16!

Copyright (c) ? Niek Neuwahl

This game is played on an empty 12x12 square board:

The board is seen as a 4x4 set of 3x3 areas where players drop the following 3x3 patterns:


  • TURN - On each turn, each player picks one remaining pattern and drops it on a 3x3 empty area.
    • The pattern must match with any adjacent pattern already on board.
      • Two patterns match if for each pair of adjacent cells, both are empty or both are occupied (see example below).
      • Players may rotate patterns but cannot mirror them.
    • The first pattern must be placed at one of the four central 3x3 areas. 
  • GOAL - The player that stalemates the adversary wins the game.
 
An match/mismatch example

The left marked pattern match the central pattern, every pair of adjacent cells are both empty or both occupied.

The right marked pattern is a mismatch, for example f7 is occupied and g7 is empty.