Ten Ways to Lose a Battle Quiz | Games & Toys

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Felix was happy. He had completed his heroic zigzag sprint across the board and grown to previously unknown heights as a crown was placed upon him. Now King Felix I the Black, he proudly marched back into the battle raging around him. But what was that? A red-clad secret agent just jumped over him, seemingly from nowhere and Felix fell the deep fall of a loser. Which board game did Felix take part in?

Answer: Checkers

Also known as draughts, the game of checkers has many international variants, most of which are named after countries. They differ in the number of starting pieces, the movement capabilities of the king piece, the exact rules for jumping and capturing and various other details. Several versions also prescribe the board colors, but in general, you can play with any pair of well-contrasting colors.

The traditional checkers board uses red and black, most modern tournament sets are red and white.

2. Like it often is, the first fall is the hardest, but not the deepest. King Felix found himself grown, had a queen and two castles, until disaster struck. An invading army forced him to retreat behind the very pawns he commanded and put a castle next to himself. A pesky opposing knight ended Felix' realm from outside this fortress, because Felix had no place to go and none of his underlings could deal with the knight. This obviously happened on a chessboard, but what is the special term given to this kind of checkmate?

Answer: Smothered mate

A smothered mate is rare and usually very frustrating to the mated player. It occurs when a king is completely enclosed by his own pieces (typically a rook and pawns) and then attacked by an opposing knight. Typically, a smothered mate is preceded by one or more piece sacrifices, often involving the attacking queen as the last sacrificed piece.

A back rank mate is delivered by a rook or queen when the king has no forward squares open, fool's mate is the shortest game possible in chess (1. g4 e5 2. f3 Qh4#) and shepherd's mate is another short mate (4 to 7 moves depending on variant) delivered by a queen on the f7 or f2 square.

3. Poor Felix found himself dethroned from king and reduced to a pawn - not a black one, however, but a green one. He spent the next hours attempting to escape from a house, round a courtyard once and then to enter a safe home square. However, whenever he tried, he was sent back home by pawns wearing different colors. The final straw and defeat came when he was chasing a similarly escaped red pawn who, just as Felix wanted to capture him, turned right into the safe haven. Which game was definitely *not* played here?

Answer: Halma

Sorry!, Ludo and Parcheesi are all variants of an originally Indian game for two to four players. The object of the game is to move all of a player's pawns from the "house" or starting square, once around the board, and then into a safe target zone. Pawns can capture (and send back home) opposing pawns by landing on them.

In Germany, the game has a trademark-protected version called "Mensch �rgere dich nicht" (Human, do not get angry) with the back of the game board showing a unique six-player layout. Six-player games usually last two hours and up since it is extremely rare to get a pawn to the goal when there are twenty others hunting it. Halma is an alternative name for Chinese Checkers.

4. It seemed Felix' fate to remain as a green pawn a bit longer. However, this time, he had no like colored colleagues helping him but was all alone. Dejectedly, he started walking back and forth, occasionally climbing a bit when he found the right implement to do so. Things started to look bright for him when he saw the shiny word "GOAL" just in front of him, but in that very second, something sharp and poisonous bit his ankle. As his senses dimmed, he only remembered falling, falling, almost all the way back to the beginning. What treacherous game had he been sent to this time?

Answer: Snakes and Ladders

Snakes and Ladders is a game primarily enjoyed by children who are graduating from the color-movement dice involved in games like Candy Land to the more complex games involving traditional pipped dice. The game involves no decision making, just the luck of the die and the ever turning fate as a seemingly unstoppable lead can be turned into a desperate last place and back over the course of just a few moves.

It is also a very good game for parents to play with small children because they do not have to make intentional (and possibly obvious) bad moves to let the child win - everyone has completely equal chances in this game. Once children have grasped the concept of moving with the die, they can graduate to more complex games like the parcheesi family and Malefiz.

