Yonmoque rules

Yonmoque is played on an initially empty 5×5 board with the following terrain:

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

On their turn a player must do one of the following:

  • one of their off-board 6 units onto an empty square
  • an on-board unit

How a unit moves depends on where it is on the board:

  • A unit not on a square of its home colour is a . It can move one step in any direction to an empty square.
  • A unit on a square of its home colour is a . It can move any number of steps diagonally, and a single step orthogonally, across empty squares.

After a (and not a ) you gain control of all enemy units on an unbroken line between the moved unit and another of your units (similar to Othello).

Player 2 moves b1 to d3, and thanks to a3 she captures b3 and c3!
A B C D E 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4
A B C D E 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4
Nothing happens to d2 or e3 since they aren't caught between enemy units.

The game can end in three ways:

  • fiveinarow - If you make a line of 5 of your units, you lose
  • fourinarow - If through a you make a new line of 4 of your units, you win
  • starvation - If your opponent cannot finish her next move, you win
Thus the previous example was actually a winning move for Player 2! But if e3 had been under Player 2 control, Player 1 would have won instead since then Player 2 would have made a line of 5.