Cataclysm (2023)

INTRODUCTION Cataclysm is a two-player game played on a square board of any size, initially empty. The two players, Red and Blue, take turns placing their own checkers on the board, one checker per turn, starting with Red. Passing is not allowed. Mark Steere designed Cataclysm in July 2023. OBJECT Red must form a path of red checkers (interconnected via horizontal or vertical adjacencies, or both) connecting the two red sides of the board. Diagonal adjacencies are irrelevant in Cataclysm. Blue must form a path of blue checkers connecting the two blue sides of the board. PLACEMENT You can place a checker on any unoccupied square. CROSSCUT A crosscut is a group of four adjacent checkers arranged in a square. Two of the checkers in a crosscut are red and two are blue. Like-colored checkers are diagonally opposed. CATACLYSM Whenever you form a crosscut, you form a bicolored group containing two or more red checkers and two or more blue checkers. Immediately replace all of the enemy checkers in the group with friendly checkers, concluding your turn. —description from the designer