5. Finally awakening from the poisonous bite, Felix still found himself in the guise of green pawn, however this time, his colleagues were back with him. They were grouped around the image of a black-haired lady, but this did not last long because they were sent out to do heavy labor - removing barricades and placing them in the path of the other players. At the beginning, Felix already thought his luck had turned as he rather quickly advanced, but then he found himself on a seemingly endless stretch and able to move only at the slowest pace because before him, there was nothing but barricade after barricade. Yet, he made progress, but once again, he was denied a victory: From head on, a yellow pawn got the last barricade out of the way faster and sealed Felix' latest defeat. What cruel game did fate play with him now?

Answer: Malefiz

Originally a German creation, Malefiz is enjoyed internationally. The name literally means "doing evil" and this evil is the placement of barricade stones in front of other players' pawns. The board layout is roughly triangular, with several paths leading from the base to the top and then, after that part, a single long two-branch loop to the goal on which a runaway player will inevitably be slowed by many barricades. Pawns and barricades can be captured by moving onto them; captured pawns are sent back home while barricades may be placed on any vacant square.

The game involves a lot of luck but also some subtle strategy and is a great family game to play with children 6 to 10.

6. "Hah, Barricades", Felix thought as he fell, "I have never been good at menial work." With that thought, his latest metamorphosis put him in a dark blue trench coat, wearing all the implements and devices of a wartime spy. Around him, a defensive battle raged. Determined to win, Felix maneuvered through the attacking enemy lines, heading for their field marshal. From a perfect vantage point behind the enemy leader, he launched a perfect sneak attack. The marshal fell and cheers of triumph arose around him - unfortunately, those cheers were those of the enemy, who had just taken down the blue flag and won the battle. What game was played here?

Answer: Stratego

Stratego is an enjoyable two-player strategy game cleverly making use of hidden information. Each player starts with an army of 40 pieces - one flag, six bombs and 33 pieces of varying rank from Field Marshal down to Scout and Spy. All pieces have a blank back, so initially, players do not know which opposing piece is where. Players freely choose their starting setup, after which each player can move one piece in turn.

A piece may attack any opponent; pieces are then revealed and the higher rank prevails (ties remove both pieces).

A piece attacking the flag wins the game, a piece attacking a bomb is always lost unless it is a Miner (the third lowest rank). The Spy loses to every other piece except to the Field Marshal. Stratego has spawned several spin-off games including a collectible variant and while there is only one official set layout for the main game, I know several players who have produced artfully designed custom pieces and boards based on their favorite settings.

7. Whoever controlled this ongoing torture of defeats had at least recognized that Felix had tried his best and so he found himself on the battlefield again, this time representing a whole blue army, with many other armies around him. With all his rage, Felix tore in and left a swath of defeated enemies across Europe and Asia into Australia, but, to his chagrin, the group with him dwindled rapidly. Finally, he turned around, all alone on a world teeming with red soldiers. All his valiant defense was for naught as he fell to the onslaught of over thirty armies. This lost game happened on which board?

Answer: Risk

The classic game of world domination, liberation or whatever is the politically correct term of the day, Risk has undergone many variations in design and some subtle rules changes. The core principle remains the same - from a starting setup on a world map divided into 42 territories and 6 continents, 2 to 6 players deploy their armies and attack neighboring countries.

The gameplay mechanisms strongly favor a player who has once created himself an advantage, which often turns out frustrating to losing players in a 5 or 6 player game - they cannot get anywhere, but neither will anyone use their resources on eliminating a player who is not a threat, forcing the underdog to play a long game of doing mostly nothing.

In a three and four player game however, play usually evolves very smoothly - fortunes sway back and forth until a player has a decisive advantage and then complete domination comes quickly.

