Hausta

Introduction

Hausta (from Old Norse: haust, meaning "harvest" or "autumn") is a drawless finite game for two players: Black and White. It is played on the hexes (cells) of an initially empty hexagonal board. The recommended board size is 4 cells per side, but boards of 3 or 5 are also valid. Each player has access to a sufficient supply of stackable pieces of their own color in two types: peasants and seeds.

Definitions:

• A peasant is a set of pieces located on the same cell. A single piece is also a peasant.
• To harvest a seed is to incorporate it into a peasant, so that the seed stops being a seed and becomes part of the peasant.

Turns:

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

• Move your peasant in a straight line to a distance equal to its height to an empty cell or a cell occupied by a friendly seed to harvest it. When moving, the peasant increases its height by 1 and uses an extra piece off the board to grow; however, if the peasant harvests a seed, it uses it to grow.
• Sow a friendly seed on an empty cell in a straight line from your peasant to an empty cell at a distance equal to your peasant's height, then remove one piece of your peasant, unless the peasant is 1 of height.

You can move your peasant or sow seeds through pieces of any color.

End of the game:

The game ends when a peasant cannot move or sow seeds, in which case the opponent is the winner.

To balance the game, before starting, the first player places two peasants of height 1, one black and one white, and the second player chooses a side. This balancing method is called the two-piece pie rule.

—description from the designer