Description

Pentagame is an abstract strategy game without chance element. It is played on a pentagram star that shows 100 round stops. The 5 corners and the 5 crossings in the pentagram are colored (white, blue, red, green, yellow). It can be played with 2, 3 or 4 players. It looks a bit like a pentagonal ludo, but it is truly different. For example, there is no chance and pieces don't get beaten. Instead, it is all about moving, swapping, about paths and about areas.

Every player plays 5 pieces of one shape, e.g. cats against pawns or whatever. Every player has one white, one blue, one red, one green and one yellow piece. All pieces start the race on the corners of their respective colors. The goal is to bring three of one's pieces from their corners to the crossing of matching color.

There are five black blocks that are neutral pieces. At the beginning they are on the crossings in the center. There are five gray blocks that come into the game as pieces reach their goals.

One can move in any direction on the star or the ring, as far as there is a free path. But one cannot jump. One can either (1) just move to an empty space, (2) beat a black block, taking its place and re-position it on another free stop somewhere, (3) swap two neighboring pieces, one of which must be one's own piece.

As Ko-rule, immediate repetition of the same move is not allowed.

A piece that reaches its destination crossing is removed from the board. A player thus moving a piece out successfully gains a gray block that she can position on any free stop. Such gray blocks are also neutral pieces, but when they get beaten, they are removed again rather than re-positioned.

The game becomes very complex very soon. Nevertheless, a two player game takes often under 20 minutes, a 3-player maybe 45 minutes, a 4-player some 90 minutes. That of course depends on how long players think, or are allowed to think.

—description from the designer