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Help For Tumbling Down
Introduction
Welcome to the network Tumbling Down server. The rules of Tumbling Down are below. The commands are the same for all pbmserv games.Tumbling Down is Copyright 2000 by Michael Shuck and is used here with his permission.
- tumble move boardnumber userid password move
-
move consists of a starting location followed by a destination
location followed by a letter describing the type of move.
The starting and destination locations are given in letter/digit order
with an optional hyphen '-' between them. The type of move is either
a 't' or 'T' for a "tumbling" move and either a 'm', 'M', or left
blank for a single man move. When making a single man move, the
destination location must be directly next to the starting location,
either one square orthagonally or diagonally. When making a tumbling
move, the destination location may be any square that lies on the line
in the direction of the tumble. Here are some examples of legal moves:
These are all the same tumbling move:
e5h5t
E5-F5T
E5-G5t
Notice that the 'T' or 't' is required; E5F5 is not the same as E5F5TThese are all the same non-tumbling move:
F2-G2M
f2g2m
f2g2
Notice that the 'M' or 'm' is not required for a single man move.
Rules of Tumbling Down
Tumbling Down is played on an 8 by 8 grid with 29 white men and 29 black men. The player playing black moves first. Some of the men are stacked up on top of each other. A stack may consist of a mix of black and white men. The owner of the stack is the player whose color is the top-most piece on the stack. Only the owner of a stack may move or tumble a stack.
A single (non-tumbling) move is made by moving the very top man one space in any direction either orthagonally or diagonally either onto an empty space or ontop of another stack. A tumbling move is made by picking up the entire stack and dropping the bottom piece, one piece per square, in each square in a line in a single direction. If the stack reaches the edge of the board then the tumbling stops and the rest of the pieces are stacked on the last square near the edge.
For this ascii implementation of the game of Tumbling Down, the pieces are represented by a 'W' for white men or a 'B' for the black men followed by a number for representing the total number of consecutive men of that color. Here are some examples:
A
+--------+-
|W2 B3 |
2|B2 W1 B1|
+--------+-
The stack above is located at A2 and consists of nine (9) men as
follows:B3 <-- this represents three black pieces at the very top
W2 <-- this represents two White pieces under the three Black pieces
B1 <-- and so on, and so on...
W1
B2 <-- this is the bottom of the stack
Notice that the player playing Black is the owner since a black piece is on the top of the stack.
This is an example of a tumbling move, A2-B2T:
Before Tumbling:
A B C D E F G H
+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
|W2 B3 | | | | | | | |
2|B2 W1 B1| |W3 | | | | |W1 |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
After Tumbling:
+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| | | | | | | | |
2| |B1 |W3 B1 |W1 |B1 |W1 |W1 |W1 B3 |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
The piece at B2 after tumbling was the very bottom piece at A2 before the
tumble took place. Because the tumble reached the edge of the board, the
very top three pieces (which happened to be 3 Black pieces) are deposited
at H2 after the tumble move.
The highest stack of all one color at the beginning of a move is called the king for the player who owns the stack. More than one king may exist for a player if for example there are two identical stacks of equal height and the stacks are the tallest stacks consisting of only one player's pieces.
The object of the game is to capture at least one of the opponent's kings on your turn by making a move that makes you the new owner of the stack where the opponent's king was located. As a player makes a move, his kings may move and appear at different locations on the board, but only the opponent's kings that existed at the beginning of the turn are vulnerable to capture. If a player makes a move that creates a new king for her opponent, that particular stack is not "crowned the king" until after her turn and at the beginning of her opponent's turn; this rule prevents a player from both creating a new king for their opponent and capturing the new king in a single move. The capture of a king must be such that the resulting stack is composed of only two lengths of opposing men (colors). In other words, the bottom of the captured stack must consist of 1 or more men of the captured player while the top of the stack consists of 1 or more men of the victorious player. The stack must not consist of further mixes of colors.
examples of good captures: White is victorious in each example.
+--------+ +--------+ +--------+ +--------+ | | | | | | | | |B1 W1 | |B1 W3 | |B3 W1 | |B3 W3 | +--------+ +--------+ +--------+ +--------+examples of bad captures: Neither side is victorious.
+--------+ +--------+ +--------+ |W1 | | | |B2 W4 B3| |B1 W1 B1| |B3 W2 B1| |W6 B3 W1| +--------+ +--------+ +--------+This is the initial layout for a standard game of Tumbling Down.
A B C D E F G H
+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
8| | |W1 |W2 |W3 |W4 |W3 |W2 |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
7| | | |W1 |W2 |W3 |W2 |W1 |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
6| | | | |W1 |W2 |W1 | |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
5| | | | | |W1 | | |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
4| | |B1 | | | | | |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
3| |B1 |B2 |B1 | | | | |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
2|B1 |B2 |B3 |B2 |B1 | | | |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
1|B2 |B3 |B4 |B3 |B2 |B1 | | |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
A B C D E F G H
This is an alternative layout with the "-c" option in the challenge command:
tumble challenge
A B C D E F G H
+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
8|W4 |W3 |W2 |W2 |W1 | | | |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
7|W3 |W2 |W2 |W1 | | | | |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
6|W2 |W2 |W1 | | | | | |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
5|W2 |W1 | | | | | |B1 |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
4|W1 | | | | | |B1 |B2 |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
3| | | | | |B1 |B2 |B2 |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
2| | | | |B1 |B2 |B2 |B3 |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
1| | | |B1 |B2 |B2 |B3 |B4 |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
A B C D E F G H
Note: The program has an option of an alternative display for the pieces within a square.
- Tumble set userid password [ u | h ]
- where 'u' is upright (column by column), 'h' is the default (row by row)
B4 The following examples are the same stack displayed differently: W2 This is 'h' setting: This is 'u' setting: B3 +--------+ +--------+ W3 |B3 W2 B4| |B2 B3 B4| B2 |W1 B2 W3| |W1 W3 W2| W1 +--------+ +--------+
