Mitropia

Mitropia Rulebook

Table of Contents

The Goal of the Game

The goal of Mitropia is to control more territory than any other Tribe by the end of the game. To control territory, players must either:

occupy a space with a Warrior, or
surround a space completely with Warriors of the same tribe.

You must fight to capture the most territory while paying attention to terrain tiles, obstacles, and portals on the board; capturing opponent Warriors; and protecting your Warriors from being captured themselves.

Game Elements

127 Hexagonal Game Board Tiles: the game board is constructed from hexagons to create a different map each time you play.
300 Tribal Tokens of different colors: there are 5 Tribes with 59 Warriors and 1 Chieftain token each.
56 Pattern Cards: a set of cards that determines possible moves each round.
28 Action Cards and Reaction Cards: a set of cards containing special actions that can be played throughout the game. (See Annex III for the full list of action cards.)
1 Printed Set of Rules: this booklet.
1 or more Player Aid Cards: printed guides explaining Action Cards and movement sequences (the quantity included depends on your game version).
5 Player Mats: one player mat per Tribe detailing a Tribe's special powers and providing a place to show active Pattern Cards.
5 Token Bags: colored cloth bags to store tribal tokens (not included with all versions).
3-6 Board Corner Pieces: designed to hold the game board in place during play (depending on your version).

Game Setup

Number of Players	Board	Cards
2	S	I
3	M	II
4	L	III
5	XL	III

To set the game up:

Select the tiles you will use for the size of board, as determined by player count. Each tile has a tile mark from S to XL printed on the back indicating the sets of tiles to use to build each sized board. For standard size boards for 2 player games choose S, for 3 players add those marked M, for 4 players add those marked L and for 5 players on a full size board add those tiles marked XL. Annex II provides a table for the numbers of hexagons to use and explains how to construct typical boards.
To create a new game board, start by shuffling the hex tiles face down on the playing surface. Randomly select a single hex to become the center of the board and build increasing circles around this, flipping over tiles as you go. Place the 3-6 board corners you have available against the corners of the board to hold it in place.
Each player chooses a tribal color to play. This can be done randomly by placing the player mats face down, mixing and handing them out randomly or players may choose which tribe they play.
Each player places their player mat against or near a corner of the board nearest to them. The mat should be placed such that its top edge is aligned with one edge of a hexagonal tile on the board. The arrow on the mat indicates the direction of play for the player.
Each Pattern and Action card is marked with a level marker I, II, or III (see Figure 1). For games on an S sized board use only those cards marked with I, for M games use cards with I and II, for L or XL games use all cards in the deck.
Shuffle the Pattern Cards and Action Cards separately. Each player is dealt three cards from the Pattern Cards deck and two from the Action Cards deck (three for the Trojan player). The players do not look at the cards yet.
The remaining cards are now shuffled together into a single deck and placed face down near the board. Cards discarded during the game will be placed face up on a discard pile next to the draw pile.
Finally, determine the starting player by taking one Warrior from each Tribe and shaking them in cupped hands before drawing one out. This selected player will play first, with play continuing clockwise from the first player.

Figure 1: The right-most numerals on a card indicate with which level of the deck it should be included.

The Basic Principles of Mitropia

To challenge mortal Tribes, the fields of the Gods flex and change, creating new challenges to be conquered with every game.

Mitropia's fields float in the heavens and are constructed of a random arrangement of tiles – each with six sides. The tiles represent environments and obstacles on the field. Mountains cannot be played on, and wormhole tunnels lead to surprise moves across the board.

Turning Over Cards

The final step in preparing to play is deciding on and revealing movement patterns:

Every player picks up their cards.
Each player chooses a Pattern Card and places it face-up on their player mat with the arrow facing towards the game board.
The forward-facing arrow on the Pattern Card indicates the "direction of play" for that player. It must coincide with the direction of play that is displayed on the Player Mat.

Taking the Field: Your First Moves

Before the epic challenge begins, players choose their places on the board in playing order.

Each player in turn places their Chieftain on the board. The Chieftain is signified by the larger token of each tribal color. All other moves will use Warriors. Rules for placing the Chieftain are as follows:

They may not be placed on mountains or wormholes.
They must be placed on the second row (one step in) from the edge of the board.
They may not be placed fewer than two steps (one step for small games as defined in Annex II) from a Chieftain already placed by another player.

