Zenith (2009)
Zenith (2009) Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Goal
Outpace your opponents on the way to the summit! Become the last player able to make a move, and win.
Setup
Choose one of the four game boards and a set of pieces. Since the pieces are double-sided, each player chooses pieces of their own color.
With two players, the pieces are divided as follows: the first player has green (or purple) pieces, and the second player has orange (or blue) pieces. Each player thus has 58 pieces in hand.
With three or four players, each player chooses a color and takes 29 pieces.
Choose the player who will move first. Turns pass to the other players clockwise.
Gameplay
When it is your turn, you must place one of your pieces on any open white space on the board. Alternatively, you may place your piece on top of three pieces that are already on the board, provided that at least one of those three pieces is your color.
Determining the Winner
If it is your turn and you have no move available, you are eliminated from the game, even if a move would have become possible after one more turn.
Note that to win, you must make the last move: the move after which your opponents have nowhere left to place pieces. It is not enough merely to place your piece higher than the others.
Examples
Caption (first example): The orange piece can be placed on one of the four empty white spaces, or on top of three pieces, one of which is orange.
Caption (second example): The orange player has no moves left. The blue and green players continue the game.
Caption (third example): The green player has no available moves. Orange has already been eliminated. The blue player wins!
Caption (placement example): This is how you may place your piece on the three bottom pieces.
Caption (placement example): And this is NOT allowed.
Sample Game
The orange player moves first, the blue player second, and the green player third.
After the 15th move, the orange player has nowhere left to place pieces and is eliminated from the game.
After the 18th move, the green player has nowhere left to move (orange was eliminated after the 15th move), so the blue player wins.