Amusement devices: games – Board games – pieces – or boards therefor – Piece moves over board having pattern
Reexamination Certificate
2002-03-15
2003-07-01
Layno, Benjamin H. (Department: 3711)
Amusement devices: games
Board games, pieces, or boards therefor
Piece moves over board having pattern
C273S146000, C273S275000, C273S285000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06585265
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a board game played by plural players and the method of play thereof.
In some of conventional board games in which plural players play against their opponents, pieces of each player are initially set on a play filed on which the advancing path patterns of the pieces are depicted. The plural players in turn advance their pieces along the advancing path according to the rules of the game. When a player's piece gets in a predetermined positional relationship with a piece(s) of the opponent(s), the player eliminates the opponent's (opponents') piece(s) from the play field (or from the board) according to the predetermined power of each of his/her piece.
In the conventional board games as mentioned above in which pieces are just moved along the predetermined advancing path(s), the advancing paths are limited to certain alternatives and it is difficult for the game to develop in an unexpected way. It is also difficult for the game to develop in an unexpected way when the game is played with pieces which only possess given predetermined power. In addition, when a game is played with predetermined pieces, players' interest in the game tends to wither in an early stage of the game. Furthermore, in the conventional board games, development of the game is often carried out only by advancing pieces and no other factors are involved in the development of the game. Therefore in the conventional board games players' strategies are inevitably simple, therefore it is difficult for players' strategic interest to culminate until player's piece and the opponent's (opponents') piece(s) start fighting. As a result, it was not easy in the conventional board games to give fun of working out a strategy in the game to the players in the initial stage of the game. Also in the conventional board games, conditions for wielding or exerting power of each piece is simple, and naturally the development of the game is simple, so it has been difficult for a dramatic development of the game such as one decisive attack to upturn the fighting condition to take place.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in view of the foregoing disadvantage of the prior art.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a board game and method of play there of which is capable of providing a game with unexpected development and giving more satisfaction than the conventional board games.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a board game and method of play thereof in which advancing path pattern of each piece varies everytime players play the game.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a board game and method of play thereof in which the fun of elaborating strategies in the game increases in the development of the game.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a board game and method of the play thereof in which costs (charges) necessary for playing the game can be easily saved in the development of the game.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a board game and the method of play thereof in which the degree of damage of each piece can be easily recognized.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a board game and the method of play thereof in which player's own game components and those of the other player's (players') can be identified surely.
It is still another object to provide a board game and method of play thereof in which unexpected development of the game can be realized by providing a rule that each piece cannot attack or defend without paying necessary costs (charges) while the piece is originally given certain power to wield or exert.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a board game and the method of play thereof in which unused pieces and the pieces which have turned out to be considered as destroyed in the development of the game are instantly distinguished.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a board game and method of play thereof in which players can prepare their selected pieces freely from among various pieces and establish different strategies based on the pieces.
The board game of the present invention comprises a play field having a plurality of polygonal grids which extend continuously and a plurality of game component sets used by a plurality of players for the play thereof. Play field may be made with any material such as paper or board, as far as it is in a form of a sheet. The shape of polygonal grids may be triangle, square or pentagon, etc. Generally it is preferable that the grid is in a shape of regular polygon as the unfolded die is placed on the play field, which step will be described in the following. Also predetermined grids on the play field whose number equals to that of the possible players are depicted differently from the rest of the grids. For example those grids may be colored differently from the rest of the grids for identifying purpose. By providing such easily identifiable grids, the initial placement of the unfolded die can be regulated in various ways according to the rules with such identifiable grids as the guide.
The game component set includes a plurality of dice, a plurality of pieces having visually identifiable features and belonging to predetermined plural groups and/or predetermined plural levels and a plurality of cards corresponding to each piece which respectively show identification of the piece, capacity (special power, effect, etc.), conditions in which power within capacity can be wielded or exerted, and group and/or level the piece belongs to.
First of all a die consists of a polyhedron having n (n is an integer which is 3 or more) polygonal plates which have the substantially same shape and dimension with the grids of the play field and are connected with one another. The die of polyhedron can be unfolded in the present invention. Each of the n polygonal plates is connected to specific adjacent polygonal plates in such a manner that each of said n polygonal plates is so as to be connected to those specific adjacent polygonal plates when the die (polyhedron) is unfolded two-dimensionally. N polygonal plates consisting a die may be formed integrally with synthetic resin material. In this instance joining portions where two adjacent plates are joined and connecting portions and connected portions which are used to fix up a die may also be integrally formed with synthetic resin material. A die may also be formed with a foldable sheet such as paper.
On the outside of the dice, a plurality of marks are depicted. Those marks include Die-Unfolding Mark which is a decisive factor for unfolding a die, Advancement Mark which permits saving a cost (or a charge) necessary for advancing a piece, more than one (1) Execution Marks which permits saving a cost (or a charge) necessary for wielding or exerting power of a piece and more than one (1) Identification Marks which show the group and/or level to which a piece belongs to. The above mentioned more than one (1) Execution Marks may include Attack Mark which permits saving a cost (or a charge) for attacking (one of powers of each piece), Defense Mark which permits saving a cost (or a charge) for defending (one of powers of each piece) and more than one (1) Special Ability Marks which permit saving a cost (or a charge) for wielding or exerting a predetermined special ability by a piece. These Die-Unfolding Mark, Advancement Mark, Execution Mark and Identification Mark may be depicted with at least one of the factors of color, figure, pattern, symbol or letter. By combining these factors, it is possible to depict more marks on the outside of a polygon. As a result, it is possible to depict a Die-Unfolding Mark, an Advancement Mark and more than 2 selected marks from Execution Marks and Identification Marks on the outside of a polygon. Therefore by rolling a small number of dice, players can enjoy a wide variety of alternatives. W
Dewa Shoji
Takatoku Akihiro
Konami Corporation
Layno Benjamin H.
Mendiratta Vishu K
Pearne & Gordon LLP
LandOfFree
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