How to play
- The tiles. Each player has 11 carved tiles: 1 Elder, 2 Owls, 3 Hares, 2 Foxes and 3 Otters. One player plays pale ash, the other dark walnut; ash starts. There is no board: the tiles you put down are the board.
- Your turn. Place a tile from your supply, or move one of your tiles on the slab. If you can do neither, you pass (the table does it for you).
- Placing. The first tile goes in the middle, and the second touches it. After that, a new tile must touch one of your own tiles and none of the other player’s. For a stack, only the top tile counts.
- The Elder. You may not place your Elder on your first turn, and it must be on the slab by your fourth turn. Until your Elder is out, you cannot move any tile.
- One group. The tiles must always form one group, also while a tile moves. A tile that holds the group together cannot move (unless it sits on top of a stack).
- Room to slide. A sliding tile moves along the edge of the group and keeps touching it. It cannot squeeze through a gap between two tiles that both touch its start and its next space.
- Winning. When all six spaces around an Elder hold tiles (of either colour), that Elder’s player loses. If both Elders are closed in by the same move, it is a draw. The same position a third time, or 200 moves in all, is a draw too.
The five creatures
| Tile | Each | How it moves |
|---|---|---|
| Elder | 1 | One step, sliding. Surround the other Elder to win. |
| Owl | 2 | One step, and it may climb on top of other tiles. The tile under an Owl cannot move, and the stack takes the Owl’s colour. An Owl cannot pass between two stacks that are both higher than where it starts and where it lands. |
| Hare | 3 | Leaps in a straight line over one or more tiles to the first empty space. It cannot leap over a gap. |
| Fox | 2 | Exactly three sliding steps, never to the same space twice. |
| Otter | 3 | Slides any number of steps round the edge of the group. |
At the online table
- Tap a pile of your supply, or one of your tiles on the slab: it lifts, and rings show where it may go. Tap a ring to set it down, or tap the tile again to put it back.
- Drag with one finger to look round the slab; pinch or use the mouse wheel to zoom. “Fit” shows the whole group again.
- On a keyboard: Tab to a pile or a tile, Enter lifts it, the arrow keys go from ring to ring, Enter sets it down, Escape puts it back. “All my moves” lists every move in words.
- Each turn has a 60-second timer. If it runs out, the table makes a move for you.
- An empty seat is taken by a bot, always marked as a bot.
Why it is fair
Nothing is hidden and nothing is left to luck, except who plays ash and starts. A secret seed decides that. You see its fingerprint when the game starts and the seed itself when it ends, so you can check it. Verify a game.