Cropa 2024

Cropa (from Old English: croppa, meaning "group") is a drawless unification game for two players: Black and White. It is played on the hexes (cells) of an initially empty hexagonal board. The recommended size is 7 cells per side, but boards with 5 or 9 cells are also valid. Each player has access to a sufficient supply of stones in their own color.

Definitions: A group is the maximal set of connected stones of the same color. A single stone is also a group. The size of a group is the number of stones it contains.

Turns: On the very first turn, Black places one stone on any empty cell. From then on, starting with White, the players take turns placing exactly two stones, one by one, such that each group of stones placed is at most one stone larger than the size of the largest group of any color, excluding itself if before placement it was the largest group. If you cannot place both of your stones, pass your turn; otherwise passing is not allowed.

End of the game:The game ends when both players pass in consecutive turns. The player with the fewest groups of size 1 wins. If there is a tie, groups of size 2 are compared, and so on, until there are no more ties.

—description from the designer