Portable Bagh-Chal Boardgame

Intro

Bagh Chal is a strategic, two-player board game. I became interested in the game because the 2 players have separate goals, pieces and abilities which I find appealing.

The design makes the game into a portable wallet, which can be used both for holding the game and your personal stuff, and if you feel like going all viking about it, you can tie it to your belt too, as an extra pocket.

This project involves a lasercutter and leather which can be a little difficult combo to work with but fear not, Uncle Benjamin is here to help, so just write a comment if you have a problem. And to those of you who have worked with lasercutting this will be like a walk in the park!

The rules of Bagh-Chal:
The rules are pretty simple. One player is the tiger and the other player is the goat. At the start of the game all four tigers are placed in the four corners of the board. No goats are placed yet. The player controlling the goats moves first, by placing a goat onto a free intersection on the board. Then it is the tigers turn.

The tiger may move along the lines from one intersection to another. Once all of the goats have been placed on the board, goats must move in the same fashion as the tigers, one intersection to another. Moves alternate between players. Tigers capture goats by jumping over them to an adjacent free intersection, capturing is not obligatory in Bagh-Chal. Rules for Tigers:

1. They can move to an adjacent free position along the lines.

2. They can capture goats during any move, and do not need to wait until all goats are placed.

3. They can capture only one goat at a time.

4. They can jump over a goat in any direction, as long as there is an open space for the tiger to complete its turn.

5. A tiger cannot jump over another tiger.

The goats must move according to these rules:

1. Goats cannot move until all goats have been positioned on the board.

2. They must leave the board when captured.

3. They cannot jump over tigers or other goats.

The game is over when either the tigers capture five goats, or the goats have blocked the tigers from being able to move. Sometimes the game can fall into a repetitive cycle of positions. Goats especially may use this resort to defend themselves against being captured. To avoid this situation, an additional rule has been established: when all the goats have been placed, no move may return the board to a situation that has already occurred during the game.

If you want to learn more about Bagh Chal here is a link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagh-Chal

You will need:

· Leather

The board has a diameter of 220mm but I recommend aquiring some extra leather for testing and for failing completely in your first attempt. Faux leather can NOT be used because it releases toxic gasses that are harmful to you and to the lasercutter.

· String – 1-2mm thick

· Wooden plate - 50mm X 300mm (I use 3mm MDF, but you can use what you feel like)

· Access to a lasercutter

If you don’t have one, you can most likely find one at a fablab

Find the closest fablab here https://www.fablabs.io/map

For the design I made use of inkscape, which is an opensource program you can download for free.

To cut the 3 mm MDF I used a laser-cutter. In the fablab where I made the game the machine uses PDF files but I know of other makerspaces that use different file formats so i have added a variety of formats below.

The colors in the file for the board are for color mapping (telling the lasercutter to cut one color before another). It is important that you program the machine to vector engrave (not cut all the way through) the lines on the board or just to engrave and to cut all the way on the line around the board and the holes.

To minimize risk i suggest taping the leather to a plate to keep it still and spread out.

The pieces and the the board:

Now that you have all your pieces, you simply put the string

through the holes like on the picture and voila! Your game is ready.

If you have any suggestions or ideas please let me know

This is my first instructable so I am ready for some feedback. Also, I would love to help you with the design so just write a comment if you have any questions

Best Regards,

Benjamin