Ludii Portal

Sprout-R-Out is a newly invented territorial game for Cairo and limping Hex boards based on an original placement protocol: Players place one stone next to each opponent's group, but without touching any other group. Any group that cannot be played beside is removed. This creates an capture dynamic superficially like Go where groups get overgrown and die. Unlike Go, a single, isolated eye, once formed, is enough to give life. On the other hand, even multiple larger eyes can be insufficient for life, because the timing of capture and the requirement to play against every opponent's group if possible, can leave multiple eyes filled with uncaptured stones. The feeling of the game definitely not like Go. The game is more tactical because placements are constrained to be adjacent to existing pieces, and multiple pieces are played per turn. Spreading pieces out to quickly surround the opponent during your turn can easily backfire, as it leads to more opponent placements and fewer locations needed by the opponent to surround your pieces.

Rules

Goal:
Highest score when the scores stop changing. Scores are based on territory described later.

Play:
First move by Black is a free placement to any cell.

Thereafter each player places a series of stones, one for each of the opponent's groups, on empty cells adjacent to only the respective group.

When there is no cell available beside a particular group, that group is removed at the end of the turn.

The application starts a player's turn by making every opponent's stone transparent. Groups that will be removed at the end of the turn are given a reddish hue. As stones are placed, the associated group turns back to a solid color to show that no more stones may be played next to it.

When the last stone has been placed the red tinted stones immediately disappear and the process begins again for the next player.

Scoring:
Scores are calculated by imagining that at the begining of a turn the red tinted stones have been removed. Then the remaining stones are counted by player, together with the spaces that they enclose. Spaces that are adjacent to both players, or connected to both players by a series of adjacent empty cells, are not counted.

The application keeps this count for you. When the count no longer changes after both players have taken their turns the game officially ends. The result is normally clear well in advance, but may require careful checking for groups that don't contain a single-cell eye.

(Future option not implemented: First move is a pie offering with associated victory points (Komi))