Asli 2023

Asli is a territory game for two players: Black and White. It is played on the intersections (points) of an initially empty square grid (board). There is also an off-board location called prison.

This game is based on Lifeline.

DefinitionsA group is a stone along with all stones one can reach from it through a series of steps onto orthogonally adjacent stones of its color.

A group is alive if there is a free path along the lines of the board between that group and another group of its color. The path does not need to be a straight line. A group is also alive if there has never been more than one group of its color on the board. A group that is not alive is dead.

A territory is an empty point along with all points one can reach from it through a series of steps onto orthogonally adjacent empty points. You own a territory if all stones orthogonally adjacent to it are of your color.

An incursion is a placement by one player in a territory owned by the other player. An incursion is minimal if it turns exactly one live enemy group into a dead group.

PlayBlack plays first, then turns alternate. On your turn, perform exactly one of these actions:

Hold: Remove an enemy stone from the prison. Play: Place a stone of your color on an empty point, then move all dead enemy groups to the prison. If the prison now contains stones of both colors, remove pairs of opposite-colored stones from it until at most one color remains.

At the end of your turn, there must be no dead friendly groups on the board. You cannot make a minimal incursion if your opponent just made a minimal incursion anywhere on the board.

The last player to perform an action wins. If a play recreates any previous end-of-turn board position with the same player to move, the game ends in a draw. This is possible in theory, but probably requires colluding players.

Before the game begins, to make it fair, the first player places a number of black stones in the prison, and then the second player chooses sides.

—description from the designer