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Pylos

A two player abstract game by David G.Royffe

The goal of Pylos is to be the player who places one of their (light or dark) wooden balls on the top-most point of the pyramid.

Pylos is played on a wooden board with a 4 x 4 grid of pits. The grid on the board is empty at the start of a game. Each player receives 15 balls of a color. The balls are placed in the groove around the grid which represents the players' reservoir.


Players are taking turns to build a pyramid placing one ball on the grid every turn. Balls can be placed on any empty pit of the grid or on any higher layer if it is supported by a 2 x 2 square of 4 balls.
Instead of taking a ball from the reservoir, players have the option of moving one of their existing free balls on the board (which doesn’t yet have anything on top of it) to any stable space (supported by 4 other balls) on a higher layer. In addition, if a player creates a 2 x 2 square consisting of only their own balls, they put back 1 or 2 of their free balls from anywhere on the board into their reservoir.

If it is a player's turn and he has no balls of his own color to play, he automatically loses the game.

Advanced Rules
In addition to the existing rules, take back 1 or 2 balls if
● you made an orthogonal line of 4 balls of your own color on the 4x4 layer
● you made an orthogonal line of 3 balls of your own color on the 3x3 layer

Have fun.