Start with an empty board and eight pawns each in hand. Play consists of two phases:
Stations You each in turn place a pawn anywhere on the board (left).
The battle With all 16 pawns in place, you each in turn capture an opposing pawn, following normal rules of movement and capture. If you can capture you must. If you have a choice of captures you may make any one. If you can't make a capture you must pass, and keep doing so until either you can capture or you both pass (right).
When both pass the game is won by whoever has most pawns left on the board, or, in case of equality, by the second player. The winner scores 1 point for each of their own pawns left on the board.
You each take turns to play first, and a match is won by the first player to reach an agreed aggregate of points.
Comment
Despite its extreme simplicity, Battle Stations is very tricky to play. The game shown above shows the order in which pawns were initially placed, with the first player (Black) gaining a 2-point win. The captures (x) were: 13x12, 10x11, 3x2, 4x3, 9x14, 10x5, 9x4, 10x13, 7x6, 16x15, 1x8, 10x1, 7x10. White can't take 7 with 16 because of the intervening red square..
Experience suggests that blues are strong placement squares and yellows probably weakest.
Reminder
Pawns move from red like a rook, from yellow like a bishop, from green like a knight, from blue like a king and not beyond the next square of the colour it started from. It may not jump or land on another pawn except to capture one of the opponent's.