Bug

In this Death Match, grow bugs in the ecosystem until you can't place anymore anywhere at all. (Original design by Nick Bentley)

Designer(s): Non-original Game Match Type: DM (for 2 players)
Featured in: Genius Game 3, Blooming Genius: The Elder Tree, Community Hosted Genius Game 2

BUG

In this abstract game invented by Nick Bentley, you will compete to fill the ecosystem with your bugs that eat each other and grow larger. The first player that occupies so much that they can no longer grow is the winner. You can read more information here: https://www.nickbentley.games/bug-polyomino-perceptual-binding/


RULES

The game takes place on the following hex grid. Each hex has coordinates; in each row, each hex is numbered 1, 2, 3, ... from the left. So the central hex is C3 and the bottom-right hex is E3. In the actual game, only the letters on the left are present; the coordinates of the hexes are not written.



Each player has a color. The default colors are red and blue, but you may choose your own color, subject to approval.


Throughout the game, players will occupy some hexes. A connected group of hexes of the same player color forms a bug. (Here, a group is "maximal", in the sense that it is as large as possible.) Note that a group of one hex is also a bug.


In the following example:

  • Red has 3 bugs: a 1-hex bug on A1, a bend 3-hex bug on A3-B4-C4, and a straight 3-hex bug on C1-D1-E1.
  • Blue has 2 bugs: a 2-hex bug on A2-B2 and a bend 3-hex bug on D2-E2-E3.


The DM Opponent chooses the starting player, and then players alternate turns. On the very first turn of the game, the starting player chooses a hex to occupy. After that, each turn consists of the following steps:


1. Grow. Choose an empty hex to occupy, either to form a new bug of size one or to grow one of your existing bugs by one. You may not choose a hex that would merge bugs together. You may not grow any bug to become larger than the largest bug (taking both colors into account) prior to your turn. The bug you created or grew is called your "active bug".


2. Eat. If your active bug is now touching an opposing bug that is congruent (having the same shape, possibly after rotation/reflection), your active bug eats the opposing bug. The opposing bug is removed from the board, and your active bug grows by another hex, to an empty hex (which might have been vacated by the eaten bug). This bonus growth can cause your active bug to become larger than the largest bug, but your growing bug still may not merge with another of your bugs.


While you may choose any valid hex for the initial growth (step 1), eating is mandatory; if your active bug can eat, it must eat and grow. However, there is an exception: if your active bug would not be able to grow after eating (because all options would cause it to merge), then the eating does not happen at all.


In a single turn, your active bug keeps eating until it no longer can eat anything. If your active bug touches multiple congruent opposing bugs, all of them are eaten at once, but your active bug still only grows by one.


(If you are reading the webpage above: Note that the rule about eating is slightly different from the one given on the webpage. Only your active bug can eat; no other bug will eat. This ruling is consistent with the newest ruling found in BoardGameGeek; presumably, this hasn't been ported back to the webpage.)


The game ends when a player has no valid move remaining (because they cannot do the initial growth in step 1). That player wins, for having filled the ecosystem with so many of their bugs that they can no longer grow.


EXAMPLE

Consider the example above, replicated here:



If it's Red's turn, Red wins. The current largest bug has size 3, so Red cannot grow a bug to size 4. But playing on B1 would merge two bugs together (which is always illegal), while all other placements would grow either of Red's 3-hex bugs to size 4. Since Red cannot grow, Red wins.


If it's Blue's turn, Blue has 3 legal moves: B1, B3, and C5.

  • B1 and B3 will grow Blue's 2-hex bug to size 3. This is okay, since it's not larger than the current largest bug.
  • C5 will create a new bug of size 1.
  • The remaining empty hexes are illegal; C2 and C3 would merge the two bugs, while D3 and D4 would grow the 3-hex bug into size 4.

