EL-IXIR™ is a computer board game with simple rules, but with intriguing possibilities.
EL-IXIR
is played on a 14 x 14 square board. You can play EL-IXIR against a friend,
or against the computer opponent. Each player tries to capture territory,
at the same time blocking his opponent's advances. The Palm OS version of
EL-IXIR has four skill levels: Easy, Challenge, Difficult, and Impossible!
The
Move: On every turn, each player picks an empty square and a direction
to move. On the Palm OS version the player does this by tapping the stylus
on an empty square and dragging it toward the desired direction. Once you
determine your starting square and direction, then the game awards a random
number of squares for that direction. So with each move, one can gain 1, 2,
3, or 4 squares.
But one can gain more squares, even those already gained by one's opponent using the rules of the game. These rules are few and simple; they are also very easy to learn. But don't be fooled! The game complexity can grow as your skill does.
Rule
1. If your squares surround your opponents squares completely,
then those surrounded squares change color and become yours! In surrounding,
only edges count. Surrounding is complete when the surrounded squares have
no empty square as neighbors (by edge!). in this diagram, since blue has completely
surrounded the six pink squares, the pink squares turn blue.
Rule
2. If you own and connect to one of the special EL-IXIR corners,
then even if those squares become surrounded, they remain yours. Connecting
to an EL-IXIR corner owned by you makes your squares immortal. Those are yours
to keep until the end of the game. Your score is the number of owned and EL-IXIRed
squares. In this diagram, the six connected blue squares include an EL-IXIR
corner. Therefore, although they are completely surrounded by pink, they won't
turn color.
Rule
3.
If your connected squares are EL-IXIRed, then surrounding any area (even if
that area includes empty squares) will make it yours. Not only that, your
newly owned squares will be EL-IXIRed as well, counting toward your score.
This is the fastest way to capture valuable territory!
How to win. You win the game by capturing and EL-IXIRing more squares than your opponent. You need 99 EL-IXIRed squares to win the game. You
Although EL-IXIR has very few rules (which makes it very easy to learn) the implications of these rules can make the game quite intricate and intriguing. Here, to better acquaint you with some of the common situations that may occur in a game we have designed this interactive scene. See how the applications of the rules above can make the game so varied.
Guess what happens if any of these lettered squares is taken by the color indicated. Then move the mouse and hold over the square to see what happens.
(Hold the mouse over each letter a few seconds to see the full action. You can also read a brief explanation of what's going on the bottom of your browser window)
works with Ineternet Explorer only.
Coming soon, The new Windows version of EL-IXIR.
Stay tuned!
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