Nerva manual
by Afrasinei Alexandru Iulian
Introduction
Nerva is a board game that utilizes a standard chess board and 192 pawns + 2 kings.
Two opposing forces (White and Black) face each other in battle on the game board.
It is a turn-based wargame in the spirit of chess with different rules.
The goal is to capture the enemy king.
The elements of Nerva
-
one chess board (8x8)
-
White
-
Piece shapes
Pawns (Boxes), King (Cylinder)
- 96 White pawns
- 32 large pawns
- 32 medium pawns
- 32 small pawns
- the White king
-
-
Black
-
Piece shapes
Pawns (Boxes), King (Cylinder)
- 96 Black pawns
- 32 large pawns
- 32 medium pawns
- 32 small pawns
- the Black king
-
The board
A standard chess board (8x8).
The battle environment
A maximum of 3 pawns can be placed on top of each other anywhere on the board.
Think of the board as 3 stacked boards on top of each other.
Game notation
Chess notation is used to identify board locations.
This is extended for Nerva by using the following syntax to identify the stacked boards:
[row][column]_[board] - A pawn is placed on the board.
-
[row]
From a to h
-
[column]
From 1 to 8
-
[board]
From 1 to 3
Board 1 is the normal chess board
This is how we identify the pieces on the 3 stacked boards
[K][row][column][board] - King reveal.
[-K][row][column][board] - King is captured, game over.
Examples:
- Notation:
- h7_1 2. g2_1 3. e4_2 4. e5_2 5. a7_3 6. b6_3
The pieces
The pawns
On a board tile, stack the pieces in this order: Large pawn, Medium pawn, Small pawn.
Thinking in terms of stacked boards:
Board 1 uses the large pawns, board 2 uses the medium pawns, and board 3 uses the small pawns.
Examples:
- Notation:
- d2_2 2. c3_2 3. h7_1 4. g2_1 5. b5_3 6.c6_3
- Notation:
- b8_1 2. f4_1 3. b8_2 4. f4_2 5. b8_3 6. f4_3 7. f6_2 8. f6_3 9. e7_3 10. e7_2 11. e7_1 12. d4_1 13. d4_2 14. d4_3
White
96 pawns and the white king.
Black
96 pawns and the black king.
Properties
Each pawn has 1 attack point and 1 defense point.
If a pawn is at c3, the adjacent tiles are:
b2 c2 d2 d3 d4 b4 c4 b3
The attack and defense will happen on these adjacent tiles.
More details in the rules of defending, attacking, stacking sections.
The king
The king has no attack/defense points.
The rules of placement
Setup
The game starts with an empty board.
Each player gets their 96 pawns and their king.
The White player places the first pawn on the board.
The pawns can be placed on any empty tile.
A maximum of 3 pawns can be stacked on a tile.
King location
The king’s location is hidden from the enemy player.
Each player decides at the beginning where their king will be located and keeps the information to themselves.
The chosen location can by anywhere on the 3 boards, use the game notation.
Each player will write the position on a piece of paper.
When a player places a pawn on the king position the king will be revealed.
The player will place his king on the board.
In the unlikely event of both player chosing the same king location:
-
place the white king in the location when revealed
-
play normally as if both kings are in that location
Example:
Both kings are revealed.
- Notation:
- K_c4_2 2. K_f6_1
Game started
The White player places a pawn, and then the players take turns placing pawns.
The game is over when one king is captured or all pawns are placed.
The rules of defending
A pawn will add a defense point to all adjacent friendly pawns (or king).
Example:
If a pawn is at c3, the adjacent tiles are:
b2 c2 d2 d3 d4 b4 c4 b3
Any friendly pawn on these positions will receive an additional defense point from the c3 pawn.
The rules of attacking
A pawn will add an attack point to all adjacent enemy pawns (or king).
Adjacent enemy pawns can be attacked.
An attack will be declared by the player, each attack takes a turn.
If the attack points are higher than the defense points on a particular pawn, the attack will be successful.
The pawn will be removed from the board and replaced by another pawn from the attacker.
If you make a mistake and make an unsuccessful attack, the turn will change.
The rules of stacking
When 3 pawns from the same player occupy the same position on all 3 boards (a stack of 3 pawns), then each receives 3 defense points and 3 attack points.
When such a stack is formed, the existing pawn attack/defense points will be replaced with 3.
There is no addition of existing points, so be careful with this.
Example:
- Notation
- f4_1 2. e5_1 3. f4_2 4. e5_2 5. f4_3 6. e5_3
Goal
The goal is to reveal and capture the enemy king.
Credits, contact
Afrasinei Alexandru Iulian
Email:
alexandruafrasinei@gmail.com