Rocaille is a variant of Rococo, whose pieces and ways of capturing it keeps whole. Rococo is a sharp game: every piece moves like a Queen, the Long Leaper can sweep a whole line in one move, and the King falls without warning. Ultima, the elder of the family, has the opposite fault: defence is so strong that games trail. Rocaille aims at the point between the two - livelier than Ultima, less brutal than Rococo - and gets there by three changes.
The first gives the King a warning: check binds, as in chess. The second a King may not be swapped. The third gives both armies room: the playing field grows to 10x8, with two more pieces a side and an array arranged for defence. Rococo's edge ring is kept - it was dropped in a first version, which killed every sweeping capture and left the game duller than Ultima.
| Piece | Move | Capture |
|---|---|---|
| Cannon Pawn | one square, or a hop | by hopping over a neighbour onto the enemy just beyond |
| Advancer | like a Queen | the enemy it stops right in front of |
| Withdrawer | like a Queen | the adjacent piece it moves directly away from |
| Long Leaper | like a Queen | by leaping over enemies, as many as the line allows |
| Swapper | like a Queen | trades places with any piece but a King, or destroys a neighbour and itself |
| Chameleon | like a Queen | each enemy by that enemy's own method |
| Immobilizer | like a Queen | never captures - it paralyses instead |
| King | one square | by displacement, like a chess King |
Every piece except the Cannon Pawn and the King moves like a Queen: any distance along a rank, a file or a diagonal, over empty squares only, and never onto an occupied square. No piece may jump over another - the Long Leaper and the Cannon Pawn do, but only as part of their capture.
The board is 12x10. The inner 10x8 is the playing area; the 40 squares of the outer ring, shown darker in the game, are edge squares. A piece may only pass over or stop on an edge square when doing so is needed to make a capture - and then it must cross as few edge squares as possible. A move that captures nothing may never touch the ring. This idea, taken from Rococo, stops pieces from sheltering along the rim.
A Swapper's exchange counts as a capture here, so a Swapper may swap with a piece standing on the ring.
Each player has 10 Cannon Pawns on the second rank and, behind them: Swapper, Long Leaper, Advancer, Cannon Pawn, King, Cannon Pawn, Chameleon, Advancer, Long Leaper, Immobilizer. The two Withdrawers do not stand on the back rank but among the Pawns, in front of the King's own flanks, in exchange for the two Cannon Pawns that would stand there. Both armies are set up in the same order, facing each other. White moves first.
The array is arranged for defence. The Chameleon stands one square from the King, being the only piece that can deal with an approaching Immobilizer. The Advancers are two squares out, with room to go and fetch one. The Immobilizer and the Swapper are exiled to opposite wings, both because they are offensive tools and because an enemy Chameleon should have no reason to come and camp beside the King.
The Withdrawers are the surprise, and the obvious placement is the wrong one. A Withdrawer captures by moving away from its victim, so it needs an empty square behind it; on the back rank, facing the only direction attacks come from, that square is off the board and the piece is inert. Moved forward a rank it still does not recoil - but it becomes a springboard: the Cannon Pawns behind it hop over it onto the rank ahead.
The Cannon Pawn moves without capturing in two ways: one step in any direction, or a hop over an adjacent piece of either colour, landing on the empty square just beyond. It captures the way it hops: over an adjacent piece - the mount, friend or enemy - and onto an enemy piece immediately beyond, taking its place.
A Cannon Pawn that reaches the enemy King's own rank by a move of its own may promote to any friendly piece that has been captured and is currently off the board, except another Cannon Pawn. Promotion is optional.
The Advancer moves like a Queen and captures by approach: if it stops directly in front of an enemy piece - that is, if the next square in its direction of travel is occupied by an enemy - that enemy is captured. The capture is part of the move and is not optional: an Advancer may not stop beside an enemy on its line of travel without taking it.
It is the piece that makes check most disconcerting to a chess player: fleeing an Advancer in a straight line does not help, since it simply approaches again on the next square. You must leave its line, or block the approach by occupying the square it would stop on.