For the distance between Chieftains, "at least two steps away" means that there will be at least two free spaces between the Chieftain and the object in question (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: When placing at least two steps away from the Red player, Green may not play on any of the tiles marked by a small red dot.

Board Terrain

There are several types of terrain found on the field in Mitropia.

Normal Terrain: no special effects. Worth one or two points at the end of the game for the player occupying or surrounding the tile, depending on terrain affinity (see "Scoring" on page 11 for more detail).
Mountains: cannot be played on and do not count as liberties or points at the end of the game. (Liberties are explained on page 6.)
Wormholes: tunnels in the fabric of Mitropia. When playing onto one of these tiles, the Warrior is transported to any other wormhole tile on the board (player's choice). The precise move the Warrior made to enter the wormhole must be repeated when exiting the other wormhole to determine where the Warrior is finally placed. The complete move must be legal by Mitropia rules, otherwise it cannot be made (legal moves are defined later on). Wormholes do not count as liberties or points at the end of the game.¹

¹ In the rare case that a move into a wormhole leads into a second wormhole, the move sequence is applied again to determine the final location of the Warrior. Again, this must be a legal move in all other ways.

Figure 3: If the green player (G) uses the pattern on the right to place the next Warrior on the first wormhole (W1), then that same move is replicated again when exiting another wormhole (W2 in this case). The player may choose for the Warrior to exit from any wormhole on the board where the resulting exiting move is legal.

Gameplay

On every turn, you may do one of the following:

Place a new Warrior on the board following your standard face-up Pattern Card: This conjures a Warrior on an empty hexagon to claim that territory. The move must follow your face-up "active" Pattern Card. It cannot be a suicide move (see "Illegal Moves & Suicide" on page 8).
Place a new Warrior on the board based on any Pattern Card held in your hand: Any Pattern Card in your hand can be used as a "one-time" play and immediately discarded after playing the move. Alternatively, you may choose to replace your current active Pattern Card on the player mat with a card from your hand. The old Pattern Card is first replaced, the move is played, and the old Pattern Card is placed face-up on the discard pile.
Play a move placing one or more Warriors based on an Action Card (or combination of cards and/or Tribal power): Multiple Pattern and Action cards can be used together. However, you cannot use more than one of the following cards per turn: Swift Deploy, Double Strength, and Triple Strength. Any cards from the player's hand that were used in the turn are discarded.
Pass: if you have no legal moves or do not wish to make a move.

At the end of the turn, if you have fewer than the maximum number of cards in hand, you may draw a new card. If you have the maximum number of cards in hand, you may discard a card and draw a new one. No more than one card may be discarded per round.

The maximum number of cards in your hand is 5 (for Trojans, the max number is 6).

Placing Warriors

This section will help explain what moves are legal in Mitropia, and to understand the effects of these moves.

Warriors, Life & Death

Tokens in Mitropia represent Warriors conjured on the field of battle to guard the space they are placed on.

Warriors may only be placed on the empty hexagons of the game board. A Warrior cannot be placed inside a hexagon that is already occupied by another Warrior or on a tile representing a wormhole or a mountain.

Warriors are typically never moved after they have been placed unless they are captured by a rival Tribe, or if an Action Card or tribal power is used.

When a Warrior is placed on the board as shown in Figure 4, it is placed on a hexagon. If placed away from an edge and any other pieces, the Warrior will typically have six empty hexagons around it. These empty spaces are called liberties.

Figure 4: A red Warrior played with six liberties around it.

The number of liberties around a Warrior determines how "alive" the Warrior is. A Warrior stays on the board as long as it has at least one liberty.

Figure 5 shows the same Warrior now surrounded by five opposing yellow Warriors. The red Warrior now only has one liberty.

Figure 5: A red Warrior with only one liberty remaining. If any player other than the red player placed a new Warrior on the last free liberty of the red Warrior, that opposing player would capture the surrounded red Warrior, remove it from the board, and keep it as a prisoner.

Groups & Captured Prisoners

When Warriors of the same color are placed next to each other (i.e. share the edge of at least one hexagon), they form a group. Warriors in a group share liberties with one another.

The group shown in Figure 6 has two Warriors and eight liberties.

Figure 6: A group of two Warriors with eight liberties.

Because of shared liberties, groups are stronger than single Warriors and they live or die together. If a group loses all of their liberties, the whole group is captured and removed from the board. The captured prisoners are divided according to the group-capture rules described on page 10.

