Description

Dice have rebel!
They don't want to be a mere accessory that can be rolled carelessly. They propose a game where they are the main characters. There will be two factions. Each faction will organize itself on one side of a chessboard. The number of the dice will be its strength, and it will change every time it's moved. The strong will eliminate the weak.

And the battle starts at the cry of "Alea non jacta est"

In Artaban, each player controls seven 6-sided dice and a Leader Die (Which is just another 6-sided dice, but bigger than the other ones), for a total of 8 dice. The game starts with each player placing his dice on their second nearest row of the chessboard. (The face-up number of a die is its "value". At the start of the game, sum of the values on the 8 dice must be 28). The objective is to move the dice to their last line of the board. To achieve so, players alternate turns where they have four available options:

1. Move a die left, right, or to the front by flipping the dice over (The top face ends being the left/right/front face respectively).
2. Turn a dice 90º to the left or the right (without changing the topmost face).
3. Capture an opposing die by placing a die (without turning/flipping it) on a square it could legally move to, but is occupied by an opposing die of less value (The Leader Die can capture dice of less and equal value, but can be captured just like any other die). [A variant allows dice to capture diagonally]
4. Sacrifice a die by "capturing" an opposing die of the same value (Leader Die cannot be sacrificed). The opposing die is not retired (This helps speeding the game).

Other Rules:
-No two dice can occupy the same square at the same time.
-A die cannot move back or diagonally (Except to capture an opposing die when using the variant).
-The game ends when no player can move any dice OR a player proposes a tie and it's accepted by the other.

At the end of the game, the face-up value of all dice at their last line is counted, and the player with the bigger score is the winner. If there is a tie, the player with most dice on his last line is the winner. If there still is a tie, the player with most dice on the board is the winner. If there is still a tie, then the game ends in a tie.