Kani Nari Ebi
In Kani Nari Ebi 2 players take control of black and red teams consisting of 5 Crabs pieces. The pieces move on the 5x5 squares board representing the Seabed. The middle of the Seabed features a current that will carry away any pieces ending movement on it. However, Crabs that are brave enough to cross the current and reach the opposite edge of the Seabed get promoted into Shrimps.
But the game is not a simple matter of moving back and forth, pieces can also interact with each other. Ending movement near a connected group of friendly pieces gives rise to a Bond bonus, providing a free extra move to one piece of the group. And stopping near an opponent's piece that's already adjacent to a friendly piece on the opposite side will cause it to be captured.
A player wins the game when they have promoted 3 Crabs, captured 3 opponent's pieces, or ensured that the opponent doesn't have any valid moves.
Number of players: 2
Game duration: 8 mn
Complexity: 1 / 5
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Play Kani Nari Ebi and 1184 other games online.
No download necessary - play directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.
Rules summary
Overview
Kani Nari Ebi(かになりエビ) is a 2players player strategy game inspired by Hasami Shogi. Each player starts with 5 Crab pieces placed on their home column of the 5x5 board and on their turn moves them attempting to surround and capture the opponent's pieces.
Gameplay
One their turn, a player must move one of their pieces to another space on the board. There are 2 kinds of pieces that differ in movement pattern:
- 🦀 Crabs move any number of spaces horizontally (but cannot jump over other pieces)
- 🦐 Shrimps move exactly one space diagonally
Crabs have an opportunity to promote to Shrimps each time they end their move in the opponent's home column at the opposite edge of the board.
Sea Current
Each time a piece stops in the middle column, it's forcibly carried away either up or down, up to player's choice, as far as possible without going over another piece or the edge of the board. It's always possible to choose any of the 2 directions, even it if will result in the piece remaining in place.
The Current must be resolved before Bonding and Capture checks (see below).
Bonding
If a piece ends its move near a group of friendly pieces of the same type(all 🦀Crabs or all 🦐Shrimps) connected orthogonally, the player receives a Bond Bonus that allows them to make another diagonal move with any piece from the group. The Bonded piece is affected by the Current as usual and can be promoted and make an additional Capture if the conditions are met. This effect can only be used once per turn.
An advanced game variant allows Bonds between any pieces.
Captures
When a piece ends its move in the same row or column as another friendly piece and all spaces between them are filled with opponent's pieces, those opponent's pieces are captured and removed from the board until the end of the game.
It's equally possible to surround and capture multiple sets of opponent's pieces in a single move.
Game End
The game ends as soon as one of the players fulfills one of the following win conditions:
- 🦐 Promote 3 Crabs to Shrimps (captured Shrimps don't count)
- 🥅 Capture 3 opponent's pieces
- ⛔ Ensure that the opponent does not have any valid moves on their turn