Captured prisoners are worth one extra point each at the end of the game.

The Edges of the Territory

In the center of the board, each hexagon typically has six adjacent locations that can act as liberties. However, on the edge, next to a mountain, a wormhole, or in the corner, there may be fewer adjacent intersections (two or three for example). Correspondingly, these locations also have fewer liberties (see Figure 7).

Enemy tokens and obstacles like mountains both reduce the total amount of liberties available (see Figure 8).

Figure 7: A Warrior with only three liberties remaining on the edge of the board.

Figure 8: A Warrior with only three liberties remaining. One is removed by each of the opposing Warriors. One is removed by the mountain in the adjacent tile.

Illegal Moves & Suicide

No Warrior may be placed such that it, or the group it joins, immediately has no liberties. This is shown in Figure 9.

For example, the blue player would not be permitted to play on the red spot since this would leave the blue group with zero liberties. The green player, however, would be permitted to play here since it would cause the capture and removal of the blue Warrior.

Figure 9: Suicide moves are not permitted.

NOTE: Playing a move that captures an opposing Warrior or group (even if that move has no liberties available) is not considered suicide because capturing a group happens before liberties are counted.

Pattern Cards Enable Movement

The previous section defines the basic legality of moves in Mitropia. However, you are not permitted to play just anywhere on the board at any time.

Specifically, the available moves on any given turn are determined by three things:

The active Pattern Card displayed on a player's mat.
Pattern Cards in the player's hand, which can be used in a one-time manner or to replace the current active Pattern Card displayed on a player's mat.
Combinations of Action Cards in the player's hand.

The use of any of the Pattern Cards in 1, 2, and 3 here is shown in the examples in Figures 10 and 11.

Figure 10: Usage of Pattern Cards. The legal moves are then all the indicated relative positions for the movement shown on the card (see Figure 11).

Each Pattern Card shows a central Warrior and some allowed movement positions. To play a legal move, the player chooses one of their own Warriors or Chieftain already on the board as the start point for the move. The legal moves are then all the indicated relative positions for the movement shown on the card.

The Pattern Card in Figure 11 shows the following:

A black Warrior in the center marks the relative position of any Warrior the player wishes to move "from" on the board.
Each of the blue Warriors represent a potential permitted move using this pattern.

The pattern in Figure 11 allows the player to place a Warrior in three different places on the board for every Warrior already in place. Note that some of these moves may not be leal [sic] for other reasons (going over the edge of the board, playing on an obstacle, or being a suicide move, for example).

Figure 11: An example Pattern Card.

Special Action Cards Enhance Movement

In addition to Pattern Cards, Action Cards can modify movement or have other surprising effects.

Special movement cards such as Charge, Scout, and Ambush provide extra range of movement, while reinforcement cards like Double Strength allow multiple Warriors to be placed on the board at the same time. Reaction cards help you to Deflect or Subvert another player's moves even when it's not your turn.

A full list of special moves is provided in Annex III (page 14).

Figure 12: The scout card allows a larger range of motion than normal pattern cards.

Group Captures

The individual Warrior and group-capture rule functions easily in a two-player game of Mitropia. With more than two players, there will be situations when a Warrior or a group may be surrounded by Warriors of two or more opposing Tribes.

In this case, to calculate the split of the spoils:

The number of Warriors in the captured group is divided by the number of players occupying at least one liberty surrounding the group.
Each of the players receives an even split of the number of Warriors from the group, no matter how many liberties they occupy.
Should a remainder of tokens be left, the player placing the capturing Warrior receives the balance.

Captured prisoners count as points and add to the score for the capturing player at the end of the game.

Finally, in certain cases, playing a Warrior may remove the last liberty from more than one group. In this case, the player playing the capturing move must designate the order in which they wish groups to be captured.

NOTE: If removing the Warriors from the first group opens up liberties for the second group, then the second group is not captured. The same logic applies to the third and fourth groups that may be affected.

Ending & Scoring the Game

The game ends when one of the following occurs:

All players pass.
There are no more possible legal moves to make. In other words, when there are no more logical places on the board any player can play.
The Chieftain of one of the Tribes is captured.

Territory and prisoners are then counted to determine the score.

Figure 13: With this finishing position, Yellow scores 11 points (5 for Warriors on the board, 6 for territory surrounded), Red scores 7 points (5 for Warriors placed and 2 for territory surrounded), and Green scores 14 points (9 points for Warriors, 5 for spaces surrounded). Mountains (M) and Wormholes (WH) do not award points to any player.

