Cilchefor 2025

Cilcheford (from Welsh: cylchffordd, meaning "circular path") is a drawless loop-forming game for two players: Black and White. It is played on the hexes (cells) of an initially empty hexagonal board. The recommended board size is 7 cells per side, but boards of 5 to 9 are also valid. Each player has access to a sufficient supply of stones of their own color.

(This game is now called Cilcheford)

Definitions: A group is a maximal set of connected stones of the same color. A single stone is also a group. A path of a group is a subset of connected stones within the group with a width of exactly one stone along its entire length. An end of a path is a stone adjacent to exactly one stone within the path. A path must contain exactly two ends, and the group to which it belongs can contain multiple distinct paths for each pair of ends. A loop is a path without ends that surrounds only empty cells or enemy stones. To flip is to replace enemy stones with friendly stones. The length of a path or part of it is the number of stones it contains.

Turns:Black plays first and then turns alternate. On your turn, if you cannot play, you must pass; otherwise, perform the following actions in order:

Place a stone of your color on an empty cell not adjacent to one and only one connected set of two or more friendly stones that, in turn, are all adjacent to the placed stone. Flip as many enemy stones from a connected sequence adjacent to your placed stone as you can, provided that in each connected flipping sequence the number of stones flipped is strictly less than the length of the path to which the placed stone belongs before performing any flip, and that no flipped stone ends up adjacent to one and only one connected set of two or more friendly stones adjacent to the stone that performed the flip.

Each newly flipped stone may, in turn, perform flips under the same conditions. When a stone that performs the flipping is adjacent to several enemy stones, the player chooses which sequences to continue; sequences that do not come into contact can be resolved simultaneously, and those that do must be resolved as a single one.

End of the game:The game ends when both players pass consecutively. At the end, each player scores one point for every stone that forms part of friendly loops, plus half a point for the first player to pass their turn. The player with the higher total wins.

To balance the game, before starting, the first player places a black stone on an empty cell, and the second player chooses a side. This balancing method is called the pie rule.

–description from the designer