3D Aires

A.k.a. Wiley’s Nightmare. Big horned rams head butt for stud rights or claiming King of the Mountain on the jagged cliffs of doom.

SET UP

• The game requires a tabletop and chairs.

• 1 × 9×9 modular board. 2 4×4 modular boards, 2 3×3 modular boards, and 2 2×2 modular boards

• 2 sets of 16 tokens or stones in uniformed colors.

• The game set up is preset with a 2×2 stacked on a 3×3, stacked on a 4×4 in one corner of the 9×9 board and the other set of modular boards mirroring their opposing counterparts.

• The 16 stones are places on the top back corner and the 15 elevated cliff edges with their opposing counterparts mirroring their positions.

• The player to move first is randomly selected.

• Players take alternating turns.

Number of Players

• 2

Objective

• To completely eliminate the opposing player’s flock or reach their corner, and claim King of the mountain.

Rules

• The pawns in this war game move like Chess Rooks, in any adjacent direction, one or many spaces at a time.

• A charging ram can head butt an enemy piece by ramming into it and claiming its space. The hit ram is moved back one space, from that same direction.

• If that hit ram is on the edge of the board, it gets shoved off the edge and is eliminated.

• This head butting move can set off a chain reaction. If there are one or more enemy rams in a row with another friendly ram positioned and holding its ground on the other side, a charging ram will eliminate one ram on its turn. For example, if the rams are positioned on the board like 0→ XXX0, a charging ram will crush one of the sandwiched rams, to end up like this 0XX0.

• With elevated cliffs in play…These are the new rules for vertical attacks. Remember the pawns in this game are Big Horned Rams.

  • An elevated Ram has the advantage of downward velocity working for it, can head butt an opposing Ram and push it back 2 spaces.

  • A charging ram from below must stop at the base ( turn is over) in order to secure its footing, before jumping up to the next level to either occupy the space or attack another ram.

  • If attacking a Ram from the cliff below, the charging Ram can shift its neck to head butt the enemy Ram to the left or right space next to it, if another rock face is behind it.

  • If on the edge of the board, an opposing Ram can be eliminated with the shove off the cliff.

• If a pawn reaches the back corner of the opponent’s side, it is promoted to King of the mountain and is an alternate winning condition.

• The Ko rule is in effect. One cannot play in such a way that would leave the board in its last previous state.

Player Variations

• Normally played as a 2 player game, there could be some team options.

• A new vertical attack variation: When a charging ram from below attacks a ram above with a rock wall behind it, alternately, instead of shoving it left or right one space , it would be eliminated when crushed back against the rock face.

History

• 3D Aires is a brilliant 3 dimensional Rico original game, created in 2024.

• Special thanks to Chris Huntoon for coming up with the original modern marvel game Aires (2003) as the inspiration for my elevated ram jam fest.

Game Theory / Game Dynamics

• My hero, Wiley Coyote hates this game. He always had and still has bad dreams about it.

• 3D Aires resides all over my game room arenas. It sits on my Abstract Avalanche, The Sticks and Stones Series, the Tidal Forces Collection, the Bar Arcade Collection, the Predators Tract, and my Head Games shelves.

• This game is surprisingly good for its simplicity and deep thinking.

• The larger 9×9 sized base allows spacing in the valley for vector attacks.

• The ram attack is easy and fun to execute. It is an attack of pure velocity from that forward charge pushing an opponent back one space, shoving it off the board, or crushing it in a sandwich if you have another ram holding its ground on the other end.

• The board elevations create new mechanics for Ram movements and attacking from a vertical position.

• Like in the wild kingdom between fighting rams on a cliff edge, gravity and velocity have a big influence on the results.

• Higher ground has an advantage.

• This game can teach how and when to make sacrifices, and vector attacks.

• If you want to own this game, the Goban sized modular grid boards in Package A option is your huckleberry.

I hope you enjoy playing games,
as much as I have making them.