Polygonarc is played by 2, 3 or 4 players. Each has a pawn of one colour and a single thing to do: paint the board in that colour.
The board is made of square tiles of 7 × 7 round squares. You assemble 2 (7 × 14) or 4 (14 × 14) depending on the number of players — the board is not a setting, it follows.
A square under your pawn becomes yours. Everything else in the game — the die, the cards, the towers, the knockouts — exists only to help you take them faster than the others, or to slow you down.
Winning on zones: reach the target number of squares in your colour.
Winning on knockouts: send an enemy pawn back to its start 5 times.
Two paths, one game Both paths are open at the same time and the first one reached wins. A player chasing squares and a player hunting pawns can therefore win the same game by opposite routes.
Setting up
1. The board. Assemble the number of tiles matching the number of players.
Players
Tiles
Board
Squares
2
2
7 × 14
98
3 and 4
4
14 × 14
196
2. The colours. Each player takes a pawn and 1 protection tower. The available colours are red, blue, green and yellow.
3. The starts. Each pawn goes on its starting square, in the middle of an edge of the board. The starts are not chosen: they follow from one another by rotation, so nobody is better placed than their neighbour.
4. The deck. Shuffle the 36 cards face down beside the board. No hand, no reserve: you only touch the deck when the die says so.
5. The first player is whoever placed their pawn first — or anybody: the first turn favours nobody, since everything starts with a die roll.
Starting squares are never taken Not by a card, not by a pawn, not by an encirclement. They stay with their owner all game long: that is what guarantees a knocked-out player always has somewhere to come back to.
A turn
A turn is one die roll. Nothing else is decided beforehand.
The die
What happens
1
Odd: you draw a card.
2
Even: you move 1 step.
3
Odd: you draw a card.
4
Even: you move 2 steps.
5
Odd: you draw a card.
6
Even: you move 3 steps.
Even, you move. You go 1, 2 or 3 squares depending on the die, one square at a time, in whatever direction you like — including changing direction along the way. Every square crossed becomes yours.
Odd, you draw. The card applies immediately, whether it suits you or not. There is no hand: nothing is kept for later, nobody picks their moment.
No hand Keeping cards means waiting for the right moment, which means waiting. At the table as online, it dragged turns out and rewarded whoever calculated longest. A drawn card acts: turns stay short and the surprise stays whole.
A card that can do nothing goes back under the deck, and you draw another. Demolition with no enemy tower to break, Tide with nothing to uncover: the card slides under the deck, into last place, and the next one is turned over. You never lose a turn to a card that had no possible effect.
Stuck? If no move is possible — edges, dead squares, enemy towers — the turn passes to the next player.
Taking squares
The square under your pawn is always your colour. No exception: after a move, after a teleport, after a return to the start. If it belonged to somebody, it changes sides.
Encircling. When squares end up completely surrounded by yours, they all become yours at once — blank ones and an opponent's alike. An opposing pawn caught inside is knocked out and restarts from its own square. None of this touches a tower, a keep or a starting square: a tower even shelters the pawn standing on it. The board edge does not close an encirclement: you really have to go all the way round. And the ring must be complete: one gap, even a diagonal one, and nothing falls. The squares holding the wall must follow one another edge to edge, not merely touch at a corner.
Obstacles. A card that captures in a line stops at the first obstacle and does not skip it. Obstacles are: the board edge, a dead (black) square, an enemy tower, a starting square, an enemy pawn. A square already yours is crossed.
Dead squares. A black square is out of play for everyone: nobody stands on it, nobody crosses it, it counts for nobody.
Pawns and knockouts
Landing on an enemy pawn’s square sends it back to its starting square and scores you one knockout. The squares it had taken stay theirs: you hunt the pawn, not the territory.
5 knockouts and the game is won, whatever the number of squares. A player can therefore win while last on zones.
Protection towers
Each player has 1, planted by the card that gives them. A tower covers a block of 4 squares (2 × 2) that is already yours. Opponents can neither enter them, nor take them, nor cross them.
You must already own the block All four squares must already be yours: not free, not enemy, and never a partial placement. If no block is possible, the card is not lost: it waits in your hand until you have one. A tower is a reward: you have to conquer the block before you close it.
A destroyed tower leaves its squares in the colour of the player who planted it: you demolish the protection, not the territory.
The cards
The deck holds 36 cards, split into 30 different cards: 20 bonuses (blue) and 10 penalties (red).
Blue or red, the card acts right away — except two. The Protection tower and the Keep go into your hand: you play them when you like, at the start of a turn, before rolling. Other cards sometimes ask you to aim at a square: you choose, and the effect fires.
Not every card comes in the same number. 26 cards exist in only 1 copy in the whole deck: « Double up! », « Moving day », « Move an opponent », « Visit », « Demolition », « Diagonal », « Momentum » and « Anchor » et d'autres. A whole game can go by without seeing a single one.
When the deck is empty, the discard pile is reshuffled and play goes on. Nothing is lost, everything comes back.
Giving up aiming loses the card. It goes to the discard pile with no effect.
Fine points
“Double up!” waits for your next even roll to double your steps. An odd roll does not waste it: it waits.
Momentum adds steps and stacks with “Double up!”. It is the only combination that adds up.
Anchor only costs the victim their turn if they roll even: on an odd roll they draw as usual and the anchor dissolves.
