Nomalos Rules

Nomalos is an abstract strategy game for two players. The rules are simple, but the strategy is deep. Below are the rules for Nomalos.

How to Play

1. Play alternates between two players, each with their own colored pieces.
2. On your turn, place one of your colored pieces onto any unoccupied space on the board.
3. If your placement connects an even number of similarly colored pieces (connections are strictly orthogonal, not diagonal), all those pieces are immediately removed from the board. Play then continues.
4. Play ends when every space on the board is occupied or removed.
5. The winner is the player with the most pieces remaining on the board at the end of the game.
6. Spaces removed from the board do not count towards either player's piece count.

Clarifications

• Connected pieces of the same color are called islands.
• Only count pieces of the same color for removal. If Black has a 1-piece island and White has a 3-piece island, neither is removed.