Edaraz 2023

Edaraz (from Proto-Germanic: Edaraz, meaning "edge" or "enclosure") is a territorial game for two players: Black and White. It is played on the hexes (cells) of a hexagonal board. The recommended board size is 7 cells per side, but boards of 5 or 9 are also valid. There is also a place outside the board called prison. Each player has a sufficient supply of stones of their own color.

Definitions: A lifeline is a path of empty points in a straight line from a stone to an empty cell on the edge of the board or to a friendly stone with lifelines. Stones can share their lifelines between several friendly stones without requiring any empty points between them. A territory is one or more empty points connected to each other. You own a territory if all the stones connected to it are of your color.

Turns:Black plays first and then turns alternate. On your turn, perform one of the following actions:

Place a stone of your color on an empty point where it has at least one lifeline, then move all dead enemy groups to prison. After this action, all friendly stones must have lifelines, and the board position must be different from the positions of the board at the end of all your previous turns. Remove an enemy stone from prison. If the prison contains stones of both colors, remove pairs of stones of opposite colors until only stones of one color or none remain.

End of the game:The player who performed the last action wins the game.

To balance the game, before starting, the first player places several black stones in prison, and then the second player chooses the sides. This balancing method is called komi pie. For handicap games, the weaker player takes black and opens by placing a number of black stones on the board proportional to the difference in skill between the players.

—description from the designer