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Copyright 2025, Phil Leduc
Pack-It is a simple print-n-play game for two, with players trying to occupy the most cells of the board by placing pieces in small symmetrical packets. Pack-It can be played on tessellations of regular repeating cells and any pattern of cells consisting of a central cell and adjacent cells.
Pack-It was concieved during the the development of Astralis which uses the same packing mechanism but is dynamic with moving tokens and blocking. Astralis is the superior strategic game, while Pack-It is a good, well-balanced, cafe game with simple heuristics. Scores are usually very close for players of equal ability.
The recommended board is hex-hex-7 and standard pattern or packet is a hex-hex-2. See Figure 1. For variety, players can use different board shapes or can seed the board with neutral pieces. See Figure 2.
On a turn, a player places a piece on any empty cell, then places pieces on all adjacent empty cells and replaces all opponent pieces adjacent to the initial cell with neutral pieces. A player scores a point for every owned piece on the board. When all cells are occupied, a komi of 3.5 is given to the second player. (The komi is always set to half of the packet size.) The player with the highest score wins.
Figure 1. Sample Game on Hex-hex-7 Board
In the standard game, a komi of 3.5 is given to the second player, Red. The final scores are White 45 and Red 42.5 (39 + 3.5). White wins.
Figure 2. Set up with Neutral Seeds
At the end of this game a komi of 4.5 is given to Red the second player. Piece counts are White 39, and Red 35. Red wins 39.5 to 39!
The games above, were played using the Alpha-Beta AI in the Ludii Game System's Player version 1.3.14. For those interested, the Ludii file "Pack_It Final 02.lud" can be downloaded from the Game Files page. The game file offers options for board shapes and sizes and various packet patterns. Seeding can also be turned on and off. See below.
Hex-hex-7 Clipped
Hex-7-6 Limped
Square-9 Orthogonal
Square-9 Diagonal
Triangle -10
Copyright (c) 2025, Phil Leduc
Copyright (c) 2025, Phil Leduc
Please note that for now these game rules may be duplicated and distributed via the web. All rights are reserved. Those that wish to program or sell this game in any form should contact the author at philleduc.pled@gmail.com for permission or a license to do so.
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