TROLL

Copyright (c) 1980s? Jean-Claude Rosa

Troll is a pre-1982 game by Jean-Claude Rosa, published by the APMEP (Association des Professeurs de Mathématiques de l'Enseignement Public) in his booklet Jeux 1.

The game is a mix of Hex and Othello, played on an 8x8 initially empty board:

EDGES - Each players owns two opposite edges, say, first player has top and bottom edges, while second player has left and right edges. DROP - Each player drops one of his stones on an empty cell. If at least one opponent stone is between that stone and another friendly stone (orthogonal or diagonal), then all opponent stones that were between those stones flip its color (like in Othello). Stones cannot be dropped on the opponent's edges (including corners) or in the player's own corners, unless there are captures involved. GOAL - Wins the first player who manages to do a path connecting his two opposite edges. Two tiles diagonally aside are not continuous in a path. The corners belong to both edges.

An example White has not won yet! He does not have an orthogonal chain of stones between his two edges. He might win by dropping at one of the cells [1]. If it's Black's turn, he can defend by playing at cell [2].

 

Here are the original rules:

The game was posted at r.g.a by Thierry Grellier on Sep 23, 1993:

Hello,

A friend of mine has sent me the rules of an interesting game,
Troll which has been created by Jean-Claude Rosa. Here are the
rules:

Troll is played with a reversi set.

There 2 players Black and White.

Each of them chooses two opposite edges on the board.
White starts.

He plays a tile facing its color on any free square of the board
exepted on corners or on opponents edges. If he wants to, he must
play an othello move which turns back opponent tiles. He must turn
back all opponent tiles catched by his move like in othello, but the
difference with othello is that it is allowed to play moves which
don't catch opponent tiles.

The winner is the first one who manages to do a path connecting his
two opposite edges. Two tiles diagonally aside are not continuous in
a path. The corners belong to all edges.

example of game :
   a b c d e f g h
1 . . . .@. . . . .
2 . . . .@. . . . .
3 . .X.X.@. . . . .
4 .X.@.@.@.X.X.X. .
5 . .@.X. .@.@.X.X.
6 . . . . . .@. . .
7 . . . . . . . . .
8 . . . . . . . . .

Black to play : he can play at b2, c2, h2, e1, c7... and he plays at d5

   a b c d e f g h
1 . . . .@. . . . .
2 . . . .@. . . . .
3 . .X.X.@. . . . .
4 .X.@.X.@.X.X.X. .
5 . .@.X.X.X.X.X.X.
6 . . . . . .@. . .
7 . . . . . . . . .
8 . . . . . . . . .

He has not won because there is no perpendicular link between b3 and a4.
But he is able to do a continuous path by playing a3, a5 or b6. White can
defend by playing g6 for example.