IceSickle: the Martian Peg Game

A single stash game for two players.
from Dan Isaac
(Variants are available below for group and for solo games)

IceSickle (1 IceHouse stash & 5x5 board):
Alternate turns placing pieces onto empty squares.
Then take turns jumping a piece,
diagonally or orthogonally,
over at least one other piece
into an empty square.
Each piece can jump over its pip-count in squares.
Remove the jumped pieces, and score their pips.
Continue until no jumps remain.
Play again with a different starting player.

Variants: There are many slightly different variants for this basic game.

Here are a few of them:

Winning Condition:

High Scoring jumps --
Each players score is based on the number of pips worth of pieces that they have captured with their jumps.
Highest score wins.

Low Scoring jumps --
Each players score is based on the number of pips worth of pieces that they have captured with their jumps.
Lowest score wins.

Last man standing --
The last player to make a valid jump wins.

Remaining points --
The last player to make a valid move gets a score equal to the number of remaining pips on the board.
Highest score wins.

Number of Players:

Solo: --
  • Randomly place the pieces on the board (or use a specified pattern) and continue to make legal jumps until you are no longer able.
    • This can be played to try to leave the fewest (or the most) number of pieces (or points).
    Or it can be played to make the fewest (or most) number of moves.
    It can also be played to attempt to leave only a single piece of a specified size in a certain location on the board.
    (Normally, attempting to leave a small piece in the center square of the board, or occasionally in one of the corners.)

    Multi-player: -- (no more then 4-players recommended)
  • This variant is played as in the two-player game,
    • but multiple games must be played with each player placing the first piece in each game.
    The order of the players shold remain the same throughout the rounds.

    Rules
    Variants
    History & Thanks
    One Page Printable Rules

    Le Fin.