8. Blue was obviously a color that befitted Felix well, because it stayed with him for another game. This time, he found himself on a factory floor, dodging lasers and fireballs, avoiding bottomless pits, cleverly using conveyor belts and bottom-mounted gears for his advantage and even pushing the other inhabitants around as if he were boss. The sweet taste of victory was oh so near, when, from the right, something zoomed into him and pushed him into a pit. While falling, he heard the gleeful laughter of the one who had just captured the final flag. What board had Felix just rudely been removed from?

Answer: RoboRally

Designed by Richard Garfield, the creator of the world's successful trading card game Magic: the Gathering, RoboRally is a gem that was for a long time relatively unknown outside the specialized hobby circles, but has recently expanded to the mass market in a second edition. Its basic premise consists of players secretly programming robots to execute a certain sequence of moves and rotations, then simultaneously flipping and executing these programs. The interaction between robots (who can push and shoot each other) and board elements often results in robots winding up far from their intended destination.

The original first edition of the game and its expansions were short printed and are highly sought after items. They can fetch significantly over 100 dollars per set on the secondary market if they can be found at all. The first and third set have also been printed in a German licensed version with some minor changes, but these are out of print now as well. First and second edition boards and game materials of all languages are fully mutually compatible and playable under both editions' rules. There are also many additional board designs beyond the official 20 available through a lively fan community on the internet as PDF files that will print to very exact scale with the original game materials.

9. Would Felix' luck finally turn? For once he found himself in the role of a normal human being (crudely represented by an, of course, blue pin-like item) driving a nice red car. He even got a good job, married a nice pink pin-like item, had some pin-like children with her, amassed several hundred thousand dollars of cash and ultimately retired only to be told he had just been defeated again - everybody else was richer than he was and down he fell, just having been declared the loser again. You probably know the game's name, but what was the fastest speed his car would go during the game?

Answer: 10 squares

The Game of Life, in all its many incarnations, has the unique distinction that even the loser is usually not faring too badly. Unlike other games where the object is the be the richest player at the end of the game, elimination via bankruptcy is not possible and the game is designed to make players usually wind up with a positive balance at the end, even when they do have bad luck. Strategy is limited in the game, but the three-dimensional board inserts, the lively description of the events and the use of a spinner make this game an accessory for a great night of play even among adults who usually prefer more complex games.

The spinner has 10 numbers, so the top speed at which the car-shaped playing pieces move is 10.

10. How low a man can end his life. In his last battle and inevitable defeat, Felix found himself as a dog, chasing around a square over and over. However far from enjoying doggish pleasures like chasing a stick or wetting a hydrant, he was thrown into jail, had to pay taxes, became victim of street repairs and many other things normally only making a human life miserable. His only joy was the one small house he lived in, 4700 S Boardwalk, but his fate was sealed when he stopped in front of a hotel. Right in front of him was a treasure chest, right behind him was a steam locomotive. Neither helped him as he was dragged off the Monopoly board in his final defeat. However, on which square did he suffer that final insult?

Answer: St. James Place

This question was probably the hardest in this quiz - kudos if you got it right. There were two hints you had to combine to solve this correctly: The position of the player between a railroad (steam locomotive) and a community chest (treasure) identifies the square as the first orange property (the 16th square from GO).

However both Bow Street and St. James Place fill this position - one on the British board, the other on the US one. The key here is the house on Boardwalk which identifies the board as the US version - so the answer is St. James Place. Felix, by the way, obviously held less than $475 cash at the time of his defeat - selling the house on Broadway nets $100 and mortgaging the two properties he held is worth $375, leaving him with less than $475 just before the $950 rent bankrupted him.

In fact, his cash reserves were an exact $474, adding injury upon insult but finally ending his cruel nightmare of endless defeats.

Source: Author WesleyCrusher

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Bruyere before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Ten Ways to Lose a Battle Trivia Quiz

Welcome to the Theater of Bored Boards! Tonight, we are playing a tragedy in ten acts, about Felix the unlucky, the one who lost it all. Can you identify what board each act took place on?

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