Slingshot

Slingshot is a tense, dynamic, drawless, traverse connection, race game played on a 9 x 9 checkerboard, for two players.

The game mechanics include the use of a pie rule, opposing traverse goals, remote custodial removal with replacement, and recursive board reduction for game resolution.

One player sets up the board with two like-colored pieces, one of which must be on the center square, then the other player decides who uses which color.

Each turn, a player must place a piece on each of two empty squares on opposite sides of a line containing a target opponent piece. One of the line's squares (empty or not) must be between the custodial pair. With this prerequite done, a third piece replaces the target piece. The custodial pair can be any distance from the target!

The first player to complete an orthogonal path connecting their assigned sides, wins.

In the unlikely occurrence that a player cannot play all three pieces, the game ends and each subboard, in descending order, is examined for a crossing path until a winner is determined. The centered subboards are 7 x 7, 5 x 5, 3 x 3 and 1 x 1 in size. The set up guarantees a winner will be found!

Slingshot is tense, as both players multi-task trying to build their path and disrupt their opponent's path. The game material is balanced as the material lead oscilates by two pieces after each player turn. Slingshot is quick to play, surprising, and captivating. It's a hit!

For questions, more detailed rules and figures follow.

Components

A 9 x 9 checkerboard (7 x 7 and 11 x 11 also work) .
80 pieces , 2 sets of 40, here teal and black. (120 pieces, two sets of 60 are needed on the 11x 11 board)

Concepts

Target line is a row, column, or diagonal of squares which contains at least one opponent stone.

Connected pieces are two like-colored pieces in two different squares that share an edge (orthogonal connection).

Connected path is a chain of connected pieces.

Goal

The goal is to connect opposite sides of the board with a chain of orthogonally connected pieces. Following set up, the first player to move (black) is to connect the top and bottom sides, and second player (teal) the left and right sides. Paths can include corner sqaures which are usable by both players. The paths can be serpentine or straightforward.

Set Up

To balance the game, either player seeds an empty board with two like-colored pieces (teal), one of which must be placed on the center square of the board. The second piece can be placed on any other square. See Figure 1. The other player decides who plays which color (teal or black).

Figure 1. Sample setup

Game Play

Turns alternate, black plays first.

Each turn, a player must place three pieces.

Two pieces must be placed on empty squares, which are on opposite sides of any row, column, or diagonal containing an opponent piece (a target). See Figure 2,. The row, column, or diagonal is referred to as a target line. In addition, the following conditions must be met:

An imagined line segment connecting the two pieces must be perpendicular to the target line, and
There must be one square (empty or not) on this imagined line segment.

To finish a turn, the opponent piece, the target, is replaced with the active player's third piece.

Figure 2. Sample Custodial PairsThe black player is targeting the center teal piece.
The 'a' pair is legal. It does not matter that the square between the 'a' pieces is occupied by either player or empty. Any combination of pieces and empty squares can be on the target's line.
The 'b' pair is legal. The target can be between the two custodial pieces. The 'c' pair is legal. Note the pair would be placed on squares that are the same color as the diagonal target line. One square must be on the target line between the custodial pair.
The 'd' pair is illegal. The imagined line connecting these two piece is not be perpendicular to the target line.
The 'e' pair is illegal. There is no square between the two pieces.

The player who completes a path wins immediately.

If a player is unable to place all three required pieces, the game ends and the winner is determined using the following recursive process.

All pieces are removed from the perimeter squares and the remaining subboard is examined for a connection path. For example, a 9 x 9 board transforms to a 7 x 7 board.
The process repeats if no path is found. Otherwise, a path exists and reveals who wins.

Possibly, the process will lead to the center square, a 1 x 1 subboard, the player who last placed a piece to the center wins. Bullseye!

"Well-aimed slingshots can topple giants." - Maggie Kuhn

Variants

The rules above are considered best and recommended. The following variations were playtested during game design and give players a different feel and worthy of a try.

Unrestricted Setup: Setup allows placing both pieces anywhere. The game might not have a winner if no one plays to the center during the game. Playing the setup pieces to corners make black's first turn more difficult. The opening play is more challenging.
Reduced custodial distance for diagonals: When placing stones adjacent to a diagonal target line only, place the pieces without having a square between them. The pair will be on squares whose color is opposite the diagonal target line. The game feels closed or tighter.
Increased custodial distance: When placing pieces to empty spaces, there may be any odd number of squares (empty or not) on the imagined line segment. The imaged line must still be bisected. This variant gives players many more placements to consider. This offers more surprise moves.

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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