Erdös Latino rules

Erdös Latino is played on an initially empty 5×5 board.

There are 5 units, ranked level 1-5 from left to right like this:

A B C D E 1 1 2 2

Each turn, a player will place a new unit:

  • - place a level 1
  • - place a level 2
  • - place a level 3
  • - place a level 4
  • - place a level 5

The only rule is, you may never place a unit in a row or column that already has a unit of that type. Think Sudoku!

If the game ends with the players unable to fill the board because of this rule, the last player to place a unit wins via starvation.

But, if the board is completely filled, the player controlling the most columns win via columncount.

This clever tiebreaker works like this:

  • When you place a unit, if that forms an ascending ranking of 3 or more units in the column, you get control.
  • It is ok to skip levels, so 1 3 4 would give you control.
  • It is ok to have empty squares or even other units inbetween. 1 _ 4 3 5 gives control through 1, 3 and 5.
  • Player 1 gets control for ascending rankings from the bottom of the board and up
  • Player 2 gets control for ascending rankings from the top of the board and down
  • Units in controlled columns become the colour of the controlling player
  • Once a column is controlled it will stay controlled by that player
  • It is possible to give the opponent control through careless placing
  • If placing a unit would give both players control, it goes to the active player

Say we have the situation to the left:

A B C D E 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 A B C D E
A B C D E 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 A B C D E
A B C D E 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 A B C D E

If Player 1 places c3 , she gets control via 2-3-4 (shown in the middle).

But if it is Player 2's turn and she places c3 , she gets control via 1-4-5 (shown to the right).