Introduction:

Anadil (from Middle Welsh: anadyl, meaning "breath") is a drawless territorial game for two players: Black and White. It is played on the intersections (points) of a initially empty square board. The recommended board size is 15 points per side, but boards of 11, 13, 17 or 19 are also valid. There is also a location outside the board called prison. Each player has access to a sufficient supply of stones of their own color.

This game is based on Anda.

Definitions:

A group is a maximal set of stones of the same color connected orthogonally. A single stone is also a group.
A supergroup is a maximal set of groups of the same color connected diagonally. A single group is also a supergroup.
A breath is an empty point orthogonally or diagonally adjacent to a group. A breath is obstructed if a single enemy supergroup can access it without enemy stones in between, through an orthogonal or diagonal connection that does not need to be in a straight line.
A smothered group is a group with all its breaths obstructed.

Turns:

Black plays first, and then players alternate. On your turn, perform one of the following actions:

Place a stone of your color on an empty point, then move all smothered enemy groups to the prison, followed by moving all smothered friendly groups to the prison.
Remove an enemy stone from the prison. If the prison contains stones of both colors, remove pairs of stones of opposite colors until only stones of one color remain or none remain.

At the end of your turn, the board position must be different from the position at the end of your previous turn, and the group of the placed stone cannot smother a group that, in the previous turn, had smothered exactly all of your groups. For better visual clarity, although capturing is mandatory, it is recommended that beginners start playing with optional captures.

End of the game:

The player who performed the last action wins the game.

To balance the game, before starting, the first player places two black stones in opposite corners and offers a komi pie, placing several black stones in the prison. The second player chooses a side: if he chooses white, he places his two starting stones; otherwise, the first player places the two white stones and continues with the white ones.

Advanced balance:

For a more advanced option in game balancing, you can do the following:

Player 1 places two black stones.
Player 2 (i) swaps or (ii) places two white stones.
- If (i), player 1 places two white stones, and Player 2 swaps or accepts.
- If (ii), player 1 swaps or accepts.

The player with black stones then offers a komi pie. The player with white stones swaps or accepts. I have called this balancing method the komi dual pie rule. For handicap games, the weaker player takes Black and begins by placing a number of black stones in the prison proportional to the skill difference between the players.

—description from the designer

Anadil

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