Luis Bolaños Mures
2023-04-29 15:19:54 UTC
Advanced Square Lifeline is a territorial strategy game for two players: Black and White. It is played on the intersections (points) of an initially empty square grid (board). There is also an off-board location called prison.
DEFINITIONS
In these rules, "connected" always means "orthogonally connected".
A group is an entire set of connected stones of the same color. A single stone, not connected to others of its color, is also a group. A group is dead if there is no path of connected empty points between that group and any other group of its color. The path does not need to be a straight line.
A territory is an entire set of connected empty points. A single empty point, not connected to others, is also a territory. You own a territory if all stones connected to it are of your color.
An incursion is a placement by one player in a territory owned by the other player. An incursion is null, small or big if it causes zero, one or more than one enemy groups, respectively, to be moved to the prison.
PLAY
Black plays first, then turns alternate. On your turn, perform exactly one of the following actions:
🌟 Remove an enemy stone from the prison.
🌟 Place a stone of your color on an empty point. If it is your first turn of the game, perform this action twice. Next, move all dead enemy groups to the prison. Finally, move all dead friendly groups to the prison. If the only stone you move to the prison is the only stone you just placed, your move is illegal.
You can never make a null incursion, and you cannot make a small incursion if your opponent just made a small incursion. Big incursions are always allowed.
The last player to place a stone on the board wins. Note that, after your first turn, you will always have a placement available unless you have no groups on the board.
If you place a stone on your turn and, by the end of it, the board position is the same as it was at the end of any of your previous turns, the game ends in a draw. This is known to be a possibility if both players cooperate to it, which should not happen in actual play (see below).
To make the game fair, before the game starts, the first player places a number of black stones in the prison, and then the second player chooses sides. This balancing method is called komi pie.
NOTES
The prisoner removal rule is intended to promote fighting play, curtail hopeless invasions and enhance the territorial nature of the game. Under this rule, as in Go, capturing a number of enemy stones is twice as beneficial as surrounding the same number of empty points, as the moves you will get from those stones as they sit in prison negate the moves that your opponent was able to spend placing those stones in the first place.
It is an open question whether forced cycles exist in this variant. However, it seems that there are no cycles shorter than the 18-move cooperative one below:
Loading Image...
In this example, Black should have captured all White groups by playing at 7 after White 2 instead of pursuing the cycle.
Incursions introduce ko fights and make it possible to capture some groups with precarious paths to their allies. Also check out Basic Square Lifeline, a hard-finite variant where incursions are always illegal.
DEFINITIONS
In these rules, "connected" always means "orthogonally connected".
A group is an entire set of connected stones of the same color. A single stone, not connected to others of its color, is also a group. A group is dead if there is no path of connected empty points between that group and any other group of its color. The path does not need to be a straight line.
A territory is an entire set of connected empty points. A single empty point, not connected to others, is also a territory. You own a territory if all stones connected to it are of your color.
An incursion is a placement by one player in a territory owned by the other player. An incursion is null, small or big if it causes zero, one or more than one enemy groups, respectively, to be moved to the prison.
PLAY
Black plays first, then turns alternate. On your turn, perform exactly one of the following actions:
🌟 Remove an enemy stone from the prison.
🌟 Place a stone of your color on an empty point. If it is your first turn of the game, perform this action twice. Next, move all dead enemy groups to the prison. Finally, move all dead friendly groups to the prison. If the only stone you move to the prison is the only stone you just placed, your move is illegal.
You can never make a null incursion, and you cannot make a small incursion if your opponent just made a small incursion. Big incursions are always allowed.
The last player to place a stone on the board wins. Note that, after your first turn, you will always have a placement available unless you have no groups on the board.
If you place a stone on your turn and, by the end of it, the board position is the same as it was at the end of any of your previous turns, the game ends in a draw. This is known to be a possibility if both players cooperate to it, which should not happen in actual play (see below).
To make the game fair, before the game starts, the first player places a number of black stones in the prison, and then the second player chooses sides. This balancing method is called komi pie.
NOTES
The prisoner removal rule is intended to promote fighting play, curtail hopeless invasions and enhance the territorial nature of the game. Under this rule, as in Go, capturing a number of enemy stones is twice as beneficial as surrounding the same number of empty points, as the moves you will get from those stones as they sit in prison negate the moves that your opponent was able to spend placing those stones in the first place.
It is an open question whether forced cycles exist in this variant. However, it seems that there are no cycles shorter than the 18-move cooperative one below:
Loading Image...
In this example, Black should have captured all White groups by playing at 7 after White 2 instead of pursuing the cycle.
Incursions introduce ko fights and make it possible to capture some groups with precarious paths to their allies. Also check out Basic Square Lifeline, a hard-finite variant where incursions are always illegal.