Score

The score is determined as follows:

Players determine which groups of Warriors on the game board are "lost." These typically are isolated Warriors or small groups which, given enough time, could be surrounded and captured. If the status of a group of Warriors is disputed, players should resume play until the matter is resolved.
All the Warriors of each color on the board, as well as any empty space they surround, are counted and added to the count of any empty spaces between the Warriors of the same color.
An additional point is awarded for each tile of territory captured that matches the terrain affinity of the player's Tribe.
If there are any empty spaces between groups on the board that are not surrounded by a single player, then these spaces are omitted from the count. If the status of a space between Warriors is disputed, players should resume play until the matter is resolved.
Captured prisoners each add one point to the score of the players holding the prisoners. Captured Chieftans [sic] are worth two points.

Winning

The player with the highest total score wins!

If two or more players have the same score, the player with the highest territory count wins. If this is a tie, the player with the most tiles of their own affinity wins. If this is also a tie, the player who played last at the beginning of the game wins.

Annex I: Glossary of Terms

Player: each individual playing the game.
Tribe: an army in the game represented by a single color of tokens.
Warrior: a single flat disk playing piece representing a Warrior played by a Tribe.
Chieftain: played as the first move in the game by each player and represented by the larger token of each color. The Chieftain acts as a normal Warrior in most ways but ends the game if captured.
Group: two or more Warriors of the same color placed on the field that share a hexagonal edge.
Liberty: a free space next to a token or group is a liberty for that token or group, unless it is a mountain or a wormhole. More than one tribe can share a liberty.

Annex II: Board Setup

Mitropia's game board is composed of hexagon tiles that represent either normal terrain, wormholes, or impassable obstacles.

The game comes with:

115 terrain tiles
8 mountain tiles
4 wormhole tiles

Constructing Standard Boards

To build a standard board for Mitropia, first select the board size you need based on the number of players:

Players	Terrain Tiles	Mountain Tiles	Worm Hole Tiles	Total Tiles	Tile Mark
2	35	2	0	37	S
3	55	4	2	61	M
4	80	7	4	91	L
5	115	8	4	127	XL

To build the board:

Select the correct number of tiles of each type. Each tile has an index number printed on the back indicating the number of tiles in the edge of the hexagonal board you will construct. For standard-sized boards for 2 player games choose S, for 3 players add those marked M, for 4 players add those marked L, and for 5 players on a full-sized board add those tiles marked XL. Place the tiles face down on the table and mix them around.
Turn over a single tile first; this will become the center of the board.
Next, arrange a set of six face-down tiles around the central tiles, turning these over one by one to form a circle around the center tile.
Continue this process, forming ever larger circles around the board until you run out of tiles.

Once the board has been constructed, use the board corner tiles to hold the board in place during play by pushing them up against the corners of the hexagonal board.

Small Games

While big strategy games can be fun, sometimes you just want a quick blitz! If you are craving a fast game of Mitropia, we recommend playing on a smaller board. To do this, use the set-up directions as if playing with one fewer than the number of players actually playing.

E.g. 37 tiles would be a "small" board for 3 players, 61 tiles would be "small" for 4 players.

Non-Standard Board Shapes & Sizes

The standard board construction process creates symmetrical hexagonal boards with no gaps.

As you play more often, you can branch out – any board where all tiles are connected by some path is a valid board.

Annex III: Action Cards

The Action Cards in the game are divided into two types.

Action Cards. These cards are played only a player's own turn:

Swift Deployment: Take an extra move (i.e. 2 moves in a turn). Each move must be legal, as determined by the Pattern Card or other cards being used. (Pattern Cards may not be exchanged during a Swift Deployment. Extra moves are sequential, not simultaneous.)
Double Strength: Instead of playing a single Warrior, play a pair of Warriors that are next to each other and connected as a group. The first Warrior placed must follow a Pattern Card.
Triple Strength: Instead of playing a single Warrior, play three Warriors that are touching each other and connected as a group. The first Warrior placed must follow a Pattern Card.
Ambush: Place a Warrior anywhere on the board. The placement must still be legal, but no Pattern Card is needed.
Charge: Place a Warrior anywhere on the board within 1 space of one of your own Warriors.
Scout: Place a Warrior anywhere on the board exactly 2 spaces from one of your own Warriors.

