Realm is played on a unique 12×12 board with only two types of mobile pieces. The goal is to capture more territory than your opponent by blocking and immobilizing their pieces. A few simple rules let you generate more pieces, which leads to ever-evolving tactics.

• Designer: Phil Orbanes, Sr. (with input from Sid Sackson), 1973
• Coder: Aaron Dalton (Perlkönig)
• Realm at BoardGameGeek
• “Rules” mirror at Superdupergames (an Abstract Games article from 2002)
• Rules from the 2011 Nestorgames edition at BoardGameGeek or at nestorgames.com

Realm has gotten a bit of attention over the years; you can find some interesting links at BoardGameGeek.

Realm is played on a unique 12×12 board with two types of mobile pieces. Capture more territory than your opponent by blocking and immobilizing their pieces. Simple generation rules produce more pieces and shifting tactics.

Inventor: Phil Orbanes, Sr.

See BoardGameGeek: Realm.

The game ends when a player has no bases left in stash (they have placed their last base). Score controlled realms (one point each for each of your bases on the board). Mobile and unused enforcers add 0.1 each. Higher score wins; ties are draws unless a tie variant is on.

12×12 board divided into realms (3×3 blocks). Each player has a stash of bases, powers, and enforcers. Opening placement puts bases with alignment restrictions: you may not place a base sharing a row or column with another friendly base unless you have no other legal cell (or you play Relaxed Placement).

Typical actions include placing a base into an eligible realm, moving powers and enforcers between realms, and generating extra pieces when conditions in a realm are met. Pieces that cannot move are immobilized and help lock territory.

When moving several pieces in one turn you must either concentrate (all end in the same realm) or disperse (all start in the same realm).

Adjust starting base count (moreBase, lessBase).

Adjust enforcer count (moreEnforcer, lessEnforcer).

Extra power pieces (morePower).

Tie-break by counting captured bases (first nine at 0.01 each) (capturedBases).

Changes who acts first after setup (lastFirst).

Replacement-style captures (replacement).

Checkpoint scoring mode (checkpoint).

Alternate control scoring (control).

Bases may share rows and columns freely (relaxed).

• Current engine version: 20230521 (2023-05-21). On Abstract Play since 2023-06-08.

• Stashes are shown in the sidebar. Several experimental combinations exist; skip the TEST variant.

• https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3024/realm