Gamers Alliance Quarterly
Winter 1998
Herb Levy, Editor
USA

Bosworth is a Mark Alan Osterhaus design (with artwork done by John Kovalic, known as the creator of the "Dork Tower" comic strip featured in Shadis Magazine) and comes bookshelf boxed with a mounted 16" x 22" gameboard, 64 cards, and short, to-the-point, rules. For two to four players, Bosworth is a low complexity game that takes less than an hour to play.

The card deck is divided into four identical sets of 16 cards in green, yellow, red and blue. Each player gets a set. These cards are your chess pieces and all display a cartoon drawing of the piece as well as a silhouette of the Staunton version in the background. As in chess, each player has an army of one king, one queen, two each of the bishops, knights and rooks, and eight pawns.

The 4 x 4 gridded board represents Bosworth Field, site of a great Tudor victory in the War of the Roses. Bordering the field are four spaces, "field camps", for each of the armies. The corner spaces are not used.

Players begin by placing four of their pawn cards in their starting field camps. The remaining 12 cards are shuffled and placed face down to create a personal draw pile. The top four cards are then drawn to become a player's starting hand. Once a player is chosen to go first (in any way you please), play proceeds clockwise.

Cards on the board move as chess pieces with a few potent exceptions. Check, En Passant capture, Castling and Pawn Promotion are NOT allowed. Kings may capture their own pieces. After their first move, pawns may move sideways and, with three or four players, pawn may capture by moving one diagonal space in ANY direction!

Each turn, players, if able, move one of their cards already on the board. Landing on an enemy occupied space captures that enemy card. When field camp spaces are empty, you may fill them with cards from your hand. Finally, you may draw, from your draw pile, enough cards to bring your hand back up to four.

When two play, capturing the enemy King results in victory! When three or four play, capturing an opponent not only removes those forces from the board but also rewards the conquering player with the queen from the defeated army- even if another opponent has captured that queen! The last surviving player wins!

With two players, Bosworth plays seriously with a chess-like feel. With three or four, the game becomes a wild melee! The necessity of vacating your field camp to bring in new pieces adds another facet to strategy. It is a good idea to hold your king back. In your hand, he is safe. Once on the board, the king is vulnerable to attack. The rectangle card and board shape, fine for a two player game, falters a bit for three or four player games. A "squared card shape and playing field would work better then. The artwork is delightful, capturing the fun and freewheeling spirit of the game. But on the cards, it tends to obscure the piece's identity. Icons on the corners of the cards would be a useful reminder as to the nature of the piece the card represents.

Bosworth takes the majesty of chess and cleverly skews it! This is a neatly crafted game with the depth to please serious gamers and yet still be easily accessible to the casual game player.

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