The board starts off empty. White goes first, but is forbidden from putting any piece in the center space on their opening turn. After that, the players alternate, putting available pieces on any empty space. Each player has a set of 12 pieces in hand. This consists of: 2 Knights, 2 Bishops, 2 Rooks, 2 Men, 1 Queen, 1 Marshall, 1 Paladin, and 1 Castle (AKA Squirrel).

After all pieces have been put on the board, the second phase commences. On each turn, an enemy piece must be captured. Simply moving a piece to relocate it to an empty space is forbidden. The first player unable to complete a move on their turn loses.