Reaction Cards. These cards can only be played on another player's turn (in reaction to a move that they made):

Deflect: Instantly reject another player's move. The rejected player may play another move, but not the one originally played. Any cards used in the original deflected move remain in play. Can be played in response to another Deflect.
Subvert: After another player places a Warrior on the board, replace it with one of your own Warriors and return the subverted piece to the player. They may play a different move.

Figure 14: The colored dots in the image each represent the liberties of each group. For a move to comply with the rules that it cannot take more than one liberty from any opposing groups it touches, it may not place two or more Warriors on the same color in this diagram. In other words, Red playing one Warrior on a yellow dot and another on a green dot would be legal, but playing two Warriors on green dots would not.

NOTE:

When playing cards that place more than one Warrior, the move cannot take more than one liberty from any opposing groups it touches.
Multiple Pattern and Action cards can be used together. However, you cannot use more than one of the following cards per turn: Swift Deploy, Double Strength, and Triple Strength.

Annex IV: Tribe Special Powers

Each Tribe in Mitropia has their unique power which helps them win in battle.

Corinthians: When using a wormhole to travel, you need not apply a Pattern Card to move on the other side. Instead, move to any location within two spaces of the tunnel exit.
Kerma: Any Warrior or group adjacent to a mountain receives a single extra liberty unless the mountain is completely surrounded by wormholes, mountains, board edges, or Warriors of any color including your own.
Norse: The Chieftain piece takes liberties from not just one step away but two. Also, once per game, you may move your Chieftain to another location (and hence another group) by swapping it for any of your existing Warrior on the board.
Trojans: Allows the player to have one extra card in their hand. You are also dealt an additional Action card at the beginning of the game.
Zhou: In exchange for the sacrifice of one card in your hand, you can move one of your own Warriors on any turn by up to one space in addition to other moves. This can include passing through wormholes. This cannot cause the capture of any opposing group or Warrior. The discarded card goes face down on the discard pile.

Annex V: Strategy Mode

Strategy mode is an additional mode of play designed to have only minimal random factors affecting the game's outcome. The game requires setting up a completely symmetric board (having special tiles placed symmetrically), a Tribe and card selection phase, and team rules. In all other respects, the normal rules of Mitropia apply.

Symmetric Board Set Up

Any completely symmetric board is acceptable for a strategy mode game, however, here is an easy formula to build such a board, assuming you will build a board using all 127 game tiles (115 terrain tiles, 8 mountain tiles and 4 wormhole tiles). This makes a board that has 7 tiles on each edge and 6 hexagon spaces between the center tile and each corner of the board.

Use smaller index numbers for smaller boards.

Pick a number between 2 and 6 (e.g. roll a die discarding 1s) to represent the distance from the center the wormhole tiles will go (call this number W). Then pick a different number between 2 and 6 to represent the distance from the center to the mountain tiles will go (call this number M).

Place a single random terrain tile as the center of the board.

From here, begin adding terrain tiles in an expanding circle around the central tile until you reach Mountain (M) or Wormhole (W) distance from the center you selected above.

On this iteration around the center, place on each axis radiating from the center either the Mountain tiles (one on each axis) or the Wormhole tiles (one of each of 4 of the axes), depending on which number was reached.

On the level of the wormhole index, place a mountain tile in each axis where a wormhole is not being placed. Continue to fill the remainder of the board with terrain tiles.

If you wish to play with terrain affinity, before placing any terrain tiles, choose an order for the terrain tile types and repeat this order over and over again as you spiral outwards.

Figure 15: A symmetrical board set up using a wormhole distance (W) of 5 and a mountain distance (M) of 2.

Tribe Selection & Move Order

Determine the move order using a coin or other method. The players then select which Tribe to play in reverse order of play. (The last player in the player order selects their Tribe first and so on.)

Card Selection: Choose Your Weapons

Once Tribes have been selected, the players/teams select the cards they will use during the game.

Splitting the Deck

Use the entire 84 card deck including cards belonging to all levels.

Deal the cards into piles by type: 3-Warrior patterns, 5-Warrior patterns, Ambush cards, etc.

For the Deflect, Subvert and Swift Deployment cards, combine these into a single pile, shuffle and keep face down.

Next, deal out each pile to the players so each receives the same number of cards from each pile. This creates identical decks from which each player can build their own deck.

For each type of card, deal only enough so that each player can receive the same number. If you have too few cards to distribute evenly (for example, 2 Charge cards to distribute and 3 players), discard the remainder of that pile face down. These will not be used in the game.

