Animal Chess

Animal Chess or "Dou Shou Qi" is the ancient Chinese game of fighting animals. Westerners may be more familiar with its modern descendant, Stratego. Dou Shou Qi is simpler and faster to play, but no less of a challenge! Fun for adults and children alike!

Play against your friends with either Pass N' Play on one iPhone or over your wireless network, or challenge yourself against the computer on one of four difficulty levels: Easy, Medium, Hard, or, if you dare, Sun Tzu!

Easy to pick up and learn, hard to master, perfect for a quick gaming session.

RULES

The object of the game is simple enough, get one of your animals into the opposing side's den while avoiding the enemies traps and stronger animals and defeating weaker ones.

Each animal is assigned a value from 1-8. From weakest to strongest these are the Mouse, Cat, Wolf, Dog, Leopard, Tiger, Lion, Elephant. An animal can defeat any opposing animal of equal or lesser value than itself, with some exceptions. The humble Mouse is much too small and nimble to be crushed by Elephant, while the Mouse can defeat the Elephant by crawling into its ear. Also an animal may capture any opposing animal that falls into the traps laid to protect its den regardless of the animals value.

Animals can move one space horizontally or vertically, but not diagonally. The only animal that can enter a river square is the mouse, but the mouse cannot attack while crossing from land to river or vice versa. The Tiger and Lion also have the ability to jump over the river horizontally or vertically if not blocked by a mouse in an intervening river square. Also animals are not allowed to move into their own den.