Reversal hijacks the next bonus an opponent draws — never a penalty, and never another Reversal. If several players laid one down, the oldest is served. A shield pushes the theft back.
An effect laid in front of you never stacks with itself. The second identical card goes to the discard pile. True of the shield as of the doubling.
Winning
On zones: the first to reach the target number of squares in their colour wins immediately.
Board
Players
Target
Squares on the board
7 × 14
2
56 zones
98
14 × 14
3
56 zones
196
14 × 14
4
56 zones
196
On knockouts: 5 enemy pawns sent back to their starts, and it is over.
The timer. Online, each turn lasts 30 seconds. When time runs out, the game plays the simplest action for you: roll, draw, apply the card, give up aiming. Nobody is held up by somebody who walks away.
A game in 10 steps
10 moments from a real two-player game that lasted 141 rounds. They are ordered by what they show, not by when they happened: the round number is given on each one.
1
Taking positionround 1 Each pawn starts in the middle of an edge, on its starting square (the ring). The thick lines show the 7 × 7 tiles: 2 tiles here, so 2 players.
2
Even: you moveround 4 The die shows 6, so three steps. Every square crossed changes colour, one by one.
3
Odd: you drawround 1 Odd die: “Double up!” is drawn. It applies at once, with no way to keep it.
4
A card that captures in a lineround 40 “Width” takes the squares around the pawn, in each direction, up to the first obstacle. Enemy squares are taken too.
5
A protection towerround 10 A tower goes on 1 square (the hatched rectangle): opponents can no longer enter it or take it.
6
A dead squareround 5 The black square is dead for the rest of the game: nobody stands on it, crosses it or counts it. It is a square taken out of play.
7
An encirclementround 68 Squares completely surrounded fall all at once — 2 here — blank or an opponent's — and an opposing pawn caught inside is knocked out. Towers, keeps and starting squares are spared. The board edge does not close an encirclement: you really have to go round it, with no gap at all — not even a diagonal one.
8
A knockoutround 32 A pawn landed on an enemy pawn: the loser starts again from its starting square, and the winner scores a knockout. The loser’s squares, though, stay theirs.
9
The gap widensround 72 Halfway through, the territories take shape: Rouge 46, Bleu 11. You can see who took the centre.
10
The winround 141 Rouge wins on zones: 56 squares and 4 knockouts, on round 141.
Every card
30 different cards, 36 copies in the deck. Blue = bonus, red = penalty. Both apply the moment they are drawn.
The 20 bonuses
Catapult · 2 copies Kill any free square of your choice (not a protected one, never next to a starting square). It turns black for the rest of the game.
Width · 2 copies Pick a direction — right, left, forward or back — and take every square on that side, up to the first obstacle: board edge, dead square, enemy tower, starting square or enemy pawn.
Protection tower · 3 copies Plant a tower on a block of 4 squares (2 × 2), free or already yours. Opponents can neither enter them nor take them.
Double up! · 1 copy Lay it in front of you: it stays in play until your next EVEN roll, which will count double.
Moving day · 1 copy Move one of your towers to another block of 4 squares. You may decline.
Move an opponent · 1 copy Move an opponent's pawn to a free square: it becomes theirs.
Visit · 1 copy Teleport wherever you like onto an opponent's territory — and the square becomes yours, as everywhere else.
Demolition · 1 copy Destroy any enemy protection tower. Its squares keep the colour of the player who planted it.
Diagonal · 1 copy Take all 4 diagonals from your pawn, each up to the first obstacle: board edge, dead square, enemy tower, starting square or enemy pawn.
Momentum · 1 copy Your next move counts one extra step. It stacks with “Double up!”.
Anchor · 1 copy Pick an opponent's pawn: on their next turn it cannot move. On an even roll they lose the move; on an odd roll they draw as usual.
Reversal · 1 copy The next bonus an opponent draws is YOURS: its effect applies in your favour and they get nothing.
Backfill · 1 copy Take the squares touching your pawn in all eight directions. A small catch, but a dense one — enough to close a hole.
Quicklime · 1 copy Three enemy squares of your choice go blank. You do not take them: you leave them to nobody.
Tunnel · 1 copy Swap your pawn's place with any opponent's. Both squares change colour accordingly.
About-face · 1 copy Your pawn teleports anywhere on your own territory. To go defend a flank, or start again elsewhere.
Keep · 3 copies Plant a tower on a single square, with no need for a block of 4. It protects less, but it fits anywhere.
Double ration · 1 copy You draw two more cards, right now, one after the other. They apply as usual — the good and the bad.
Reserve · 1 copy The next card you draw, you play a second time straight after.
Double turn · 1 copy As soon as this turn ends, you take another one.
The 10 penalties
Gift of a tower · 1 copy You give one of your towers to an opponent who has fewer than two. If everyone has two, it is destroyed.
Start · 1 copy Your pawn goes back to your starting square.
Smash! · 1 copy The tower closest to your pawn is destroyed — even if it is yours.
Dud! · 1 copy No effect.
Isolation · 1 copy On your next move you may only go onto blank squares or your own.
Storm · 1 copy You skip your next turn.
Collapse · 1 copy All your protection towers are destroyed. Their squares keep your colour.
Mooring · 1 copy Your move must end on a square already yours. If that is impossible, you stay where you are.
Marking time · 1 copy You move a single square on your next move, whatever the die shows.
Lost turn · 1 copy You skip your next turn, but you draw two cards right now to make up for it.