Cairo Corridor

In this Death Match, a player wins by placing more pieces lining a corridor of empty cells that touch all four edges of the pentagonal grid. (Original design by Markus Hagenauer)

Designer(s): Non-original Game	Match Type: DM (for 2 players)
Featured in: The Genius: Code Red

dmF: Cairo Corridor.

Summary

Place down your pieces, narrowing the options for the corridor further and further. When only one is left, whoever has more walls next to it wins!

Gameplay

⚠️ Note that any time adjacency is mentioned in the rules, it means sharing an edge.

The game is played on the board with Cairo Tiling shown below. Yes, those are pentagons. Every group of 4 pentagons are combined together and have a thicker outline for submission purposes.

✏️ Before the game starts, Elk, as the player with higher priority, will select the First Player.

✏️ Starting with the First Player, and then alternating until the end of the game, players will pick one empty pentagon to place their piece in. To select a pentagon, type the letter the pentagon is closest to, then a direction from that letter to reach the pentagon, for example, D left, or X down.

Once a piece is placed, it can’t be moved or removed. Player’s first valid submission will be taken.

A Corridor is a set of connected empty pentagons that connect all 4 edges of the board. Pentagons in the corner of the board are considered a part of both edges they are a part of. As the game progresses, the number of corridors will slowly reduce due to players' moves.

⚠️ When only 1 possible corridor remains that is adjacent to no empty spaces not a part of the corridor, the game ends. A player cannot submit a move that will make the number of possible corridors 0.

The player that has more pieces of their color adjacent to this last corridor wins the DM. The winner will also receive 3 garnets.

⚠️ In case of a tie, the First Player loses.

🔍 This is an example of a finished game. Spaces marked with an O are empty and build the only possible corridor.

As there are no empty spaces adjacent to the corridor, the game is over and final scores are calculated. Purple has 13 pieces adjacent to the corridor, while Blue has 14, thus Blue wins.

🔍 Here is another example of a game still in progress.

There are still multiple corridors possible, so the game continues. More precisely, one of the Os, Xs and ◇’s have to be covered. Say that purple moves on JL, which turns the board into the following:

Note that the game still isn’t over, even though the corridor is unique. JU and WU still need to be filled so that the corridor is adjacent to no empty space. Placing on any other space is impossible, as it will destroy the last possible corridor.

After 2 more moves, the game is over. Purple has 14 pieces next to the corridor, while Blue has 13, thus Purple wins.

⚠️ Note that no symbols will be shown during the DM. You will have to keep track of the possible corridors yourself.

⌛ Time Controls

Time will start after the board is posted. Players will have 1 minute per turn + 3 minutes of reserve time, separated into 36 banks of 5s each. Running out of reserve time is an instant loss.

Host will give time reminders at 30s, 15s, 5s left, on entering reserve time, and every 30 seconds of reserve time used.

Cairo Corridor

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