This is the home of the Braids project.

SlayGame was written for my own amusement, and since it might be useful to others it has been released under GNU GPL through SourceForge. Below is a working Java Applet version of the program for you to try. It is less useable than the standalone Java Application version, but gives a taste of the functionality. You can download the executable jar at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/slaygame/ . The jar contains the code for the standalone version and for the applet.

Something went wrong with the applet. Hey ho.

Basic concepts:

This is another turn-based conquer-the world board game. Buy military units to conquer the world. The more land area you own, the faster you generate money. Soldiers cost money to keep, and if you run out of money they all starve to death (Hint: this is not a good thing). Castles cost nothing to run, but cannot move. You can drag units from the 'Town Detail Panel (half way up right hand side). Alternately you can invoke the 'Buy Window' by right-clicking with the mouse in the play area. You can then drag units from the 'Buy Window'.

Of course you can only buy units if you have enough money. And you can only drag them to a valid hexagon. To be valid a hexagon must either be owned by the town creating the unit, or adjacent to a hexagon owned by the town creating the unit. In the latter case the unit must be able to capture the adjacent hexagon.

Soldiers can capture a hexagon if they have enough rank. A hexagon has an 'effective rank' which is the rank of the highest ranking soldier or Castle either on the hexagon or on one of its immediate neighbours. Of course only units owned by the owner of the hexagon count. Ranks are:

Unowned hexagon: 0
Owned but empty hexagon: 0:
Private: 1
Captain: 2
Major: 3
Colonel: 4
Castle: 2
Town: 1 (but only protects the hexagon it is on).

Some other useful points:

The minimum size of territory is two hexagons. If a territory falls to one hexagon it ceases to be controlled by any player.
If you capture a Town you gain all the money that was in the town. If one of your towns is captured you lose all the monel in that town (Hint: this is another bad thing).
If you manage to join two territories the towns will be amalgamated into one, with all the money from the two towns.

The freestanding Java application has some extra benefits:

File load and save.
Set the parameters used in the computer player algorithm.
Towns can be moved to a safer hexagon (optional).
Soldiers can be retired by dragging them to a town - their cost is recovered and you need not pay them. This is optional.
'Expert Mode' can be turned off - you can see the whole map.
The random number stream can be controlled.

Editing a Braid Fragment

Editing of braid fragments gives you the opportunity to create your own repeating units. You can design your own corners (because corner tiles do not always look as good as they should). You can create patterns or designs as you choose. You can then mix these designs with with algorithmically designed tiles. Editing a braid fragment consists of adding, removing, and reshaping lines.

To remove a line, right click on it and choose delete.

To add a line right click on some empty space and choose 'line'.

To reshape a line, first click on it to select it. When selected you will see some scaffolding drawn in light grey. The scafflding consists of 'handles' (small squares) joined by line segments . You can reshape the line by dragging the handles to new locations. If you need to create a new handle, first choose the line segment on which you would like the new handle, thenn drag that line segment. A new handle is created automatically. If you wish to remove a handle, arrane for it to be on a straight lline between the handles either side. It will be removed.

You will notice that there is a rectangle on the screen. This rectangle represents the extent of the pattern fragment. Think of it as the window through which you will llook at the fragment. Any line, or portion of line outside this window will not be visible in the finished fragment. To help you visualise the finished fragment, the invisible portions are drawn in a lighter colour. When you accept edits, only those lines that wholly or partly wiithin the window are kept. Lines that fall entirely outside the window are discarded.

Making use of the Braid Patterns

Of course, all this iis useless without a way to use the patterns. Because of the limitations of the applet version of the program, you cannot save, load, or export the patterns. With the full version you have these options.

Currently there are two (or three depending on how you count them) means of export.

Export as an image file
Export as postscript file (either version 1 or version 3). This is exceedingly useful, as many programs can read postscript, and you can use their functionallity, rather than wait for the same functionality to bbe implemeented in Braids (that could be a long wait!). As an example, you could use GhostView to scale, format and print the diagram, or an art program (such as Paintshop pro) to enhance you design. (Note - my version of PaintshopPro does not understand Postscript3, hence the need for Postscript 1 output).