You've entrusted your nine courtiers to deliver a beautiful love letter to Princess Persephone, but your opponent also has nine courtiers delivering an equally moving love letter to the same princess.
In each case, 8 letters are decoys and only the letter with the red seal is that of "true love". You must intercept your rival's true love letter to make sure only your letter sways her affections.
Components
- 1 Board
- 18 Letters (8 yellow, 8 blue and 2 red)
- 18 Characters (9 gold and 9 blue)
- 18 plastic holders with mirrors (9 gold and 9 blue)
- Instructions
Setup
Each player has nine character pieces: four ladies, three knights, and two masters. The front of the piece shows the picture and name of the courtier; the back has a mirror.
Each of the three types of character pieces has a distinctive shape and carries a letter with a seal: four yellow, four blue, and one red.
Decide which pieces get which letter, and slide the letter into the back of the piece, with the color of the seal facing out the back of the piece.
 Game Board |
Place the board between the players and put your pieces on the labeled spaces of the side nearest you. Players decide which lady goes in each "Lady" space, which knight in each "Knight" space, and which master in each "Master" space.
Have the mirrors facing you, so the opponent cannot see the color of the letters that each piece has.
The gold player moves first.
Game Play
Each one of your nine pieces has a "letter to the Princess" tile, as does each of your opponent's pieces. When you attempt to capture an opponent's piece, you must correctly identify which of the three color seals is on the letter that piece carries, or you will lose the capturing piece.
You will need to jump your pieces behind your opponent's pieces and use the mirrors on your pieces to see the color of the seal that those pieces are carrying.
Movement
Masters move one space in any direction, orthogonally or diagonally, like a king in chess.
Knights jump in an L pattern, two squares in one direction and then one square perpendicularly or vice versa, like a knight in chess.
Ladies jump over pieces, orthogonally or diagonally, landing on the other side, and may keep jumping over and over as many pieces as desired, as long as the lady lands in an open space between each jump (as in checkers)-except that she is allowed to jump orthogonally as well.
Capture
When your piece lands on an opponent's piece, you must announce what color seal is on the letter (yellow, or blue, or red) of the opponent's piece.
The opponent shows you the actual color of that piece, and if you are correct, the opponent's piece is removed from play. Otherwise, your piece is removed from play.
If your opponent's piece with the red sealed love letter is removed from play, you win! Also, if your opponent has just one piece left, you win.
You may not capture your own piece.
Examples: In these examples, "x" indicates an opponent's piece that can be captured.
Masters move like chess kings and can only move one square in any direction.
Knights move like chess knights; three squares in an "L" shape.
Ladies jump like checker pieces, so they must jump over something in order to make a move.
Clarifications
You are allowed to lean right and left to see your opponent's pieces in your pieces' mirrors. Your piece should be able to see the letters in the spaces diagonally next to it.
When you jump using a lady piece, you cannot pause between jumps and look around. Only when your lady finishes her jump may you put the piece down and use the mirror to see what letters your opponent's pieces carry.
In fact, you cannot move any piece, look in the mirror, and change your mind about where you moved. Once you've touched the piece, you are committed to that move.
Like knights, ladies don't capture what they jump over, they capture what they land on.
A lady cannot move when there is no piece next to her. In chess, the queen becomes more powerful as the board loses pieces, but in Mirror, Mirror the ladies become less powerful.
Unlike chess, there is no concept of "check", and you may inadvertently move the piece with the red seal on the love letter into a position where it may be captured.
You are allowed to take notes. The names of all the pieces are alphabetical to make that easier.
Continue Reading
