Oust (2007)

Overview

Oust is a very unusual two-player game, played on a hexagonally patterned board, usually around seven cells on a side. The board starts out empty. The two players, Red and Blue, take turns placing stones of their own color on unoccupied cells on the board. Passing is not allowed, but, if you have no legal moves available, your turn is skipped.

The goal is to completely clear the board of enemy stones, to “oust” your opponent - a paradox since the board is empty to begin with. Your opponent has to add at least one stone before you can capture all of his stones. Draws cannot occur in Oust.

Non-capturing placementsA non-capturing placement either forms no connections (adjacencies) with any stones, or forms one or more connections only with enemy stones. A non-capturing placement does not form any connections with stones of its own color. Making a noncapturing placement concludes your turn.

Capturing placementsA “group” is a set of interconnected, like-colored stones. A group can be a “singleton” - a single stone which is not connected to any other stones of its color. A group includes all the stones of its own color connected to it.

When you place a stone which forms one or more connections with your own groups, you create a new, larger group of your own stones. You can only make such a placement if said new group will have one or more connections with enemy groups upon its creation and if all said enemy groups are smaller than said new group. Upon making such a placement, all said enemy groups are removed from the board.

After capturing one or more enemy groups and while it is still your turn, you must continue to add stones until you make a non-capturing placement, at which time your turn is concluded.