HEPTA

Copyright (c) 1974 Alex Randolph

This game is played on an empty 7x7 square board:

There are, off-board, 7 neutral stones and also 6 Ls and 6 rectangles like these:

SETUP - One player drops all the seven neutrals into empty cells. The other player decides if he plays with the Ls or the rectangles. The initial player starts with the other pattern. TURN - On each turn each player drops a friendly pattern on a set of empty cells. GOAL - The player that cannot move, loses the game.

The original game comes with the board using a pre-defined order of colors. Here, we relaxed that part to allow an initial variable setup (initially proposed at Jeux et Stratègie #27).

Notice that if every piece is dropped (which is possible, even if unlikely), the second player wins because the first player does not have anything to drop.

An initial example One player dropped the seven neutral stones. The other player choose the Ls. Then, the initial player starts by dropping a rectangle.