| Overview |
 Linkage is a two-player abstract board game invented by Ethan Larson (Almo) in 2007.
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| Board |
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Linkage is played on a 7x7 board with the center square blacked out. There are 24 pieces, 6 of 4 different colors. Each piece is a domino covering exactly two cells of the board. The players share one set of pieces.
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| Objective |
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There are two players in the game: One player is called "More" and the other player is called "Fewer". The goals of the game are opposite for the players. "Fewer" wins a finished game if the number of distinct groups of cells of the same color is less than 12. Otherwise "More" wins. The "distinct group" is a group of horizontally or vertically (but not diagonally) connected cells of the same color. Below is an example of a finished game:
There are 12 distinct groups. The "More" player wins. |
| Play |
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The game begins with an empty board. Starting with "More", players take turns placing one piece per turn onto two unoccupied, adjacent cells of the board. A piece may not be placed horizonally or vertically adjacent to the last piece placed by the opponent:
The last played piece is yellow. The next piece If a player's only available move is to place a piece adjacent to his opponent's last-played piece, then he skips his turn and his opponent may play again. In this case, the opponent may play anywhere a piece fits, as there is no last-played piece from the first player to avoid. The game ends when no further pieces can be placed on the board. |
| External Links |
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