If Blue plays on B1, this will cause a capture. Blue's new bend 3-hex on A2-B1-B2 will touch Red's bend 3-hex on A3-B4-C4. As they are congruent bugs, Blue's bug will capture Red's, removing all of the pieces; Blue will also grow the bug once more. Blue has two options: B3 or A3 (newly vacated). If Blue chooses to grow on B3, this is the new board:



This time, since the largest bug is of size 4, Red may now play on C2 to grow the 3-hex bug to size 4. This will also capture Blue's top bug, causing Red to grow once more; in this case, there is only one choice, to C3 (the other two choices, B1 and B2, would merge two bugs together). If Red takes this move, the board will become the following:



Alternately, Red could have taken another move. Red can create a new bug on B4:



Blue can also create a new bug on C5. This would normally capture Red's bug. However, Blue will then have no way to grow the new bug on C5; all options will cause it to merge with another bug. In this case, Blue does not capture.



ADMINISTRATION

Make your moves in the game room. A move consists of a sequence of coordinates; the first represents your initial growth (step 1) and the remaining coordinates represent your bonus growth after each step of eating (step 2).


If your move is not legal, I will reject it and tell you the reason; your time will still be counting down. Your move can be illegal for various reasons:

  • Not a legal grow (you try to occupy a non-empty hex or merge bugs; or this is the step 1 growth and you try to grow larger than the largest bug)
  • Incomplete/illegal sequence of eatings (your bug stops eating when it can still eat more, or your bug tries to do a bonus growth when it doesn't have anything to eat)

Otherwise, I will take the first legal move you make. Double-check your coordinates!


This game is fully public information; all updates are public and you do not need to make any private submissions.


Time controls: You have 1.5 minutes (90 seconds) per turn, plus 10 minutes (600 seconds) of reserve time. If you run out of your turn time, you will start using your reserve time in 10-second increments. If you try to use more time than you have left in your reserve time, you immediately lose.



🟢 ⚔️ Death Match (Green Meadow): Bug ⚔️ 🟢

Grow your bugs so they rule the ecosystem.


On a hexagonal board, grow your bug and eat identically-shaped opponent bugs. When you can no longer expand on the board, you win.


This game is based on a 2017 abstract strategy board game of the same name, invented by Nick Bentley. It was also used in Genius Game 3, with significant differences from the original version. It was also used in Community-Hosted Genius Game 2, this time with pretty much the exact same rules as the original version. This version is much closer to the one in CHGG2.


RULES

🀄 The game is played on an irregular hexagonal board, as follows. The rows are numbered 1-6, and the slanted diagonals going top-left to bottom-right are labeled A-G. The black cells are not part of the board. The cell coordinates will not be present in the actual board; only the row/column labels outside the board are present.




🀄 The board is initially empty. Throughout the game, players will place pieces of their player color on the board. Each piece occupies one hex, and no piece can occupy the same hex as another piece. Players do not run out of pieces; they have an unlimited supply of them. The default colors are red and blue, but you may choose your color subject to the umpire's approval.


A bug is a connected group of pieces of the same color. The size of a bug is simply the number of pieces it contains. Two bugs are adjacent if at least one piece from a bug is adjacent to at least one piece of the bug. Two bugs are congruent if they have the same shape, allowing rotation and/or reflection.


🧬 Here, the group is taken to be "maximal"; that is, as large as possible. A connected group of 3 pieces forms a bug of size 3, but not anything smaller. It follows that two bugs can only be adjacent if they are of different colors; otherwise the two groups of pieces would have merged into a single larger bug.


The player with the DM Advantage chooses the starting player. Then players alternate turns until the game end condition is reached.


🧠 The first turn of each player is used to set up the board. First, the starting player chooses one empty hex to be blackened; then their opponent does the same. Blackened hexes are no longer part of the board, as if they weren't on the board at all to begin with, similar to the six blackened hexes on the board.


🧠 Afterwards, turns follow this structure:

  1. Grow
  2. Eat

📌 1. Grow

🧠 During the grow step of your turn, you must either spawn a new bug, or enlarge an existing bug. Either of these options causes you to have an active bug that is relevant for the eat step. If you cannot do either, the game end condition has been reached; see below.


  • Spawn: Place your piece on any empty hex that is not adjacent to any of your existing bugs. This creates a new bug of size 1. This new bug becomes your active bug.

