

In _Hunter × Hunter_ (2011), Komugi and Meruem play a game called _Gungi_.
It's a fictional game which appears to take conceptual origins from chess, Go,
and other strategic board games.

![The Gungi board](https://i.stack.imgur.com/cdCMD.jpg)

We see tidbits of it played here and there, but I'm left to wonder: How is it
played? What are the rules?


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2014-01-22T17:42:49.640
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2023-09-29T20:31:55.520
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question
hunter-x-hunter
How does one play Gungi?


With what I have seen in the anime, this should sum up all the rules and
factors.

  * The objective is to capture the king.
  * The game is played on a single color 9x9 board.
  * The game starts with a empty board
  * The players take turns placing stones, limited to the first 3 rows of the board on your side of the field
  * After all the pieces are placed, the players take turns moving a piece.
  * The pieces can be stacked on top of each other (the 3rd dimension) up to 3 pieces.
  * Certain pieces are stronger than others. Therefore, not all setups can beat certain counters.
  * Each player has 24 pieces in total.

The pieces used in this game are as following

  * Pawn
  * Spy 
  * Cannon 
  * Fortress 
  * Musketeer 
  * Knight 
  * General

The exact conditions for victory are too blurry to confirm, but the rules for
victory seem pretty similar to chess, which would equal to trying to checkmate
the king. The placement and tactics used in the game are pretty similar to
shogi. As for the initial placement, it's pretty similar to checkers. For the
combat side of the game, it also seems to have a slide of
[Stratego](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratego) in it, as some pieces are
stronger than others, and there potentially are pieces that can only be beaten
by certain other pieces.

This is all I managed to find out.


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2014-01-22T18:20:45.677
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2015-05-28T06:09:30.803
2015-05-28T06:09:30.803
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answer


The game appears to be a blend of shogi, othello, checkers, chess, and as
mentioned earlier stratego. The objective is to put your opponent into
checkmate by capturing the king. The set up is closest to checkers, while
movement is like chess, and the evolution of pieces is similar to checkers
"king" creation. Shogi is in the overall patterns and formations that can be
made on the board and in the variations of strength regarding pieces.

Some of the pieces being taken after certain placements were shown in the
anime during a few of the matches more complicated maneuvers. This is what
leads me to think of Othello, though this may have no real bearing at all in
the true gameplay.


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2015-05-28T01:59:04.753
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