Namsaxetaf

Namsaxetaf (Amafjk for "cartography") is a Matkhan game played with a deck of specialized cards, two moveable pieces (known as xanat, meaning "ships") of opposing colors (traditionally black and white, with black moving first), and two sets of tokens in the same colors as the moveable pieces. The game is based on territorial control – that is to say, whoever has the most tokens on the grid of cards at the end of the game is the winner.

Setup

In its most basic variation, a Namsaxetaf game begins with laying out 49 cards from the deck face-down in a 7×7 grid, then placing the two pieces on opposite corners of the board. A draw pile of the remaining cards is set next to the grid.

Gameplay

Each turn, a player draws a card from the draw pile. They then place this card face-up in the current location of their xanat, taking the card that was formerly below it. If the card below was a "calm sea" card (depicted as either a blank card or a card with the text "xatjkfj tjxxa"), the player's turn ends. Otherwise, they follow the movement pattern listed on the newly played card, then repeats this process starting from the card they have moved to. If a player moves to a card that was formerly face down, a token of their color is placed there.

In tournament gameplay, there is typically a limit put on the number of added moves, usually limiting each player to three moves per turn. The game ends when either the draw pile is fully exhausted or when all cards in the main grid are revealed.

Cards

A conventional Namsaxetaf deck contains 100 cards. Among them, there are:

30 calm sea cards
10 wazir cards, known as sankisfj tjtka ("straight breeze")
10 ferz cards, known as sankisfj kjnna ("crooked breeze")
8 dabbaba cards, known as xafjn tjtka ("straight gust")
8 alfil cards, known as xafjn kjnna ("crooked gust")
5 war machine cards, known as tasjf tjtka ("straight wind")
5 falafel cards, known as tasjf kjnna ("crooked wind")
5 typhoon half-knight cards, known as atjxas njfka ("left whirlpool")
5 hurricane half-knight cards, known as atjxas fjsat ("right whirlpool")
4 rook cards, named separately after the four cardinal winds: Namatke (Septentrio), Manma (Solanus), Natat (Auster), and Axjfka (Favonius)
4 bishop cards, named separately after the four intercardinal winds: Mannjm (Aquilo), Natmjn (Eurus), Axnjt (Africus), and Namxa (Caurus)
2 dragon king cards
2 dragon horse cards
2 queen cards