Blue and Gray is a

strategy Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία ''stratēgia'', "art of troop leader; office of general, command, generalship") is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the " a ...

board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a ...

for two players invented by Henry Busch and Arthur Jaeger in 1903. They obtained a patent for the game, but may never have published it. Blue and Gray was featured in the book ''

A Gamut of Games ''A Gamut of Games'' is an innovative book of games written by Sid Sackson and first published in 1969. It contains rules for a large number of paper and pencil, card, and board games. Many of the games in the book had never before been published. ...

'' (1969) by Sid Sackson. It was also featured in ''The Book of Classic Board Games'' (1991) by

Klutz Press Klutz is a publishing company started in Palo Alto, California in 1977. It was acquired by Nelvana in April 2000, and became a subsidiary of Scholastic Inc. in 2002. The first Klutz book was a how-to guide titled ''Juggling for the Complete Klutz' ...

under the name Cats and Dogs. In this book, the game was ranked among the top 15 board games of all time, including

checkers Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; British English), is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. Checkers ...

backgammon Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back nearly 5,000 years to the regions of Mesopotamia an ...

, Go, and

mancala The mancala games are a family of two-player turn-based strategy board games played with small stones, beans, or seeds and rows of holes or pits in the earth, a board or other playing surface. The objective is usually to capture all or som ...

. The game is also known as Wild West, Thumps Game, and Captain and Soldiers. The name Blue and Gray "refers to the uniforms of the South and the North in the Civil War and in the original game the playing pieces of the contestants were of those colors." Blue and Gray is a variant of

draughts Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; British English), is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. Checkers ...

Equipment and setup

Each player owns 18 pieces: 1 ''captain'' and 17 ''guards''. One army is colored blue; the other gray. The game is played on a 9×9 gridded with 80 intersection points. Pieces start on the points on the first two of each player's side. The captain is placed at the center of the first rank. The board is marked with grid paths for each player's captain to advance toward the center of the board.

Game rules

* Players decide which colored army to play, and who moves first. Only one piece (captain or guard) can be moved per turn. Players alternate turns. * The captain can advance one step along its marked grid to an adjacent empty point. If another piece occupies that point, the captain cannot move until the point is vacated. The captain cannot leave its grid path, and can only move forward along its grid toward the center of the board. The captain cannot capture, nor can it be captured. * The guards move in any direction or diagonally one step along any grid line to an adjacent empty point. Guards can capture as in draughts by jumping over an adjacent enemy guard and landing on the empty point immediately beyond, in a straight line. Guards cannot jump a captain. Jumps are mandatory, including multiple successive jumps, if possible. A multi-jump can consist of jumps in different directions. If more than one guard can jump, the player can choose which guard to jump with. * Guards may not enter the marked center of the board.

Winning

The winner is the first player to advance their captain along its marked grid into the specially marked center of the board. Each player will use their guards to try to block the advance of the enemy captain. If both captains are blocked and "neither player is able to break the impasse", the player whose captain has advanced farthest wins.

Notes

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External links

Blue & Gray
a

*
''présentation du jeu de stratégie de plateau capitaine et soldats''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blue and Gray Abstract strategy games Board games introduced in 1903