Lingarda 2024

Lingard (from Old English: līn "line" and ġeard "enclosure") is a territorial game for two players: black and white. It is played on the intersections (points) of a hexagonal board with triangles, recommended to be 7 points per side, but boards of 5 or 9 are also valid. Each player has a sufficient supply of stones of their color.

(This game is now called Lingard)

Definitions: A lifeline is a maximal path of unbroken empty points in a straight line from a stone to the edge of the board or to a friendly stone that has a lifeline. Stones can share their lifelines across multiple friendly stones with at least one empty point between them. An enclosure is a set of connected empty points that is completely surrounded by stones of any color and/or the edge of the board. You own an enclosure if the majority of the stones surrounding it are of your color. To flip is to replace enemy stones with friendly stones.

Turns:Black plays first and then turns alternate. On your turn, perform these actions in the following order:

Place a stone of your color on an empty point where it has at least one lifeline or pass your turn if you cannot do it. Flip enemy stones that do not have lifelines.

If at the end of your turn any of your stones do not have lifelines, your move is invalid.

End of the game:The game ends when no more valid moves can be made. At that point, scoring is conducted by adding the empty points within each enclosure controlled by a player, plus the stones of their color on the board. To avoid ties, the last player to make a placement receives half a point.

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