Help For the Game Of UnlurIntroductionWelcome to the network Unlur server. The rules of Unlur are given below. The Unlur challenge command is described here. Other commands are the same for all pbmserv games. unlur challenge [ -radius=N ] userid1 userid2 Start a new game between userid1 and userid2 Note
that Unlur only supports games with two players. Rules
1.
The player using the black pieces is
attempting to form a Y (a continuous path joining sides 1, 3, 5 or sides
2,4,6). The player using the white
pieces is attempting to form a line (a continuous path joining opposite sides
1,4 or 2,5 or 3,6). The corner is
considered part of both adjacent sides.
Side 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 / / / / / / 7 A- . . X . . . / 8 B- . . X . . . . / 9 Side 6 C- . . X . . . . . / 10 Side 2 D- . . . X . . . . . / 11 E- . . . . X X . . . . / F- . . . X X . X . . . . G- . . X . . . X X . . H- . X . . . . . X X Side 5 I- X . . . . . . . Side 3 J- . . . . . . . K- . . . . . . Side 4
Diagram 1: A Win for Black
Side 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 / / / / / / 7 A- . . O . . . / 8 B- . . O . . . . / 9 Side 6 C- . . O . . . . . / 10 Side 2 D- . . . O . . . . . / 11 E- . . . . O . . . . . / F- . . . . O . . . . . . G- . . . . O O . . . . H- . . . . . O . . . Side 5 I- . . . . . O . . Side 3 J- . . . . O . . K- . . . O . . Side 4
Diagram 2: A Win for White
2.
To eliminate the possibility of a tie, if
the black player forms a line without also forming a Y in the same turn,
or if the white player forms a Y without also forming a line in the same
turn, he loses. I.e., you cannot
achieve your opponent’s victory condition unless you simultaneously achieve
your own.
3.
Because the conditions for winning are
different for the white and black player (the white player has a much easier
time joining two sides instead of three), at the beginning of the game it is
not decided which player plays with which color. Instead a variation of the pie rule (you cut, I choose) is
used. During the first part of the game
the players are in the contract phase.
During this phase both players place black pieces. At any point instead of placing a piece,
either player may pass his turn by issuing the move “black”. At that point it is his opponent’s turn with
the white pieces (and this ends the contract phase).
4.
During the contract phase neither player
may place a piece on the edge of the board.
This is because some moves on the edge can actually be
disadvantageous. It also eliminates the
possibility of the victory conditions being met before the contract phase has
ended.
Notation
Moves are indicated by specifying the coordinates of the
piece to be placed (the color is implied by which phase of the game you are in
and which player has been determined to play white):
i.e., a move is of the form:
unlur move name password c4
Additionally the special move “black” is used to end the
contract phase (and indicate you want to play the black pieces):
unlur move name password black
The coordinate system is indicated in the diagrams above
(note that in the lower half of the board the columns are numbered starting
with a number higher than one).
References and History
Unlur was invented in 2001 by Jorge Gomez Arrausi and was
the winner of Abstract Games
Magazine’s Unequal Forces Game Design Competition. There is an Unlur homepage containing
rules and strategy information, and realtime play is available at Ludoteka.
There is a mailing list
for Unlur at Yahoo Groups.
The extension to the PBeM-server for playing Unlur was
written by Lyman Hurd. If you find a
problem or a bug, let him know.
Helpfile courtesy of Lyman Hurd <lhurd@yahoo.com> |