Player Card Selection

Every card in the deck has a "power" value on its face-up side.

Figure 16: The power value of the Scout card is 2.

Each player now selects the cards they wish to use during the game from the deck at their disposal.

In a 2 player game, each player may use a maximum of 22 cards and the sum of power values on the faces of the cards must equal no more than 44 points.
In 3 and 4 player non-team games (see below for team games), each player selects up to 16 cards for a maximum power value of 32 points.
For 5 player games, each player keeps the full hand they were dealt.

In 2, 3 and 4 player games, the Trojan player may add two extra cards and 4 additional points to the total.

The remaining cards are discarded face down and will not be used during play.

Getting Ready to Play

Each player, in play order, chooses a Pattern Card as their active pattern and places it on their player mat. Players then shuffle their remaining cards and draw the top 5 (6 for Trojan player) as their starting hand. The remainder of the cards become their personal draw pile for the game. During the game, players play cards and draw new cards in the normal way, but once the draw pile is empty no new cards may be drawn.

Starting Points

In strategy mode, players may place their Chieftain piece anywhere on the board that is a legal move (in other words not on a mountain or wormhole) and is at least one step away from an existing Chieftain.

Teams

Team strategy mode allows two pairs of players to play against each other. Each team shares a deck and are scored together at the end of the game. The rules are similar to strategy mode in all respects except:

Select the player order so that the players on the teams alternate. Again, Tribes are selected in reverse order to play order.
Follow the card selection procedure using 26 cards and 52 power points per team to create a single deck per team. Any team including the Trojan player may add 2 cards and 4 points to the total count and power maximum.
Each player on the team selects their active Pattern Card and places it on their mat. Then the remaining cards are shuffled to create a single draw pile for the two players together. Each player draws the required number of cards for their starting hand (5 or 6).

During play the following rules also apply:

Liberties are not shared between groups belonging to players on the same team. In other words, groups from players on the same team could theoretically capture each other.
If a group is captured, all prisoners are awarded to the opposing team, even if some of the Warriors in the group are friendly.
Pattern Cards and Action Cards can be used only with the current player's Warriors representing the point of origin for a move.

Hence, in 2v2 team games, a pair of players coordinate their forces but do not integrate them into a single force.

Scoring

Terrain affinity scoring is not recommended in strategy mode unless the board is set up to be symmetric for terrain tiles as well as mountain and wormhole tiles.

In non-team games, scoring is the same as for Mitropia with each player receiving points for terrain captured and prisoners. Terrain affinity bonuses count if used.

In 2v2 team games, the scores from the two players on each team are summed in order to determine the winning team.

Annex VI: Advanced Strategy & Eyes

While the rules of Mitropia are simple, they hide complex strategies that you can use to trick and trap your opponents.

One key understanding has been passed down through the generations of each Tribe: the understanding of Life and Death and the role of Eyes.

As Warriors enter the field, they defend their territory by naturally forming areas that are encircled entirely by their own Warriors (or by their own Warriors and the edge of the board/obstacles).

These enclosed areas are called Eyes and they represent protected territory where enemies normally fear to tread. Eyes may be large or small but must be completely surrounded. The smallest possible Eye is a single hexagon. A group with an Eye is more difficult to capture. This is because, even if the group was completely surrounded on the outside, it would always hold at least one liberty (inside the Eye itself). Playing in a single-space Eye normally counts as a "suicide" move for any opponent and therefore cannot be made.

Figure 17: An example of an Eye. The red dot would be a suicide move for any player other than Green.

This is a good defensive position.

Unfortunately though, a group with an Eye of just a single space may still ultimately be captured.

If the group becomes so completely surrounded with no more liberties than the eye itself, then a player playing "in the Eye" would capture the group and thus free up liberties for themselves to avoid suicide. Playing inside a surrounded eye is not considered "suicide" since captures are counted first and removed from the board before suicide is considered.

If a group has an Eye of two or more spaces, it will be nearly invincible on the field. This is because an opponent placing within one space of the Eye could never capture the group (since the second space of the Eye provides a saving liberty). This is even true if the opponent plays an "Swift Deployment" Action Card since extra moves are sequential, not simultaneous.

Figure 18: An example of a group with an Eye of two spaces. Both red dots represent moves that would be suicide moves for any player other than Green. This means neither move can be made by an opponent.