Slicron 2024

Slicron (from Scottish Gaelic: slighean a' crìonadh, meaning "shrinking paths") is a drawless stalemate game for two players: Black and White. It is played on the hexes (cells) of an initially empty hexagonal board. The recommended board size is 5 cells per side, but boards of 4 and 6 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 stones of the same color connected to each other. A single stone is also a group. A path is a subgroup within a group that joins two stones located on the edge of the board such that each stone is adjacent to at most two stones of the same path. If it does not contain two edge stones, it contains no path. A new path is a path that differs by at least one stone from every path the group contained before the placement. The length of a path is the number of stones it contains. A surplus stone is a stone in a group that does not belong to a path. Only groups with paths can have surplus stones.

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

Place a stone of your color on an empty cell. Choose a path if the placement forms one or more new paths. If the group already contained paths before the placement, the chosen path must be strictly shorter than the shortest of them; otherwise, the placement is illegal. Remove from the board all surplus stones in the group with respect to the chosen path.

End of the game:The player who places the last stone wins.

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