Manalath
Manalath Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
This is what you need in order to play MANALATH:
- An hexagonal 5-5-6 board with 70 spaces
- 25 orange pieces
- 25 purple pieces
Game Rules
The game begins with an empty board. The orange and purple pieces are placed beside the board such that both players can easily reach them.
Each player has an allocated colour: orange or purple. Place a counter of your colour before you, for the sake of clarity. The orange player starts the game.
In each turn you enter one of the pieces on an empty space on the board, in doing so you may select a piece of your own or the opponent's colour. But you may never place a piece such that a group of more than 5 pieces is created – of either colour!
Example: forbidden spaces for orange pieces (the spaces marked with an X).
Example: Orange to play and win (by placing an orange piece on the marked space).
If you cannot make a legal move (which is rare) the game is ended, but still the final state has to be examined: if you are neither in a winning nor a losing position, the game ends in a draw.
End of Game
If there is, at the end of your turn, …
- a group of 5 of your colour, you win.
- a group of 4 of your colour, you lose.
If both conditions are present at the end of your turn, you lose.
Variant
As a variant, the game includes 3 green pieces that can be placed on any 3 spaces before the game starts. Players must agree on the number of green pieces used (1, 2 or 3) and their placement. The green pieces are act as unplayable spaces.
With this variant, the games are richer but shorter.
Source note: transcribed from the official English rules published by NESTORGAMES (final rules, single sheet, https://www.nestorgames.com/rulebook/MANALATH_EN.pdf). The example diagrams are images on the original sheet; their captions are reproduced as printed.