ZBattle - How To Play

The ZBattle board consists of hexagonal cells arranged in a grid. Players control the movement of fluid armies around the board by connecting cells together with pipes.  The object of the game is to eliminate the other player's fluid armies from the board.

One player can attack another by connecting his/her army to a cell controlled by the enemy. The player's army will flow into the enemy cell and start a battle. During a battle both sides will lose army fluid. The amount of fluid lost by both sides depends on the conditions of the battle. Favour is given to the defending army, the larger army, and the army on higher ground.

A player can only generate more fluid through the use of pumps. Therefore, care must be taken to capture and protect as many pumps as possible. Often the player with the most pumps will win, though a pump is only as useful as the distribution network into which it feeds.

Feature	Description
Cell	A single "square" on the board.  A cell can be occupied by an army.  Armies of different players can do battle for possession of a cell.  Cells can also contain a pump.
Army	A blob of fluid belonging to a player.  Armies can move around the board through the use of pipes.
Pipe	A one-way connection between two cells.  Armies will flow through a pipe from the source cell to the destination cell.
Pump	Once captured by an army, a pump will continuously generate more fluid for that army.  The pump continues to generate fluid until the cell is full.  The greater the size of the pump, the faster the generation of fluid.

Movement

A player can move their armies around the board through the use of pipes.  When two cells are connected by a pipe, fluid will flow from the source into the destination.  Flow is strictly one-way and continues until a) the destination is full, or b) there is nothing left in the source.

The rate at which fluid flows between cells is based on the size of the army in the source cell.  The bigger the source army, the faster flow.  For example, if a cell is 100% full and connected to an empty cell, it might take 1 second to transfer the first 50% of the army, another 1 second to transfer the next 25%, another second for the next 10%, and so on, until the entire army has been moved.

The flow rate is also affected by changes in terrain height.  Armies flow more quickly downhill, and more slowly when travelling uphill.  Also, flow is affected by the type of ground under the source cell.

Type of Ground

Because of the affect ground types have on movement, the location of different patches of ground can have great strategic importance in the game.  Players may want to avoid sand or icy hills and concentrate their movement on pavement wherever possible.

Ground Type		Description
Grass		Grass allows normal movement.  Rate of flow is based on the size of the source army (bigger armies move faster).  Flow is affected by hills, with armies moving slower uphill and faster downhill.
Pavement		Armies move much faster on pavement than they do on grass.
Sand		Armies move much slower on sand than they do on grass.
Ice		Movement on level ground is the same on ice as it is on grass, but hills have a much larger impact on ice.  Flow is far slower than normal when moving uphill, and far faster when moving downhill.
Martian		The nature of flow is changed.  Rather than a rate based on the size of the source army, flow rate is always constant.  As a result small and large armies move at exactly the same speed.  Martian hills have only a small affect on movement.