Droched

Droched (from Irish: droichead, meaning "bridge") is a drawless annihilation game for two players: Black and White. It is played on the hexes (cells) of an initially empty hexagonal board. The recommended board size is 7 cells per side, but boards of 5 or 9 are also valid. There is also a location outside the board called the prison. Each player has access to a sufficient supply of stones of their own color.

Definitions:

A group is a maximal set of connected stones of the same color. A single stone is also a group.

A path of a group is a minimal set of empty cells that connect the group to a border or corner cell. A single edge or corner cell is also a path.

A group is on a bridge if its combined paths include cells on at least two edges, two corners, or one edge and one corner; otherwise, it is on a broken bridge. Corners are not part of edges.

Turns:Black plays first, then turns alternate. On your turn, perform one of the following actions:

Place a stone of your color on an empty cell whose group of the placed stone is not on a broken bridge. Then, in the following order, move to prison (i) all enemy groups on broken bridges and (ii) all friendly groups on broken bridges.

Remove an enemy stone from the prison. If the prison contains stones of both colors, remove pairs of stones of opposite colors until only stones of one color or none remain.

At the end of your turn, the board position must be different from the board position at the end of your previous turn. If you cannot make a placement, pass your turn; otherwise, passing is not allowed.

End of the game:You win if the last enemy group is eliminated from the board.

To balance the game, before starting, the first player places several black stones in the prison and then the second player chooses a side. This method of balance is called the komi pie. For handicap games, the weaker player takes black and starts by placing on the board a number of black stones proportional to the difference in skills between the players.

-description from the designer