Beschreibung


Introduction:Dendria (from the Greek: Dendron, meaning "tree", combined with the suffix -ria used in many geographical names) is a territorial game for two players: Light and Dark. It is played on the hexes (soils) of a hexagonal board (field) that is initially empty. The recommended board size is 9 hexes per side, but boards of 7 or 11 are also valid. Each player has access to a sufficient supply of pieces of their own color, divided into three categories: Seeds, Trees, and Dryads.

To facilitate physical play, light and dark brown pieces can be used. The light and dark brown pieces would represent the Seeds and Trees, with the Seeds being the front side of the piece and the Trees the back side. Additionally, light and dark brown pawns can be used to represent the Dryads.



Definitions:
A group is a set of pieces of the same color and category. A single piece is also a group.
A seedbed is a group of Seeds.
A forest is a group of Trees.
A root is a set of empty soils connected in a straight line from a piece to the edge of the board or to another piece.
A nutrient is the sustenance that a piece provides to a Seed through one of its roots, only if at the end of that root there is a piece of any color and category.
A nourished Seed is a Seed whose roots receive nutrients from more friendly pieces than enemy pieces of any category.
A hungry Seed is a Seed with at least one root without nutrients or whose roots receive an equal amount of nutrients from friendly and enemy pieces of any category.
Sowing is placing a hungry Seed on an empty soil.
Sprouting is replacing a nourished Seed with a Dryad of the color of the pieces that nourish it.
Fertilizing is the process by which a Dryad turns an empty soil into fertile soil along its roots. Dryads also fertilize the soils they occupy, and once they move, the soils cease to be fertile.
Germinating is replacing each of the Seeds in a seedbed surrounded by adjacent fertile soils with Trees to form a forest of the color of the Dryads that fertilize those soils.
A protected forest is a forest where all adjacent soils are fertilized by friendly Dryads, and it is an attacked forest if at least one of them is unfertilized and all adjacent soils are fertilized by enemy Dryads.
The leafiness of a forest includes the forest itself and the set of soils that contain a majority of friendly roots over enemy roots of the Trees in that forest. The soils shared between several friendly forests are counted only once, and the value of leafiness is the sum of the Trees in the forest and the soils it controls, which may also include cells occupied by other pieces.




Turns:Dark plays first, then turns alternate. On your turn, you perform one of the following actions:


Sow a hungry Seed of your color. You can then optionally sprout one or more Seeds that will grow into Dryads of your color or germinate a Seedbed to form a forest of Trees of your color.
Move a Dryad of your color in a straight line, either sliding through connected empty soils or jumping over friendly or enemy Seeds, or over friendly Dryads, but never over Trees. Then, optionally, with the moved Dryad, you can sprout Seeds or germinate one or more seedbeds, even at each step you take during the movement.
Pass your turn.


It is important to note that you may not make a move that results in an exact repetition of a previous game state.



End of the game:The game ends when both players pass in consecutive turns. Each player calculates the value of the leafiness of all the forests they own, adding half a point for the player who passed his turn first.

The player with the highest score in the final position wins.

To balance the game, before starting, the first player places an initial Dark Seed on any empty soil of the board, and the second player chooses a side. This method of balance is called the pie rule.

Finally, to prevent moves without progress and indefinite cycles, the following rules apply:


An irreversible move is a move that creates a lasting change in the game state, affecting board control, and is a reversible move otherwise. Irreversible moves include: sprouting a Seed, replacing it with a Dryad and germinating a seedbed, turning it into a forest.
If the player with the highest score decides to pass his turn and has no irreversible moves available, the player at a disadvantage may (i) continue playing until making an irreversible move, to keep the game going, or (ii) pass his turn as well, thus ending the game. However, (ii) becomes a forced pass only if the disadvantaged player is unable to perform (i).


—description from the designer