Slimetrail

Slimetrail

Inventor: Bill Taylor,
1992

Ranks: N by M

Sowing: Fractured

Region: New Zealand

Slimetrail was invented by Bill Taylor (New Zealand) in 1992. It was the first game with "shared" sowing that leaves a common track.

The game-theoretical values of many Slimetrail boards were analyzed by Dave Boll (USA) in 1993.

On January 12, 2008, the game was implemented by Arty Sandler on igGameCenter.

Rules

Slimetrail — Possible Position on a 5x9 Board after Move 1

The game is played on a NxM rectangle of squares. Each player has a goal square in one corner of the board, diagonally opposite to his opponent's goal square.

The first player places a piece on any square except the goal squares (or "targets").

Then the pie rule is used to determine who plays next.

After that a player moves the piece to an orthogonally adjacent square, leaving a token (e.g. a Go stone) on the square he vacates.

It is not permitted to visit a square twice.

The player whose goal square is reached first (it doesn't matter by whom) wins. If no player can reach his target, the game is a draw.

Variants

Chess King Slimetrail

The piece may move like the king in the game of Chess.

Hex Slimetrail

Slime Trail can also be played on a rhombus board instead of a rectangular one. According to Dave Boll the targets are best in the obtuse corners, since having them in the acute corners easily result in draws.

Slime-Moku

A variant with a different winning condition is Slime-Moku.

No Draws

João Neto claims that "it is illegal to go to a cell from which it becomes impossible to reach any home cell". This is contrary to the oldest description of the game (published in 1993), which permitted draws.