Should I Play TROSS!: Viking Chess?
Players: 2 – 2 players | Game Duration 15 – 45 mins |
Min. Age 11+ | Game complexity: EASY Genre:
Solo game mode: No | Co-op: No |
Online Version: No
What is TROSS!: Viking Chess about?
TROSS is Viking chess/checkers. Unlike usual checkers, you want to humiliate your opponent by capturing their throne, not eliminate their pieces. It’s about the throne, not the pawns. Dishonor them and send them home cowering! TROSS is Norwegian for “to spite”. You must outwit the opponent without killing all their pieces completely. To accomplish this, you may have to spite your own pieces.
This is a handmade game that also includes a canvas scroll game board and a red-stained, wooden box with screen printing of the TROSS logo. Hand-stained, the 20 wooden cube pieces are packaged in a burlap drawstring bag.
Using the attachment on the back of the upper wooden end of the board, you can also wall hang the board and display it as the piece of art it is. It is available with red-stained wood ends. Both the game storage box and the wood ends are stained red.
This game concept was created by Aaron Stimpson and produced by Jon Dyer of Twice Alive Games.
Tross resembles chess and checkers, but there is a distinct difference: the goal is to leave as many of your opponent’s pieces on the board as possible. As with chess or checkers, you are capable of jumping your opponent’s pieces to advance your own, but to do so would defeat the purpose of the game. In this game, players are encouraged to make what they refer to as the “Tross Move” in which they sacrifice their own pieces to spite their opponents, which is appropriate since the word “Tross” itself is the Norse word for “spite.”
Tross is a brilliant strategy game that’s incredibly simple and can be played anywhere with ease. In contrast to traditional chess and checker, leaving pieces on the board is a refreshing change.
Rules
TROSS!: Viking Chess Videos