Toödsinpua

Toödsinpua (Atruozan: [t̪o:t͡s̪imbuwɑ]), also called Toödsin (Atruozan: [t̪o:t͡s̪in̪]), is a board game originating in mid-1800s northeastern Translira inspired by Kutsotolho and Draughts (primarily Kaseh). Kutsotolho, or rather, Chacha, was first introduced by Canangamese traders in the early-mid first millenium AD, where it started being influenced by Traditional Atruozan War Games, especially around Gøskëlmø. As trade relations with Vaniua increased in the late 1700s, vaniuan draughts were introduced to Translira's north coast, especially around the then-outpost of Skëuþmo, and Gøskëlmø, primarily by Balakia. As chacha (and its derivations) had a much stronger presence due to earlier and increased exposure around and south of Gøskëlmø, when compared with farther north and up the Gaflekmages River, there was less influence from draughts in the area, resulting in a geographical gradient of four primary starting positions, with both major groups of positions having slightly different rulesets. As such, toödsinpua can be viewed as a small family of board games.

Much like chacha, toödsinpua is played on an hourglass board. However, unlike this former, the board is smaller, at four nodes wide in the centre, and 8 nodes wide at the top and bottoms, representing nine rows of tessellated equilateral triangles. There are four (arguably five) types of pieces, each of which is capable of promotion, and two modes of play - standing captures (where captures occur as in kutsotolho) and jumping captures (decidedly more popular, with captures acting as in kaseh). What makes it stand out as a member of the two game families is that jumping captures form towers as in kaseh (meaning pieces aren't truly removed from play), and primarily that every turn the players role a four-sided die to determine the number of possible movements they may make with their pieces that turn. Most traditionally, this was done with four pyramidal die with two marked corners each, providing the same effect as four concurrent coin flips, with a result of 0 marked apices counting for one movement. This addition of chance to an otherwise abstract strategy game with perfect information is said to emulate luck and happenstance common to longqeuwo war games, and ultimately, true battle.

Equipment

Board

An example Toödsinpua board layout.

The board is made up of tessellated triangles arranged in an hourglass, such that it is widest at the players' ends, and narrowest in the centre. Like chacha boards, pieces are places on the triangles' verticles, called "nodes". What differentiates the board from the former, is the dimensions. While the former consisted of 11 rows and 19 columns of nodes, representing 10 rows of triangles with the centre being five nodes wide, the toödsinpua board consists of only 9 rows and 15 columns of nodes, representing 8 rows of triangles with the centre being 4 nodes wide. That said, due to the nature of the tessellation, even- and odd-numbered rows only contain nodes for even- and odd-numbered columns, respectively (such that [1,1], [2,4] and [3,5] are valid nodes, but [1,2] is not). This means that there are only eight real nodes on the end rows of the board.

Pieces

Depending on starting layout used, the game begins with each player having 13, 14, or 15 circular coin- or token-like pieces. They face forwards by having their design, if present, oriented correctly for the respective side. Traditionally, these are made out of wood and carved with either a knife or burning, and are all uniform in dimensions. In addition to this, both players have a chief promotional piece, a small square prism or cube, which is located on the opponent's side of the board. Traditionally the tokens are made of wood, as is the board, and are either simply light or dark wood colours (or one is stained or charred much darker than the other), or one is painted with red ochre and the other is painted black or left brown, often with a varnish. In some areas, having one set painted with red ochre and the other with yellow ochre, often with a clear glaze or varnish as a surface coat, became the norm, and so in modern times, red vs. yellow, yellow/beige vs. (darker) brown, and red vs. brown, have become the three most common colour arrangements.

There are four major types of pieces (with five total forms), as listed below :

• 1 (or 2) Chief(s)
• 2 Camelry
• 2 (or 3) West Archers
• 2 East Archers
• 6 (or 8) Warriors

Each symbol has a design representing it, as shown in the table below. Each piece is also capable of promotion by reaching the opponent's end of the board (in the case of non-chiefs), or by reaching the chief promotional piece (the CPP, for chiefs), whose node no other piece may land on. Warriors are then capable of a second promotion should they successfully return to their end of the hourglass. The non-chief pieces are flipped over when promoted (and then turned 90-degrees in the case of the warriors' secondary promotion), with an alternate design on the other side, also shown in the table :

English name	Face Design	Reverse (Promoted) Design	Atruozan	Atruozan IPA
Chief			Xãiyë	[k͡s̪ãɪ̯̃jɛ]
Camelry			Oisupa	[oɪ̯s̪upɑ]
West Archers			Ŕãbyeuwa Üiktämø	[ʀ̝ɑ̃bjɜʊ̯wɑʔ y:t̪:amø]
East Archers			Ŕãbyeuwa Klõstãzomo	[ʀ̝ɑ̃bjɜʊ̯wɑ klõs̪t̪ɑ̃z̪omo]
Warrior			Ötsinñãifë	[œt͡s̪iɲ:ãɪ̯̃fɛ]

When promoted, the chief isn't reversed. Rather, the small, roughly cubic and designless promotional piece is placed on top of it. Its width is one-third to half the diameter of the other play pieces.