Dendria

Dendria is a territorial game played on a hexagonal board representing a fertile green island. Two forces (the Dark player and the Light player) compete to spread life and cultivate the greatest variety of forests. The game is played on the hexes (cells) of a hexagonal board, initially empty. There are two game modes: Fixed board: Hexagonal with an official size of 7 cells per side (valid variants of 5 to 9). Modular board: Built on a blue mat (ocean) using 7-cell modules (one central cell and six surrounding cells). Players may decide whether construction is carried out by alternating turns or without alternating. Quantity: Between 7 and 19 modules (13 is the official size). Placement: The Light player begins with an odd number of modules and the Dark player with an even number. Each new module must touch two cells already placed. Lagoons: Interior empty spaces surrounded by modules reveal the blue mat and act as lagoons (water-fill gaps). Components: Each player has three types of pieces in their color: Seeds: The beginning of life. A seed is hungry if it can see the ocean or a lagoon through empty cells; otherwise it is nourished. Sprites: The guardians who move energy and awaken nature. Trees: The maturity of the land. A group of connected trees is a forest; a single tree is also a forest. Turns: Dark plays first and then turns alternate. On your turn, you must perform one of the following three actions: Sow a seed: It is placed on any empty cell. Condition: The seed must be hungry when placed (it may not become nourished immediately upon being planted). Restriction: You may not form a triangle of three friendly seeds where each one is adjacent to the other two. Move a sprite: It moves in a straight line in any of the 6 hexagonal directions through empty cells. It may jump over: Seeds (of either color), friendly sprites, and modular lagoons. It may not jump over: Trees (of either color) or enemy sprites. Landing: It must end on an empty cell (never on a modular lagoon) or on an enemy sprite to capture it by replacement. Energy management: Spend energy: It must end closer to the edge or to a corner than where it started (or move from an edge to a corner). Recover energy: It may only move toward the center of the board if that same move causes a seed-to-tree conversion. Pass your turn: Yield control to the opponent without performing any actions. Conversions and captures (optional): At the end of your turn, or at intermediate stops while moving a sprite, you may optionally activate the following conversions through line of sight (straight lines without obstacles): Seed to sprite (summoning): Any nourished seed (friendly or enemy) becomes a sprite of your color if, along its lines of sight, it sees more pieces of your color than of the enemy color. The maximal number of sprites you may have simultaneously on the board is equal to the number of trees in your largest forest, plus one extra. If you have no trees, your limit is a single sprite. You may not perform this conversion if you have already reached your current limit. Seed to tree (fertilization): The empty cells adjacent to a seed or a connected group of seeds are its liberties. If your sprites have line of sight to all liberties of a seed or group of seeds, they become fertilized and are converted into trees. Forest capture: A friendly forest is protected if your sprites watch over (have line of sight to) all of its liberties. If at least one liberty is not watched, the forest is unprotected. If an enemy forest is unprotected and your sprites achieve line of sight to all of its liberties, you may capture it and change all of those trees to your color. Likewise, you may capture an enemy forest if it is left completely without liberties because a sprite of your color moves and occupies the last free cell adjacent to it. End of the game: The game ends when both players pass consecutively. Base scoring: 1 point for each different forest size you possess (e.g., having forests of sizes 2, 3, and 4 grants 3 points; having two forests of size 3 grants only 1 point). Bonus: The player with the largest forest on the entire board receives an additional 0.5 points. Tie-breaker: Compare the sizes of the next largest forests in descending order. If there is a complete tie, the winner is the last player who performed an action in the game. —description from the designer