Walkable Cities

In this Death Match, drop tetrominoes to claim as many tiles for yourself while reducing the available area for your opponent.

Designer(s): uriquack	Match Type: DM (for 2 players)
Featured in: The Genius: House of Larks

Walkable Cities

In Walkable Cities, players aim to claim as many tiles for yourself while reducing available area for your opponent to claim.

Tile Types

There are three types of tiles in this game: 1. Unclaimed Tiles, 2. Dead Tiles, and 3. Claimed Tiles.

Unclaimed tiles are white and unmarked. Pieces can only be placed onto unclaimed tiles.

Dead tiles are grey and marked with the letter ‘D’. No pieces can be placed onto dead tiles. The starting board will appear with a number of dead tiles.

Claimed tiles are red or blue, each color representing a player.

Initial Setup

When the game begins, the boards are revealed. Players will have 90 seconds to examine the boards. All three boards will be 10 x 10 boards with dead tiles spawning in different positions on each board. Below is an example of one such board:

Each round, players place pieces onto the three boards.

All pieces are tetrominoes. Thus, there are 5 types of pieces, pictured below:

Gameplay each round will be divided into two phases: the Selection Phase and the Drop Phase. In the Selection Phase, the piece to be played is selected; in the Drop Phase, players place the piece onto the boards.

Selection Phase

Prior to placing a piece, players must select the piece to be played from the Rotation. Each Rotation initially consists of five pieces, which will consist of the five different types of free tetrominoes (depicted above).

(Note: Each Rotation will have these number labels included.)

Players will have 1 minute to simultaneously select their preferred piece by choosing the number label of the piece. Once a piece is selected, it will be removed from the Rotation. If both players select the same piece, they will both be able to play the same piece, and it will be removed from the Rotation. Their selection is then publicly announced. (This selection process will be skipped when there is only one piece remaining in the Rotation; both players will automatically receive this piece. Players will still receive the entire minute to prepare for the Drop Phase or arrange their notes.)

Of the five tetrominoes, each can only show up once until all have been used up in the rotation. Once all pieces have been exhausted from the Rotation, the Rotation is refreshed and all 5 initial pieces are available for selection once again.

Drop Phase

After the Selection Phase, the Drop Phase immediately begins.

Players will have 90 seconds to ‘drop’ their piece into the three boards. Prior to dropping a piece, the piece may be ROTATED or FLIPPED.

A Drop submission consists of 1. a division of their piece and 2. the coordinates for the piece to ‘land’ on.

Players must divide their selected piece into sub-pieces with labels of 1, 2, and 3 and name the coordinates where the piece is to be ‘dropped’. Each sub-piece will fall into those coordinates on the board. Sub-pieces labeled 1 will be dropped into Board 1; sub-pieces labeled 2 will be dropped into Board 2, and so on.

However, there are three restrictions when it comes to ‘dropping’ a piece:

Sub-pieces may only be dropped onto unclaimed tiles. (Dead and unclaimed tiles and beyond the boundary of the board are not legal drops.)
Sub-pieces must include at most 2 tiles.
The coordinates for the drop altogether must be in the shape of the piece.

Depicted below are legal submissions of sub-piece divisions:

Depicted below are illegal submission of sub-piece divisions:

Depicted below is a legal drop of a 2x2 square piece (also known as the O-mino):

Depicted below is an illegal drop of the same piece:

When a piece is dropped, ALL tiles it is dropped into must be valid on ALL boards.

Then, the pieces are dropped into their respective boards at the same time. The tiles the pieces are dropped in become claimed tiles, represented by the color of the player (red or blue). However, if both players drop into the same coordinate, instead, the tile becomes a dead tile. All dropped tiles are revealed simultaneously, at the end of the round.

Players may PASS their Drop Phase.

Administration and Time Controls

When the game begins, the boards are revealed. Players will have 90 seconds to examine the boards.

During the Selection Phase, players will have 1 minute to simultaneously select their preferred piece by choosing the number label of the piece.

During the Drop Phase, players will have 90 seconds to ‘drop’ their piece into the three boards.

Additionally, players will have 7 minutes of reserve time, divided into 7 one minute periods. When a player submits an invalid configuration during processing, they will enter a reserve period. If a player has run out of reserve time, they will automatically pass the round.

Game End, Items and Win Condition

Tiebreak Item: If the number of won boards is tied, then the player with the Tiebreak Item wins the Final Match.

Hidden Item 1: During the Selection Phase of any round, the player holding Hidden Item 1 may use this item to change any tetromino you pick to one of your choosing instead. (The original tetromino that you chose will still be eliminated from the Rotation until the Rotation is fully exhausted.) This item is single use.

Hidden Item 2: During the Selection Phase of any of the first four rounds, the player holding Hidden Item 2 may use this item to remove a dead tile from the game, causing the dead tile to become an unclaimed tile. This will be announced prior to the Drop Phase, when the selected tiles are announced. This item is single use.

The game ends when any single player has PASSED for three turns in a row. (The Extend Game item may be used to make this four turns.)

A tally will then be conducted. For each board, the player with the largest path will win the board. A path is the largest orthogonally contiguous set of claimed tiles in the board. (If the largest road size is tied on a board, the board is considered tied.) The player who has won more boards wins the Final Match.

Walkable Cities

Tags