Introduction and Object of the Game
Atoll is a board game designed by Mark Steere. Atoll is a two player game played on a hexagonal pattern grid. The game starts with eight 'islands' of stones surrounding an empty grid as shown in the figure below. Each player takes possession of an entire set of stones of one color, black or white. Each player owns the islands of his stones’ color. Draws and ties cannot occur in Atoll. Mark Steere designed Atoll in January 2008. Your goal is to make a path from an animal in your color to the favorite food of that animal. If you are for example white, you need to make a path from the white cat to the white fish or from the white rabbit to the white carrot. In order to win you only have to complete 1 path (not both) from animal to food.
Stone Placement
Players take turns adding their stones to the board, one stone per turn. Black makes the first placement of the game. Each player will always have a placement available on his turn and must make one. Since the first player has a distinct advantage, the pie rule is used for making the game fair. This rule allows the second player to switch colors after the first player makes his first move. This means that in the first move of white he/she has a choice: either he/she places a white stone on an empty spot and the game continues normally or he/she clicks on the black stone, the players then switch colors and white (previously black) is on turn.
End of the game
To win you must connect two of your islands, which are exactly opposite of each other, with a contiguous sequence of your stones. In other words: you need to connect only one of the animals in your color to their favorite food. In the figure below white has won, there is a white path between the white rabbit and the white carrot.
Note: The stones of your islands can be included in the sequence. A valid path is from a black rabbit to the island of the black cat to the black carrot (see figure below).
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