Meerkats 2014

2, 3 or 4 players

Materials

A hexagonal board with 5 hexagons per side, 64 stones in four colors, 16 red, 16 yellow, 16 green and 16 blue.

You will also need a small drawstring bag.

Definitions

Group – A set of like color connected stones, a single stone is also considered a group.

Rules

The board is placed between the players and starts out empty.

Place 4 stones 1 each of the 4 colors (red,green,blue,yellow) in a bag and then the youngest player draws a stone and passes the bag to the next player.

After all the stones are drawn players look at their stones without revealing them to the other players.

All stones will remain hidden until the end of the game.

The color of drawn stones corresponds to the color of the stones that belong to that player.

The remaining 60 stones are placed nearby.

The youngest player starts by dropping a stone of any color onto an empty hexagon, then turn moves clockwise.

From now on, each player on his turn must drop 1 stone of any color onto an empty hexagon and then move a different stone already on the board to another empty hexagon.

Restrictions

• A stone may not be dropped onto a cell that has no adjacent empty cell. • A stone is moved in a straight line either orthogonally until another stone in its path or the edge of the board blocks it. • Stones cannot jump over other stones.

The game ends when a player is unable to take his turn.

Players then reveal their hidden stones, the player with the largest group in her color wins.

If two or more players are tied when comparing their largest groups then look at their second largest groups as a tie-breaker.

When playing a 2 or 3 player game the rules are the same as above with but one exception, leave the undrawn stones in the bag.