Tranglar Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Purpose
• Game Play
  • Actions
• Additional Rules
• End of the Game
• A Piece of Advice

Components

• TRANGLAR Game Board, divided into 64 triangle shaped spaces.
• 42 game pieces: 17 dual colored for each player, 8 neutral.

Each color includes:

• 4 small triangles.
• 4 large triangles, each consisting of 2 small triangles.
• 3 medium squares, each consisting of 2 small triangles.
• 1 large square, consisting of 4 small triangles.
• 2 trapezes, each consisting of 3 small triangles.
• 1 parallelogram, consisting of 4 small triangles.
• 1 rectangular parallelogram, consisting of 4 small triangles.
• 1 five-sided piece, consisting of 3 small triangles.

Neutral pieces include:

• 1 trapeze consisting of 5 small triangles.
• 6 small triangles.
• 1 five-sided piece consisting of 5 small triangles.

Setup

• Place the board in the center of the table. Each player chooses a color (petrol or green) and places in front of him, where everyone can see, 17 double sided and dual-colored pieces with his color facing up and 3 neutral triangles. Attention! Some pieces have a different orientation when they flip side. Make sure the pieces are distributed as shown in the setup illustration. Finally, place the large neutral pieces near the board.

• Determine the first player. The player who visited the Bermuda Triangle more recently is the first player! If neither player has ever been there, determine randomly the first player using a coin toss, a die roll, or any other method convenient to both players.

• The first player chooses one of the large neutral pieces and places it on the board in any valid position (we will discuss what constitutes a valid position and a valid move, later on). Then, the second player places the other large neutral piece, in any valid position. These pieces remain in these positions until the end of the game, affecting the space each game can be played on. Then the players alternate taking turns.

Purpose

The aim of the game is to place as many game pieces of your color as possible on the board, take over and flip over your opponents' pieces, such as by the end of the game you have more area of the board with your color on it.

To achieve this, you must place your pieces on the board in such a way that they are protected and as to take over your opponents' pieces by encircling them and flipping them to your color.

Game Play

Actions

During your turn you can take 1 of the 4 following actions:

1. Place a new piece of your color in a valid position.

The board consists of 64 small triangles. The pieces you place must take up the total area of the triangles they cover and fit well into the board.

Illustration: a wrong piece placement and a correct piece placement.

• You can place your pieces in any free space, and it is not necessary for them to touch any other of your pieces on the board.
• It is not allowed for a piece to overlap another piece in any way. Also, you cannot place a piece in a "trapped" position.

Any piece is considered trapped when more than half of its sides touch a side of the opponents' pieces. In the example shown, the green triangle cannot be placed, because 2 out of 3 of its sides are touching the petrol pieces. Respectively, the petrol square cannot be placed, because 3 out of 4 of its sides are touching green pieces. Their placement would be possible only if they were touching opposing pieces with fewer sides.

Illustration: a green triangle and a petrol square, each blocked by opposing pieces.

However, if you place one of your pieces next to the opponents' piece, which is henceforth trapped by your pieces, then besides the placement of your piece, you must also flip over the trapped piece, without changing its position, with your color facing up thus gaining space into the board. Under no circumstance neutral pieces count towards entrapment. On the contrary, they protect the pieces they are in contact with.

Illustration (three steps): 1. Starting position. 2. Green triangle placement. 3. Petrol triangle changes ownership.

As you see in the example above, for a piece to be trapped, it is not necessary for the entire length of its sides to be covered to change ownership. This is an effective way to attack your opponent, but not the only one!

Finally, the small neutral white triangles can be placed only in the rounds that you have no more of your own small triangles available.

2. Replacing your pieces that already exist on the board with others of yours.

This action allows you to replace one or more of your pieces, which are already placed on the board with more or one pieces that take up the exact same area and you have available outside the board. If the exact same area on the board cannot be covered by the combination of pieces, this action is not possible.

Illustrations: examples of replacing one or more of your pieces with pieces of the same total area.

Many times, this action causes chain reactions with continuous entrapments! In any case you are obliged to flip all the opponents' trapped pieces and then possibly even your own.

Illustration: a chain of entrapments. The green player takes over the petrol trapeze, placing 2 of their pieces. Then the petrol triangle is trapped as well.

3. Direct attack to an opponents' piece - "Taking over a piece":

This action allows you to take over any one of the opponents' pieces which is already on the board. Flip it to your color side and place it outside the board with the rest of your pieces. Then you are obliged to cover that space with at least 2 of your own pieces which equal in size to the area of the piece you took over. If you do not have the number of pieces required to cover the exact area you cannot attempt this action. Then check whether there are any of your opponents' pieces that are now trapped by this action and flip them to your color, as described above in the first action.

4. You can "pass":

It is probably not a frequent case, but if it is not possible to do any of the above-described actions, you can forfeit your turn.

Additional Rules

• The small triangles cannot be taken over (action 3), because there are no smaller pieces to replace them.

• The large parallelogram cannot be flipped when trapped, because each player has a unique piece that when it flips it cannot fit in the same spot.

Illustration: the large parallelogram in its position on the board.

• In order to trap an opponents' trapeze, you need to have your own equivalent piece available and replace it. Otherwise, the trapeze cannot be replaced even though it's trapped. However, if in later rounds, you acquire the equivalent piece you can replace it, but this will count as an action.

Illustration: three numbered steps (1, 2, 3) showing an opponent's trapeze being trapped and replaced.

End of the Game

The game ends when one of the following conditions are met:

• The entire board is filled.
• Both players have passed.
• One of the players concedes.

The player who occupies the most of the 64 triangles of the board with his colored pieces, conquers the board and is declared the winner!

A Piece of Advice

• An important part of the game is to check yours and your opponents' available pieces at all times, because the possible action combinations are many and bound to bring continuous changes to the game being played.

• There are many approaches that can lead you to victory. You can start by dominating the middle of the board. It is also smart to start from the sides to keep your pieces safer.

• The small triangles are valuable. They help the most in taking over opponents' pieces, while themselves cannot be taken over. They can be trapped however, so try to keep them safe.

Have fun!