Esgrad 2024

Esgrad (from Scottish Gaelic: Sgaradh, meaning "partition") is a drawless game for two players: Black and White. It is played on the intersections (points) of an initially empty hexagonal board with triangles. The recommended board size is 7 points per side, but boards of 5 or 9 are also valid. Each player has access to a sufficient supply of stones of their own color.

Definitions: A group is a maximal set of connected stones of the same color. A single stone is also a group. A partition of a group is each of the areas separated by the group that cannot be connected to each other except through said group. The value of a group is the number of partitions it contains based on triangular scoring, which is calculated by summing consecutive natural numbers from 1 to the number of partitions in the group.

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

Place a stone of your color on an empty point. Pass your turn.

End of the game:The game ends when both players pass their turns consecutively. At the end of the game, points are counted by summing the value of all friendly groups, plus an extra half point to the player who passes his turn first.

To balance the game, before starting, the first player chooses an integer number as the komi value and then the second player chooses a side. This balancing method is called komi pie.

—description from the designer