The Withdrawer captures by withdrawal: standing next to an enemy piece, it moves directly away from it any distance and captures it. Only the piece it moves away from is taken, and only if it was already adjacent before the move. Like the Advancer's, this capture is compulsory.
The Long Leaper moves like a Queen but may leap over an enemy piece and capture it, provided the square immediately beyond that piece is empty. It may then carry on in the same direction and take further enemies on the same terms, before ending on any empty square beyond. It may never leap over a friendly piece, nor over two adjacent enemies.
It is the Leaper that gives the game its spectacular moves, and the edge ring is what makes them possible: by stopping pieces from fleeing to the rim it keeps them in the field, and so in line with one another - and a sweeping capture is exactly what needs several enemies on one line.
The Swapper moves like a Queen without capturing, or it may trade places with any piece, friend or enemy, within an unobstructed Queen's reach - except a King, its own as much as the opponent's. It may also destroy an adjacent enemy piece and itself at once, by mutual destruction - a move it cannot make while immobilized.
A King can therefore not be dragged out of its shelter from across the board, which no defensive array could withstand. In exchange, approaching an enemy Swapper is dangerous for the King: mutual destruction would take him along, so stepping next to one is stepping into check.
The Chameleon moves like a Queen and captures each enemy by that enemy's own method: it approaches Advancers, withdraws from Withdrawers, leaps over Long Leapers, hops a mount to take Cannon Pawns, swaps with Swappers (or destroys itself together with them) and takes an adjacent enemy King by moving onto it. Several of these may be combined in a single move: leaping over a Long Leaper, it can in the same move take a Withdrawer left behind and an Advancer reached at the end. Trading places with a Swapper may end such a travel, so one move can withdraw, leap, swap and approach at once.
The Chameleon freezes an enemy Immobilizer and is frozen by it in turn, but it can never capture one - and it cannot capture another Chameleon.
The Immobilizer never captures. Any enemy piece on one of the eight squares around it is immobilized and cannot move. Two Immobilizers facing each other paralyse one another. An immobilized piece other than a King may still remove itself from the board, which counts as its move - usually to open a line. The Immobilizer may never enter an edge square by itself, though it can be put there by a swap.
The King moves one square in any direction and captures by displacement, like the King of ordinary chess. Check binds: a move that would leave one's own King capturable is illegal, and a King may not stand next to the enemy King. It may only enter an edge square in order to capture a piece there.
Be warned: in this family almost every piece can take the King, each in its own way - the Advancer by approaching, the Withdrawer by moving away, the Long Leaper by leaping over him, the Cannon Pawn by hopping onto him, the Chameleon and the King by displacement. Only the Immobilizer cannot, since it never captures. A check may therefore come from an unexpected direction, and be met in ways ordinary chess does not teach.
The game is won by checkmate. A player who cannot make a legal move loses, as does one who brings about a threefold repetition.
For a player who already knows Rococo, here is the complete list of differences. Anything not listed is the same, the eight pieces and their ways of capturing included.
| Rococo | Rocaille | |
|---|---|---|
| Board | 10x10, playing area 8x8, ring of 36 squares | 12x10, playing area 10x8, ring of 40 squares |
| Army | 16 pieces: 8 Cannon Pawns, and 1 Advancer, 1 Withdrawer, 2 Long Leapers | 20 pieces: 10 Cannon Pawns, and 2 Advancers, 2 Withdrawers, 2 Long Leapers |
| Back rank | Immobilizer, Withdrawer, Long Leaper, King, Chameleon, Long Leaper, Advancer, Swapper | Swapper, Long Leaper, Advancer, Cannon Pawn, King, Cannon Pawn, Chameleon, Advancer, Long Leaper, Immobilizer - the Withdrawers moved forward a rank |
| Ending | capture of the King; no check, no mate | checkmate: a move that exposes one's King is illegal |
| Kings in contact | allowed | forbidden, as in chess |
| Swapper and King | may trade places with a King | never trades with a King, its own or the opponent's |
| Promotion | the enemy King's rank, or the edge rank beyond it | the enemy King's rank |