Heptalion
Heptalion Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Material
- A diamond shaped board with 56 symbols of 7 types.
- 28 different domino-like tiles with 2 symbols each (all combinations).
- A carrying case.
Setup
Place the board in the middle of the playing surface. Each player randomly takes 14 tiles and places them face-up before them, so both players can see them:
Variant: Draw and keep your tiles face-down or otherwise hidden (e.g. behind a screen) so your opponent can't see them.
Determine the starting player (usually the one that lost the last game).
How to Play (2 Players)
Players take turns placing one of their tiles on the board face-down so that both symbols of the tile match with the symbols of the two adjacent spaces on which the tile is placed.
Example of tile placement: The dot-plus tile is placed on the location marked with a red rectangle.
The first player that cannot place a tile loses the game.
Example: It's A's turn. 'A' has no valid moves and loses. 'B' wins. Notice that 'B' still had room for some tiles (marked in red).
Variant for 3-4 Players
For a 3-player game, each player randomly takes 9 tiles (the remaining tile is discarded facing up and not used during the game). For a 4-player game, each player takes 7 tiles.
Play as usual. If a player cannot place a tile, that player is eliminated from the game. The last player standing wins.
Notes and Puzzles
Notice that this special board configuration has the following properties:
a) Each symbol is shown exactly 8 times. b) Each domino is shown exactly 3 times. c) There are exactly 56 squares; the same number of squares that compose the 28 tiles.
While there are other symbol distributions for this diamond-shaped board that exhibit the above properties, the designer has not found other board shapes yet.
Obviously it is impossible to place all tiles on the board, but... How many tiles can you legally place?
Can you find other non-trivial distributions? (not obtained by simply exchanging symbols or by rotation or symmetry).
Can you find a different board shape with the same properties? Please contact me if you do!