  • Enlarge: Place your piece on any empty hex that is adjacent to exactly one of your existing bugs. This causes the bug to increase in size. This new bug becomes your active bug. ⚠️ There is one condition: if you enlarge a bug, its new size cannot become larger than the largest bug among the remaining bugs on the board (of any color).

⚠️ Note that it is never allowed to place a piece that is adjacent to two or more of your existing bugs. This would merge them into a single bug, and have you seen two creatures in the real world merge into one?


📌 2. Eat

During the eat step of your turn, your active bug might eat the opponent's bugs to grow larger.


A capture happens when your active bug is adjacent to an opponent's bug that is congruent to the active bug. In this case, the opponent's bug is removed, and your active bug enlarges as a bonus.


🧠 While there is no choice on whether to remove the opponent's bug or not, there is a choice on how your active bug enlarges. As with the "enlarge" option in the grow step, you place your piece on an empty hex adjacent to your active bug and no other bug, to make your active bug larger in size. This might be a hex emptied after removing the opponent's bug.


⚠️ Unlike in the grow step option, you may enlarge a bug to become larger than the largest bug on the board. However, you still may not merge bugs together.


🧬 It may happen that your bug is adjacent to multiple congruent opponent's bugs. In this case, you remove them all, but you still only enlarge your active bug by one.


🧬 It may happen that, if you perform a capture, there is no legal choice for the enlarge portion. In this case, the capture is not performed. The opponent's bug remains on the board.


🧬 Due to the above rule, it's possible that two congruent non-active bugs are adjacent on the board. They don't capture each other, as only the active bug makes captures.


Captures are mandatory, and as long as it's possible to capture, you will keep capturing. The eat step ends once you can no longer capture.


👑 The game ends when one player cannot perform the grow step of their turn. That player wins, for having filled the ecosystem with so many of their bugs.


ADMINISTRATION

📌 ⏰ Timing

You have a turn timer of 1 minute and a time bank of 5 minutes.


What this means is, on your turn, you are normally given 1 minute to make your move. You may take longer than that by using your time bank; the time in excess of 1 minute is taken from your time bank, with a limit of 5 minutes. Your turn timer is refreshed every turn; you get a full 1 minute every turn, regardless of how much or little you used it before. However, your time bank lasts for the entire game; once you use up an amount of time from the time bank, it is permanently lost. If you run out of both turn timer and time bank, you lose the game.


The umpire is allowed freedom in measuring time usage; check with the umpire. A common method is to round up time bank usage to the next 5-second interval.


📌 🧠 Submissions and allowed tools

Your submissions are done in the public game room. We will take the first legal submission you make, unless you promptly fix the submission (e.g. in case of making a typo or sending a move too early).


On the first turn, your submission consists of the location of the hex you wish to blacken.


For the rest of the game, your submission consists of:

  • For the grow step, the location of your new piece.
  • For the eat step, the locations of your pieces for the enlarge portion of captures, in order of captures.

Your submission must be a complete legal move; that is, each part of your submission must be legal, and you must make the correct number of captures, neither more nor less. If your submission is illegal for any reason, you will be informed of your first mistake (e.g. your enlarge causes your bug to merge with another, or you can still capture after the last capture), and you will need to fix that.


You may use any available tools for note-taking. However, you may not talk to other people or use any automated programs.


📌 📡 Information

Everything in this game is public information; there is nothing hidden.


More specifically, this game has the following pieces of information, along with how and when they are revealed to the players, if at all. If a piece of information is not in this list, it is likely public, but feel free to clarify.


🔺 Publicly announced, at the end of move

  • What the board looks like.
  • Which bugs were captured by the previous move.
  • Whose turn it is.
  • Whether the game ends.

CLARIFICATION

📌 Example game

Other than the initial board setup (the strange board and the initial blackening step), this is identical to how Bug is played normally.

Tags

Grid-based    (The game involves play on a grid.)

Hex grid    (The game involves play on specifically a hexagonal grid.)

Piece placement    (The game involves pieces being placed on a board.)

Piece removal    (The game involves pieces being removed from the board.)

Strategy    (The game tests the players' strategic & tactical abilities.)

Turn-based    (The game involves players taking turns one after another.)