ZÈRTZ

⚔️ ZÈRTZ ⚔️

This game has not been used in any The Genius ORG (that I know of) before. This game was created by Kris Burm, and is part of the GIPF Project.

The goal of the game is to capture enough balls of certain colors.

RULES

The game is played on an irregular hexagonal board as follows. A hex's coordinate is its row letter, followed by the number of the hex counting the leftmost hex as 1; therefore, the top-right hex is A4 and the bottom-right hex is H5. The board will shrink as hexes go missing, and with it, coordinates also change accordingly; for example, if the top-left hex is missing, the top-right hex becomes A3.

The game will be played using 3 kinds of balls: white, gray, and black. There are 6 white balls, 8 gray balls, and 10 black balls. All of them start in the supply.

Each player also has a pool that will be filled with their captured balls. Each player's pool starts out empty.

Decide the starting player. Turns alternate. On your turn, you must capture if possible; otherwise you must place a ball.

To place a ball, you need to make two moves: place a ball, then remove a hex.

You must place a ball from the supply onto any empty hex. If the supply is empty, you must place a ball from your pool instead. If both are empty, you lose immediately. (This should never happen.) Whenever you place a ball, you may place a ball of any available color.

Then you must remove a hex. You may only remove a free hex: a hex that is empty and can be slid out of the arrangement without disturbing other hexes. In practice, this means an empty hex that has two adjacent empty sides. If there is no such hex, you don't remove any hex, but if there is such hex, you must remove one. You may remove a hex such that the remaining hexes are separated into different groups.

After removing a hex, it's possible that you have isolated some balls. If a connected group of one or more hexes all contain a ball each, you automatically remove all those hexes and add the balls on them into your pool.

To capture, you must jump a ball over another, and repeat this until it's impossible to do further. This is like capturing in checkers.

A capture is possible if there are two adjacent balls and there is an empty hex on one end of the line. To make a capture, jump a ball over another ball, landing on the empty hex just beyond the ball jumped; you capture the ball jumped. You may only jump one ball, and you may not jump across empty hexes.

After making a capture, if another capture is possible using the same ball, you must do so. However, if you have choices on which ball to capture, you may freely choose one; you don't need to pick the path that gives you the most balls.

In the following example, you start in the above position. You can move the white ball over the gray ball to jump over it, capturing the gray ball.

The game ends when one player has enough balls in their pool to match one of the following conditions:

• 4 white balls
• 5 gray balls
• 6 black balls
• 3 balls of each color

That player wins. There is also a special case when you cannot make a capture nor place a ball, in which you immediately lose; this should never happen, though.

ADMINISTRATION

Make your moves in the public game room.

• For placing a ball, state the color of the ball you're placing and the coordinate of the hex it goes to, then state the coordinate of the hex you remove. Captures by isolation will automatically be performed after your move.
• For capturing, state the coordinate of the ball you're moving and the direction(s) of your capture(s).

Information revealed in public game room: current board, balls in pools/supply.

Private channels are not used.

Time controls: 5 periods of 1 minute. I will take the first unambiguous legal move you make each turn. If you attempt to make an illegal move, I will announce it and you must make a different move. Note that the coordinates might get confusing; make sure you're referring to the correct hex. (Feel free to ask the coordinate of your desired hex during the game.)

Variant rule: If both players and host agree, you may play a best-of-3 match instead, since a game of ZÈRTZ is normally pretty quick.

Info: Taken from the official website (http://www.gipf.com/zertz/), here's a position in which the red player, currently having the move, can win. I won't spoil the answer here; go to the site and look around if you want to know.

Rule change: You may not repeat a previous position (exactly identical including balls in pool and supply). If you can't make a move due to this condition, you also automatically lose. This also should never happen, but I'm trying to be thorough.

Rule clarifications:

• If you have no choice in making a capture, I will not wait for your move because you only have one legal move. That means after I post the image for your turn, I will immediately work on the image for your opponent's next turn.
• If you choose to play best-of-3, all your periods are replenished after every game. Losing on time only loses you that game, not the whole series.

FINALS CHANGES

Instead of making a move, you may bribe to pass. To do so, you must propose a bribe: any collection of balls, including the colors, that both you and your opponent have. For example, the bribe might be one gray, or two black plus one white, or empty; as long as each of you have balls equal to the bribe, you may propose it.

On a bribe, the opponent may accept or reject.

• If they accept, then you pass your turn and it's the opponent's turn. You must return balls to the supply, equaling the bribe.
• If they reject, then it's still your turn. They must return balls to the supply, equaling the bribe.

The finals game will be a best-of-three, but the games are no longer fully independent. You may only propose three bribes in total across all three games. Bribes are counted whether they are accepted or rejected.

END OF FINALS CHANGES