The official Rules of Endgame will – in due time – be made available here.
A few key features from the game play are presented below:
The Move
In Endgame, a move consists of two steps: Moving a vehicle piece followed by moving a war piece (by firing it, moving it, or by acquiring it or encoutering happenstance at the Grey Market).
Fire weapon
In this case, Yellow moves an armoured car from Golf-4 to Golf-5, and fires a missile hitting Blue´s general and thus winning the battle!
Grey Market
During the move shown below, Yellow, as step one, first advances a mobile warehouse car. With no weapons to fire, Yellow then, as step two of the move, decides to visit the Grey Market, where luck strikes: A Prisoner of War escapes (in this case, Yellow selects a warehouse) and rejoins the Yellow army!
Vehicles
The vehicle pieces can only move parallel to the sides of the battlefield, either forward, backward, or sideways. The maximum range (squares) per move is indicated by the number of ‘dotted wheels’ on the piece.
Ramming
It is possible to simply ram one vehicle with another vehicle which eliminate both vehicles (and any weapons they may carry) from the battlefield.
Minefield
Opponents entering the minefield are immediately eliminated. In the beginning of the game, the minefield protects the general and the doppelgänger. Using a longer-range weapon, the minefield can be permanently cleared.
Weapons
Each player can fire weapons at their opponent. The weapons can only be fired diagonally in all directions and within the specified maximum range, or a shorter distance if required.
“All right, they’re on our left, they’re on our right, they’re in front of us, they’re behind us…they can’t get away this time!” ― Lewis B. Chesty Puller, American lieutenant general. (If you enjoy these types of quotes, we have made a small collection on our project website.)
Weapon logistics
You can, as the second part of your move, transfer a weapon from one vehicle to another, provided both have weapon-carrying capabilities.
New weapons may also, as part of step two of a move, be randomly sourced from the Grey Market. However, you need free warehouse capacity to bring the weapon onto the battlefield. If your warehouses are either full or have been destroyed, it is not possible.
If you don´t have any trucks left, it might takes some moves to get weaponry to the front line. These aspects introduce the strategic option of attrition warfare to the game.
Happenstance
When randomly sourcing weaponry at the Grey Market, you may instead encounter one of the following events:
While it’s very positive when one of your POWs escapes the opponent’s POW camp and rejoins your army, the consequence of friendly fire is devastating: You lose both a vehicle piece and a weapon piece.
The happenstance pieces introduces a bit of luck into the game!
Doppelgängering
The HQ with the general may instead contain the general’s doppelgänger. Only a hidden symbol engraved on the back of the piece reveals the true identity. By performing the so-called doppelgängering, it is possible to switch their positions, thus bringing your general out of harm’s way (or bluffing where the real general is).
