Azacru

A 3 player Azacru game in photos


Opening position. In a three player game the player "in the middle" by tradition takes the first move - so yellow is first, followed by red then black.	After five turns	After eight turns Each player has placed one marker a turn.

After ten turns Red is now set up for a good connection change at the top of the board, but it may be worth waiting to see if the black chevron on the right will make a connection first, so increasing the value of red's connection.	After eleven turns Yellow has now increased power in the southern borderland to set up a connection change. Red could stop this by making the connection from the northern borderland, but instead decides to stop the chevron in the eastern borderland becoming blocked.	After twelve turns. Yellow makes the connection change and goes two ahead of the other two players.

After thirteen turns. Yellow has moved onto an already yellow square and so the lead drops to just one ahead, but this sets yellow up for another connection next turn.	After fourteen turns and yellow's second connection change. Again yellow is two markers ahead.	After fifteen turns and players getting their chevrons ready for connection opportunites

Part way through black's sixteenth turn. The connection change by the black chevron has removed a yellow marker from the board. So now the black chevron must come off the board..	At the end of the black's sixteenth turn and the first black chevron has left the board. Black now leads: one ahead of yellow, two ahead of red.	During black's seventeen turn. This time the black chevron has removed a red marker from the board.

End of black's seventeenth turn and the second black chevron is off the board. Black now has 20 markers on the board, three ahead of yellow who has 17 at this point, and red only has 16.	During red's eighteenth turn and the red chevron has removed two yellow markers and one black marker from the board.	End of red's eighteenth turn and the red chevron has been taken off the board. Red is now in second place.

During black's eighteenth turn removing two yellow markers. Black now has 21 markers on the board, and red has moved up to 19. The last turn was bad for yellow with both opponents removing their markers: they are now down to 15.	End of black's eighteenth turn and the third and final black chevron has been removed from the board. Black now has 21 markers - will it be enough to win?	Yellow makes the first of their connection changes which has involved removing an opponent's marker (one red).

End of yellow's turn and the yellow chevron is taken off the board. Two yellow chevrons remain, but are they positioned well enough to make a difference?	End of red's nineteenth turn - and on black's turn black announces "can't move" and so yellow and red each have one more turn. At this point the scores are 21 to black, 19 to red and 17 to yellow.	Yellow makes a connection change but not enough to catch up with black, it does however reduce black's total. The scores are now 20 to black and 19 each to yellow and red.

End of yellow's twentieth turn, and their last, and the yellow chevron is taken off the board. This chevron however was all that was stopping red making another connection change.	Red makes a connection taking one off yellow and reaching but not passing black's marker count of 20.	Red piece is off the board and the game has now finished as both yellow and red have had their extra turn after black could not move. The final score is a tie between Red & Black on 20 markers, with yellow, the early leader finishing on 18.


The position at the end of the game. Black and Red have tied. Time for another?