Root Bound (2024)

Root Bound is an abstract strategy game played on a hexagonal board with a conceptual theme of two types of plants vying for control of a plant pot. On a player's turn they place two pieces onto empty spaces on the board, subject to restrictions that prevent the pieces from forming large clumps or blobs, with the goal of cordoning off and scoring territory. Some "roots" may be cut off and die, while others may join together to encroach upon and prevent the opponent's "roots" from claiming territory of their own. A descendant of the Go family of games, Root Bound draws inspiration from Mark Steere’s Tanbo, Michael Amundsen’s Cavity, and Michael Amundsen and Luis Bolaños Mures’s Lifeline. —description from the designer