Morelli

Morelli is a two-player abstract strategy game. Black moves first.

Setup

Little Golem uses a random setup on the edge of the board. Black and white stones are placed on paired opposite edge cells. The center starts empty and is the key square of the game.

Movement

Move one of your stones in a straight line toward the center. The move may be orthogonal or diagonal and may cross any number of empty cells, but it cannot jump over a stone.

A move must strictly reduce the stone’s distance from the center. A stone may not move onto the center square.

Capturing

After a move, opponent stones can be converted by custodian capture. If an opponent stone is adjacent to the moved stone and the next cell in the same line contains one of your stones, the opponent stone is turned to your color. This is checked in all eight directions.

The Morelli square

If a moved or converted stone completes a fourfold rotational set around the center, the center becomes marked for that player.

The game ends when the player to move has no legal move. The player who owns the center marker wins. If nobody owns the center, the game is a draw.

Variants on Little Golem

Links

• Morelli on BoardGameGeek