VILBERGEN

Copyright (c) 2003 Markus Salo

This game is played on the following 3x4 square board:

Each player has 5 stones off-board.

DROP (1st) PHASE - On each turn, each player drops a stone into an empty cell. MOVE (2nd) PHASE - On each turn, each player must do one of the following actions: Capture an adjacent stone on an orthogonal direction by jumping over it and landing on the immediate empty cell. Captures are multiple and mandatory. Move a stone on an orthogonal direction to an empty cell. GOAL - Wins the player that captures all enemy stones, or has his last stone on the red cell.

 

An example White drops the last stone at cell [1] and wins! Black must capture c3:a3:a1, then  b2-b3!, c1:c3:a3 and wins, his only stone is on the red cell.

Some words from the author: I've been trying to create a game having as simple as possible rule set and board but still having a lot depth and strategy. This is as simple as it gets. Still the game is very challenging and the computer opponent is hard to beat. There is a ZRF to play Vilbergen with Zillions. There is a simplified (?) version of this game for 1-D boards, which Markus called Motala Ström (check a similar classic game Toads and Frogs). Other variants are Skarphagen and Lahti.

Markus also made a hexagonal variant, called Hageby, using the following board:

Hageby includes a first move restriction, the first drop must not be on the red cell. Another game played on this board is Holmen.