Stacks (1999)

This game is played on an empty 4x4 board. Each player starts with 24 pieces off board. On each turn, each player must do one of the following actions: - Drop a stack of 1, 2 or 3 stones into an empty cell. - Drop any number of stones on top of a friendly stack. - Move a stack into an adjacent (orthogonal or diagonal) empty cell. However, after the move the stack loses one stone (stacks of size 1 cannot move). - Move into and capture an adjacent enemy stack of smaller size (so stacks of size 1 cannot capture either). The attacking stack loses the number of stones equal to the captured stack plus one. All stones return to the players reserves. A player cannot make partial attacks, he must move all the stones of the attacking stack. Wins the player that makes a 4 in-a-row containing friendly stacks with the same size (like 4 stacks of size 3) or an equal, step-wise increment from start to end of the row (e.g., 1-2-3-4, 1-3-5-7, 2-5-8-11).