Sanguoqi, or Game of the Three Kingdoms, is a xiangqi variant for three players. The name refers to the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history, which war took place in the 3rd century between the states of Wei, Shu and Wu. The game itself may date back to the 12th or 13th century, although this is disputed.
I've always had sanguoqi on my list to make a set for, and was spurred on when I came across a sanguoqi board with a slightly unusual shape:
In terms of pieces, when I got my original Terracotta Warriors set, I actually got two of them, with the idea of using the second set of pieces for 'something else'. Well, 'something else' has now arrived!
I decided to use the dark brown pieces from the first Terracotta Warriors set for my sanguoqi set, and paint the pieces of the second set middle brown ...
... or light beige.
Then onto creating the board. Printed off the picture file of the coloured board with the unusual shape, and stuck that to a piece of plywood.
Then, I used a hammer and awl to indicate where all the 'points' of the board need to be (you'll see why soon enough!)
With small holes for all 'points', I got rid of the printed-off picture, and then sawed off the edges, giving it a hexagonal shape.
I used wood stain to highlight the playing area (pine wood stain) and y-shaped river (mahogany wood stain).
To create the lines, I used gold-coloured leather strips, and used upholstery pins for the points. See now why I needed the small holes for each point?
Board completed!
Final step, as always: put the pieces on the board.
Very pleased with how this sanguoqi set worked out; actually even better than I expected!
