Gamehelppond

Overview

Be the first to score 10 or more pieces of your own color.

Turn

Each turn consists of three steps: Action, Develop, Score

• Action: As your action, you can either Place an Egg, Move a Tadpole, or Move a Frog.
  • Place an Egg: Place an Egg on any empty space on the board. Eggs themselves cannot move while on the board.
  • Move a Tadpole: Move a Tadpole to an orthogonally adjacent empty space
  • Move a Frog: Move a Frog 1 or 2 spaces in an orthogonal straight line to an empty space. The Frog may hop over an adjacent piece to reach an empty space on the other side.
• Develop: Once you have completed your action, the Develop step occurs, causing some pieces to change symbols.
  • From where your moved piece now resides, every orthogonally adjacent piece develops, regardless of color.
  • To develop a piece, move it along its life cycle: An Egg becomes a Tadpole, a Tadpole becomes a Frog, and a Frog becomes an Egg.
  • Development is not optional, and pieces must always develop in the same order. You can never skip development or develop backwards.
• Score: Finally, score any sets you have now created.
  • A set is a group of 3 or more matching symbols in an unbroken orthogonal line, regardless of owner. This means that sets can consist of pieces of a single color or pieces of both colors.
  • These pieces are removed from the board and given to their owner to form their owner's scoring pile (i.e. You may not be scoring for yourself.)
  • In the instance of intersecting sets, all components score. (e.g. In a "+" configuration, all 5 would score, but the middle one does NOT double score.)

After a player has played an action, developed all necessary pieces, and scored any resulting sets, it becomes their opponent's turn.

Game End

The game ends when a player has scored 10 or more of their own pieces. Then, the player with the most scored pieces wins the game. (e.g. If one player reaches 11 points, and their opponent simultaneously reaches 10 points, 11 beats 10.) If the score is tied, then the game ends in a draw.

The game also ends if a player is unable to perform an action on their turn. If a player has no legal actions, that player loses the game. This secondary win condition is called Elimination.

Small Pond Variation

If playing on the Small Pond, the game is played on a 4x4 grid. Each player begins with 11 eggs in their spawn, and the win condition is 7 points.