Battle of LITS
Battle of LITS Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
Battle of LITS uses the following components:
- 20 laser-cut foam tetrominoes (5 red L, 5 yellow I, 5 green T, 5 blue S).
- A rubber pad with four 10x10 boards printed on it, each seeded with X's and O's. Each board offers different strategies. The pad also has an X and an O in opposite corners, indicating who is X and who is O.
Setup
Determine who will be X and who will be O, and place the board so each player is sitting next to their respective symbol. Place the tetrominoes beside the board where they are plainly visible and accessible to both players. Select which of the four boards you will play on.
Gameplay
Starting with X, players take turns placing any tetromino from the shared supply onto the board. X may play the first tetromino anywhere, and three rules govern the placement of all future tetrominoes:
- Every tetromino must share an edge with at least one other tetromino. (See Figure 1: piece doesn't share an edge with another piece.)
- No two tetrominoes of the same shape may share an edge. (Note that the tetrominoes are color-coded by shape; any two tetrominoes of the same shape will also be the same color. See Figure 2: piece shares an edge with a piece of the same shape.)
- No four cells in a 2x2 arrangement may all be covered by tetrominoes. (See Figure 3: four cells in a 2x2 area are covered.)
Figure 4 shows a legal placement.
The swap rule is used to make the game fair: on O's first turn only, O may swap symbols with X instead of placing a tetromino, by rotating the board 180 degrees. If so, then X becomes O and places the second tetromino; players then alternate turns as usual.
As long as it is possible for tetrominoes to be placed on the board, passing turns is strictly prohibited; a tetromino must be placed every turn. When no more tetrominoes can be played without violating the above rules, the game is over.
Game End
The game ends when no more tetrominoes can be placed. Players count how many of their symbols remain visible on the board; the player with more of their symbol showing on the board is the winner. In the event of a tie, the player who played the last tetromino is declared the winner; draws are not possible in Battle of LITS.
Figure 5 shows an example ending position: no more pieces can be placed, so the game is over. With 17 X's and 15 O's remaining uncovered, X is the winner.
Additional Links
- The designer of this game has a blog at http://mathgrant.blogspot.com/
- This game's BoardGameGeek page is at http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/105265/battle-of-lits.
Rule book (c) 2013 Néstor Romeral Andrés - Rules (c) 2011-2012 Grant Fikes
Special thanks to our fuelers: Victor M. Gonzalez Miguel, Nathan Morse, Kevin Petrychyn, Gary Bannister, Edison HePleaseDoNotOpen, Evan Rattner, Avri Klemer, Daniel Danzer and Grant Fikes' friends.