Alternate Names
No. of Players
Two
Equipment
A Soli2 board, twenty-four each of black and white counters, and a drawing pouch are required for play.
History
Soli2 was invented by Sara Ellen Daniel and published by Enginuity in 2001.
Objective
The game ends when no legal jumps are remaining to be made or when all the counters of one color have been removed. When the game ends, the player with the most counters remaining on the board is the winner.
Play
The game commences with board vacant of counters and twenty-four each of black and white counters concealed and mixed in a bag. It is then decided who will play black and who will play white. In the first phase of the game, alternate turns entail drawing one counter at random (it could be black or white) from the bag and placing it any vacant intersection on the board.
Starting with the player who chose black, players take turns capturing counters by jumping. The only legal move is an orthogonal short jump and capture, landing at a necessarily vacant position. If any jump and capture can be made it is compulsory to do so, even if it means removing one your own counters. If a player has no legal jump available, they must pass their turn.
The game ends when neither player has a legal jump available or when one player runs out of marbles. Occasionally, each player will have the same number of counters at the end. In which case, the winner is the player with the counter closest to the center. The distance is measured horizontally and vertically, but not diagonally. If each player’s closest counter is equidistant, remove them and compare the next two closest counters, and so on. If after removal of counters, there is still a tie, the victory is given to the player playing white, this because black had the advantage of playing first.
Strategy
Variations
A variation called “Give Away” is played the same with one difference; the objective is now to remove one’s own counters from the board. The player with the least remaining counters at the end is now the winner. The same tie-breaking rules apply.
In a variation called “Pure Skill”, the drawing bag is not used. Instead, each player commences with half of the black counters and half of the white off of the board. Again, black places first. In the first stage of the game, players take turns placing any counter, black or white, from their stock until all counters are placed. The game continues as normal after this.
A Peg Solitaire game may also be played using this board. Note that the 49-Hole Peg Solitaire board is topologically equivalent with this one.
Sources