Beautiful Vine Tree
In this Death Match, grow flowers on the board in an attempt to force your opponent to place the last possible flowers.
| Designer(s): RedsToad | Match Type: DM (for 2 players) |
| Featured in: Master Of All Trades | |
General Rules
The game is played on a board shown in the image above.
The centre space on the board starts being occupied by a flower.
Players take turns growing one of the flowers on the board.
Growing a flower creates additional flowers.
The player that makes the first move is chosen by DMO.
The player that makes the last possible move loses.
Growing a Flower
A move consists of taking any flower and growing two vines out of it.
These vines must come from different sides of the flower.
You cannot grow vines out of a flower if there is not enough space for the vines.
Vines follow the grid on the board and two vines may not occupy the same space.
The length of the vines that grow out of the chosen flower are equal to the longest straight segment of vine coming out the flower.
The straight segment includes the flower itself.
At the end of each vine a new flower blooms and may be grown on a future turn.
You may grow a flower if and only if you are able to grow both vines out of it.
If it is impossible to grow two vines a given distance, for example when the flower is in the corner, then the flower is considered dead and does not contribute to the game.
As soon as no legal moves remain, as all flowers are dead, the game ends. The player who made the last move loses, as he was the one who killed the tree.
Example
For example, at the start of the game there are no vines, so the length of the two vines that grow out of that flower is 1, which is that flower itself.
If the vines are grown perpendicularly to one another, then the length of vines from each of the new flowers is 2: the new flower and the original.
If there is a bend in one of the vines, then the length of a flower on the end of that vine is equal to number of spaces occupied by the vine after the bend.
Submission Format
Players must give the coordinates of the flower they wish to grow from, along with the UDLR steps each of the two vines growing out of it take.
Players have 3 minutes per move, with 5mins reserve time. If you run out of reserve time, you lose.
DMO may choose the starting player
Tags
Grid-based (The game involves play on a grid.)
Nim-like (The game takes elements from the mathematical game of strategy Nim.)
Strategy (The game tests the players' strategic & tactical abilities.)
Turn-based (The game involves players taking turns one after another.)