Hackenbush Hotchpotch
This game is taken from the book On Numbers and Games by John Conway (Academic Press, 1976). This is a variation of the game Hackenbush Unrestrained. If you have never played any Hackenbush games before, it is probably a good idea to play a round or two of Hackenbush Unrestrained just to get the hang of it. Other versions of the games include Hackenbush Restrained and Technicolor Hackenbush.
What you need
- A chalkboard
- Three colors of chalk
- An eraser
- A Hackenbush Picture whose lines are drawn with two colors as follows:
- Draw each line with one of the three colors.
- Have there be roughly the same number of lines of each color
- Make sure that lines of all colors touch the frame.
How to play
- Each player chooses a color which is their color throughout the game.
- The third color is the "neutral color".
- When it is their turn, each player begins by removing one line that is either their color or the neutral color.
- Any part of the picture that is disconnected from the frame is then removed.
- When the disconnected part of the picture is removed, lines that are the other player's color may be removed, but the very first line that is removed at the beginning of the turn cannot be a line that is the other player's color. The first line that is removed must be either the neutral color or the player's own color.
- The player who removes the last bit of the picture is the winner.
- In the picture below, the neutral color is red. Here's how the game might begin: