The factions of The City often resolve their bitter conflicts with senseless bloodshed at the expense of innocents. What if they could settle their differences with a nice game of chess instead? This FM is a real, playable computer chess game, set in the Thief world with appropriate AI “pieces” in three different battle scenarios. The Fruit 2.1 chess engine determines the computer player's moves.

Scenarios

The City vs. Blackbrook
This is the final, decisive conflict of the two powers' long-running war, fought on a misty rural battlefield.
Hammerites vs. Undead
The Old Quarter is secure, but now the Order must retake another necromancy-infested temple on a snowy night.
Pagans vs. Mechanists
In this alternate history, Viktoria managed to resurrect Constantine, allowing the Pagans to hold their own against the Mechanists in their rainy forest home.

How to Play

Getting started
Gameplay
Endgames

New to Chess?

If you have never played chess or don't quite know all the rules, this FM is a good place to start! Here are some tips:

The Details

Languages
This FM can be played in English, French, German, Italian, Russian, or Spanish.
Version
This is version 1.0, released on 2013-04-16 as latrunculi-1.0.zip.
Compatibility
This FM for Thief II: The Metal Age requires the unofficial NewDark patch (1.19 or higher). I recommend using Tafferpatcher to get everything set up.
Installation
As always, do not unzip this file. Put it in the appropriate directory and load it with FMSel or DarkLoader.
Known issues
Chess engines
If you would like to use a UCI-compliant chess engine other than Fruit 2.1, just replace the engine.ose file in the FM directory with that engine's program file. (Note that the FM has not been tested with any other engine.) You can also replace openings.bin with a different PolyGlot-format openings book if desired.
Construction
The FM was built from scratch over about a month's time. It includes various fan-made (see below) and self-made resources.
Legal jargon
Copyright © 2013 Kevin Daughtridge. You may distribute this level in any way as long as it remains unmodified and I am credited for it. Please contact me if you are interested in modifying it or reusing individual elements. (My custom scripts are licensed under the GPL; see below.) This level was not made and is not supported by Looking Glass Studios or Eidos Interactive.
Contact info
Kevin Daughtridge is kdau on TTLG and can be reached by email at <kevin AT kdau DOT com>.

Credits and Thanks

Like all FMs, this one owes its existence both to the rich world that Looking Glass created and to the amazing fan community that has been expanding that world for 14 years. And though it may not come in a form visible to players, the work of those who have documented the Dark Engine, patched its arcane innards, created tutorials and tools, and answered countless questions is invaluable. Thank you!

I especially thank my beta testers, Tannar, Notesthes, fibanocci, CMD, itllrun10s, Eiji, and Darklady, for playing a tournament's worth of chess games to make this mission its best. Thanks also to everyone at TTLG for their support and feedback, and to Shalebridge Cradle for hosting the beta testing process.

Thanks to the translators who made this mission accessible to as many players as possible: to Azaran for French, to Notesthes for German, to Smallman_647 for Italian, and to Soldi for Russian. (The Spanish translation is my own. Material in the “Rules of Chess” book is from the chess Wikibook or Wikipedia article in each language.)

Thanks to the voice actors who brought the heralds to life, grounding the scenarios in the Thief world: Phantasmagore as the Hammerite herald; Michael Myers (saxmeister) as the Pagan and Mechanist heralds; and Rob Strain (Random Taffer) as the heralds for The City, Blackbrook, and the undead.

Some earlier fan works helped to inspire this FM:

Thanks to these community members whose resources I have used:

Materials newly introduced to Thief for this FM include: