Full rules with diagrams (PDF)

Objective

EVL is a territory capture game played on an unusual board of heptagons (7-sided/red) and pentagons (5-sided/white), using a stacking and unstacking mechanism.

The first player to capture 10 (or 12) pentagons wins the game.

The board

The board is made up of four (4) rows of heptagons surrounding 18 pentagons.

Game play

The board begins empty. Each player chooses a color. Black goes first.

On their turn, a player must either:

^ place one piece from your hand onto the board

^^ on any empty space

^^ on an occupied space containing a piece or stack that you control

^^^^ legal stacks are a maximum of four pieces high

^^^^ the color on the top of a stack controls the stack

^ unstack a stack of pieces that you control

Pentagons can only be captured by the active player on an unstack, not by placing.

Stacks

A stack consists of 2-4 pieces, stacked on top of one another. Stacks are created by placing one piece on top of one or more pieces that are already on the board. You cannot create a stack taller than four (4) pieces in height. The player who occupies the top of the stack controls the stack.

Unstacking

To unstack, pick up the entire stack (a single piece is not a stack). You may move the stack UP TO a number of spaces equal to its height. With the exception of the space the stack occupied at the start of the turn; whenever a stack exits a space, it leaves behind exactly one piece from the bottom of the stack.

The stack height limit can be temporarily violated during an unstacking, but at the end of the turn no stack may be taller than four (4). In effect, this makes a stack of four an impassable wall, since there is no way to unstack over it without increasing its height.

Unstacking occurs via connected heptagons. You cannot jump over pentagons while unstacking.

Unstacking does not need to be straight along a row (but you may not reverse direction and double back on the same path).

Capturing pentagons

The goal of EVL is to capture the most pentagons. Pentagons are captured by “surrounding” them with your pieces on any two *non-adjacent* heptagons.

You can only capture pentagons with an unstack, *not by placing a piece*.

Note: You do not lose a pentagon if you move a piece away and no longer surround it. Your marker stays until your opponent takes it from you. However, you cannot hold a pentagon just because you still have pieces surrounding it. An opponent can take it if they surround it with an unstack on their turn.

Winning

The first player to capture 10 pentagons (have all 10 markers on the board) wins the game! You can play to 12 for variety.

Rare situations

If you run out of tokens, you must unstack on your turn.

If a player can neither place a piece nor legally unstack, the game ends immediately. The number of pentagons captured determines the winner (possibly resulting in a tie).

Full rules with diagrams (PDF)