Boloa 2022

Boloa is a connection game for two players: Black and White. It is played on the intersections (points) of an initially empty square grid (board). The top and bottom edges of the board are colored black; the left and right edges are colored white. There is a sufficient supply of stones and pawns in each of the players' colors.

DefinitionsA party is a pawn along with all pawns one can reach from it through a series of steps onto orthogonally adjacent pawns. Note a party can include pawns of both colors.

A party is said to be smothered if no pawn in it is orthogonally adjacent to an empty point.

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

Place a pawn of your color on an empty point.

Place a stone of your color on an empty point or on a point occupied by a pawn of either color. If the point is occupied by a pawn, move said pawn to an orthogonally adjacent point that is either empty or occupied by another pawn. The latter pawn is removed from the board.

Next, replace all pawns in every smothered party with stones of the same color as the majority of pawns in that party. If a smothered party contains the same number of pawns of each color, replace them with stones of your opponent's color.

At the end of your turn, for any two diagonally adjacent stones of your color there must be another stone of your color adjacent to both.

You win if there is a chain of orthogonally connected stones of your color touching the two opposite board edges of your color.

To make the game fair, the second player will have the option, on their first turn only, to swap sides with their opponent instead of making a regular move.

—description from the designer