Sliding Tic-Tac-Toe

In this Death Match, slide around the tiles on the board to connect 5 before your opponent.

Designer(s): Myth	Match Type: DM (for 2 players)
Featured in: Genius Online: All Stars, Squeaky Genius: Legends Untold
Awards: Best Strategy DM 2022

Sliding Tic-Tac-Toe

Sliding Tic-Tac-Toe is played on a 6x6 board. Each player is given 18 pieces. The goal of the game is to get 5 of your pieces lined up in a row at the end of your turn. This can be done horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. The starting player starts by placing one of their tiles anywhere on the board. After this, that player's turn is over, and it is the next player’s turn. On a turn, you can first place down one of your pieces, then, you can slide. A slide action is as shown in this example, where the board on the left is before the slide, and the board on the right is after the slide:

In this example, in order for red to win, they slide the top 4 pieces to the right. When you choose to slide a row, you may choose how far it slides, and you may choose how many of those tiles to slide. When sliding, you may only go one direction, either left or right or up or down. Essentially, tiles cannot be slid around the corners of the board. Once there are 4 empty spaces on the board left, players during their turn will only slide, and not place down any more new pieces.

However, when sliding, a player may choose how many spaces their piece is slid across the board. For example:

The board on the left shows before the slide, and the board on the right represents after the slide. As you can see, the two tiles on the top have been slid 1 space to the left. Another possible move could be moving it a full 2 spaces to the left, resulting in a board looking like this:

Both of these are valid moves. Another thing to keep in mind when sliding is that you may only slide tiles that are connected to each other. If you slide a tile, and it slides next to another tile, those tiles not connected to the one you slid will not slide. For example:

In this situation, the red tile on the right hand side of the board is slid next to the blue tile, and it can only move up to that spot. An invalid move would look like this:

This is an invalid move since the red and blue tiles are not connected/touching each other, so they cannot be slid together. Also, when you slide, do note that you can slide any piece(s) on the board, it doesn’t have to be the one you just placed down.

Tiles cannot be slid diagonally, and you may choose to do only one action per turn, but you cannot forfeit your turn. You can either place a tile and slide, place a tile and not slide, or not place a tile and just slide. Do note that you may slide a row/column of tiles that is unrelated to the tile you placed down.

There also exists a tile called the "neutral tile", given to the player who moves second. This tile can be placed once per game, and does not count as a placing tile or sliding action of a normal turn. For example, I could place one of my tiles down, slide, then place the neutral tile. For the neutral tile specifically, you can play it at any point in your turn, but placing one of your own tiles must still come before sliding. The neutral tile does not count towards any player's 5 in a row, and is essentially a tile to block out potential 5 in a rows. See this example:

In this example, the neutral tile blocks out the player's tiles, making two 2 in a rows.

The time restrictions for this game will be 2 minutes per turn, and a good format to follow is “I place tile on A1, and slide tiles on B2 and B3 down 1.” There is reserve time of 5 minutes per player in case they go over the time for their turn.

This will be played as a best of 3 games, and the player that wins two of those games first will win the death match.

As you approach the end of the trail on the map Merlin so kindly conjured up for you, the first emotion you feel is confusion. Merlin told you that this small, unassuming stone hut in the middle of one of the many fields of Avalon is supposed to contain the Lance of King Arthur, but it looks as if it could barely contain a small peasant family. You wonder if maybe Merlin was mistaken, or maybe the real Lance of King Arthur was just the friends you made along the way. Your doubts are quickly silenced as pushing open the door reveals nobody other than Morgan le Fay. Behind her is a fire, giving light to the interior of the hut, and in front of her is a table and two chairs, complete with a grid and some colored tiles on it. Morgan invites the both of you to take a seat. As you get comfortable, you point out to Morgan that the Lance is nowhere in sight. She assures you that it won’t be a problem, since it will be the last thing that one of you will get to see. The game begins.

Lance Assembly is played with a 6x6 board, and 18 tiles for each player.

The goal of the game is to construct a lance by having 5 of your tiles lined up in a row at the end of your turn. This can be done horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.

The first player to win two bouts of Lance Assembly will win the Death Match, and escape with the Lance of King Arthur, along with any other Legendary Artifacts the defeated player may own. The loser will pay for Morgan’s hospitality in blood, and be eliminated from the game.

The Death Match Opponent, Matt, will select who will be the starting player for the first bout. The starting player will alternate between bouts.

On the first turn of a bout, the starting player will place a tile on the board. Every turn afterwards, the current player will have three options:

Place a tile on the board
Slide tiles on the board
Place a tile on the board, then slide tiles on the board

You may not pass your turn or slide tiles before placing one.

If you choose to slide tiles on your turn, your slide must adhere to the following rules:

You can make at most one slide per turn.
All tiles you choose to slide must be adjacent to each other, unless you are sliding a single tile.
All tiles you choose to slide must be in one row or column of the board, and must be slid along that same row or column. (You can’t slide a group of tiles “sideways”.)
Tiles can only move into empty spaces, and cannot “push” tiles that are not a part of the initial slide.
You may only slide tiles in orthogonal directions (up, down, left, and right).
You may slide tiles as many or as few spaces as you wish, as long as all tiles remain within the board and all other rules are followed.
If you both place and slide on your turn, you do not have to slide the tile you just placed.

Additionally, the player who moves second in a bout will have access to the neutral tile. The neutral tile acts as a normal tile, but it will not contribute towards a lance for either player. It can be placed at any time during your turn, without counting as an action. However, placing one of your own tiles still must come before sliding, if you choose to do both on your turn.

When there are four empty spaces left on the board, players may no longer place tiles, and can only slide tiles.

When a player assembles a lance on their turn, the bout will end immediately, and the winner of the bout will be the player whose pieces make up the lance.

If a player assembles a lance for both players in the same turn (like the red player's move above), that player wins the bout.

In the event of a stalemate, the bout will be replayed with the same starting player.

You will have one minute to make each of your moves, with a five minute bank of reserve time. If you run out of reserve time, you will immediately forfeit the bout. Reserve time will be refilled to five minutes at the start of a new bout.

Correction: In the example for the 7th sliding rule, the red player played on C2, not C3.

Sliding Tic-Tac-Toe

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