 infantry for the purposes of mobility but 3 for the purpose of destroying a tank. Therefore no infantry are needed directly next to a Wraith when trying to take out an opponent's Wraith. Because of the sheer power of the tanks and the fact that they are not infantry, any given player cannot have more than one Wraith tank in a game. If you let your tank get destroyed, than you don't have a tank for the rest of the game.
Victory: A player loses if the combined Honour values of his or her infantry equal less than 4. Wraiths don't factor into this. If a player loses a piece and that brings him or her down to 3 or less total Honour, that player loses EVEN IF THEY COULD STRIKE BACK AND UPGRADE A PIECE.
3 or 4 player games: I haven't made the pieces for players 3 or 4, but I plan on making the same about (of course) for each player, and making the colors for players 3 and 4 Purple and Yellow. In 3 or 4 player games, the players may choose the seating arrangement, since who sits where is very important.
Kiggyar: The Kiggyar "half-informed pieces" are white, and never have a Wraith tank. It is not expressly stated in The Priestess and the Warrior whether or not the Kiggyar have tanks, but it is implied, and this is the only thing I have changed. The Wraith has been exchanged with a Spec Ops and the Honour Guards with Troopers. The Kiggyar setup is the following: in a 2 player game, each of the unoccupied sides have a diamond of 2 Troopers and 2 Special Ops, in an alternating pattern. In a 3 player game, there are 4 Troopers and 2 Spec Ops in the unoccupied side, setup as a cross shape: +.
Line of Sight: Because this is a game of limited information, you are not allowed to EVER see the pyramid board from any perspective other than the one your troops could. If you want a clear view of a given side of the board, move a troop there, and you may see what he sees. This makes rounding corners very dangerous, as you can't see what may be lying in wait until after your move.
This was a great idea for a game, and I'm glad 'Fulsamee taught 'Jalahass how to play Jaheijagaj. I also like the idea of an Honour-based board game similar to Chess, except Covenant-style. I would also like to say how much I love Jillybean's 3½ complete Halo fanfics (Parcel o' Rogues being the ½.) Keep 'em comin!
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