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RootZone

Period

Modern

Category Board, Space, Group

Description

RootZone is an experimental territorial placement meta-game of the Mycilleum family (i.e. group growth), but based on growth from edges inward, with a goal of largest group, and prohibition on touching enemy positions. The game is played on a triangular grid in the shape of a hexagon that has alternating edges of 2N and 2N+2. This shape is chosen to avoid play points at the center of the board or of its edges. The implementation provides a selection of restrictions on the neighborhood of the piece being placed. Non-looping option has not been implemented. The standard is placement next to any number of friendly pieces, but not next to pieces with more than 3 neighbors. Please comment to author about which variants you prefer and why.

Rules

Goal: Scoring is based on your largest group (x2), with an extra point given to the first player to create a given size.
The player with the largest group at the end of the game thus wins, and ties go to the first player to achieve this goal.

Setup:
Yellow starts by creating a set-up, then Orange begins actual play - Pass to skip this phase

To create a set-up, Yellow first places a black blocking stone on any intersection and then a Yellow stone on an empty edge position. Orange then either begins play, or else exchanges the yellow piece with his own.

Play:
Players take turns placing their piece on an empty intersection that is either along the edge or next to another friendly piece, but never adjacent to an enemy position.

These placements are subject to 2 possible additional restrictions selected by the players before starting:

A) The number range of friendly neighbors the piece being placed may have: (Standard is to play with no restriction.)

and/or

B) The maximum number of neighbors that are allowed for the pieces against which the piece may be placed, with 2 being standard play.

Ending the game.
Play continues until both players pass consecutively, and then the final scores are compared.