Introduction:

Valaturna (from the Proto-Germanic: Walaturna, meaning "ruling tower") is a no-draw game for two players: Black and White. It is played on the intersections (points) of an initially empty hexagonal board. It can be played on a 7-sized board for long games or on a 5-sized board for short games. Each player has access to a sufficient supply of stackable pieces of their own color.

Definitions:

– A stack is a set of pieces located at the same point, one on top of the other. A single piece is also a stack.
– The color of a stack is the color of its top piece, which indicates its owner.
– The height of a stack is the number of pieces it contains.
– A chain is a set of stones of the same color connected in a straight line.
– A flank is a configuration where two friendly stones in a straight line (along one of the six cardinal directions) are at the same distance from one or more enemy chains, with the same number of empty points N in between and N empty points on both sides (where N can be zero), and no friendly stones in between.
– To flip is replacing a stone with a stone of the opposite color.

Turns:

Black moves first, then turns alternate. On your turn, you can either pass your turn or take the following actions in the following order:

1. Place a stack of your color with height 1 on an empty point that can see a friendly stack in a straight line through empty points.
2. Place a piece of your color on any flanked enemy stacks during your placement to increase their height and take control of them.

End of the game:

The game continues until a player manages to create the tallest stack that cannot be captured. This means forming a stack that cannot be flanked by enemy stacks. The game ends at this point because the player who achieves this will generally not cooperate with their opponent to form stacks that reach or exceed that height, as it is not in their best interest.

To ensure fairness, before the game starts, the first player places a black stack and a white stack on an empty point, and the second player chooses a side. This balancing method is called the two-stack pie rule.

—description from designer