Tirioga 2024

Tirioga (from Welsh: tiriogaeth, meaning "territory") is a drawless 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 9 points per side, but boards with 7 or 11 points per side are also valid. Each player has access to a sufficient supply of stones in their color.

Definitions: A group is a maximal connected set of stones of the same color. A single stone is also considered a group. The size of a group is the number of stones it contains. A stone sees a cell if it is connected to that cell by a straight line without enemy stones in between. The rooted stone of a group is the first stone of that group placed on the board during a turn. The branched stones of a group are all stones placed after the rooted stone within the same group during the same turn. A new group is a group placed during a turn and is composed of a rooted stone along with all branched stones that follow it; otherwise, it is an old group. A new group may contain no branched stones.

Turns:Black plays first and then turns alternate. On your turn, place a rooted stone on an empty cell, followed by branched stones with which you will form a new placed group of size N, where the rooted stone sees N friendly groups. Branched stones may be placed on empty cells or cells occupied by enemy stones to capture them by replacement. If you cannot place stones, pass your turn; otherwise, passing is not allowed.

End of the game:The player who occupies more than half of the board wins.

To balance the game, before starting, the first player places one black stone and one white stone on empty cells, and the second player chooses a side. This balancing method is called the two-stone pie rule.

—description from the designer