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Copyright © 1999-2001 by Mind Sports Organisation Worldwide Ltd.

E-mail:
info@msoworld.com
Entropy Game Rules Mind Sports' Rules
Entropy Game Rules
A two-player strategy game based on the eternal conflict in the universe between order and chaos.

Components:
Square board divided into 7x7 cells.
49 counters, seven each of seven different colours
Small bag

The Game
One player is Order, the other Chaos. Order is trying to make patterns vertically and horizontally. Chaos is trying to prevent this. A pattern is any sequence of counters that is identical if viewed from either direction (left to right/right to left or up to down/down to up). A pattern scores the number of counters in the pattern. All patterns within a pattern also score. For example: red-green-blue-green-red scores 5 and also 3 for green-blue-green; total: 8. Another example: red-green-red-green-red scores 5 plus 3x3 = 14. A further example: red-red-red-red scores 4 + 2x3 + 3x2 = 16. All possible patterns are listed below.

Play
Chaos puts the counters in the bag. He draws them out unseen one at at a time and places them on any empty square. Each time Chaos places a counter, Order may slide any one counter on the board (inclusding the one just placed) vertically or horizontally over any number of vacant squares (exactly like a rook in chess). Only one counter may occupy a square. When the board is full every vertical and horizontal line is scored. The players then reverse roles and the player with the highest score is the winner.

Comment
The variety of play is almost infinite so that each game is different. An average score is about 75; 100 is good, 50 is poor.
A good strategy for Order is to avoid holes into which Chaos can drop awkward colours. The ideal is to have no more than two vacant areas. Order achieves this by moving counters to the sides. As the game progresses, Order can calculate the odds of a particular colour coming out of the bag next.
Tournament rules, using a timing clock, have been perfected.

Here, for ease of checking, are the 30 possible scoring combinations. Distinct letters stand for distinct colours.

 

AA 2 ABCCBA 12 AABBBAA 23
    AABBAA 16 AABABAA 25
ABA 3 ABAABA 18 ABAAABA 25
AAA 7 ABBBBA 22 ABBABBA 27
    AAAAAA 50 AAABAAA 29
ABBA 6     ABABABA 37
AAAA 16 ABCACBA 15 ABBBBBA 37
    ABCDCBA 15 AAAAAAA 77
ABCBA 8 ABBCBBA 19    
ABBBA 12 ABCCCBA 19    
AABAA 12 AABCBAA 19    
ABABA 14 ABACABA 21    
AAAAA 30 ABCBCBA 21    

 

Entropy was invented by Eric Solomon and the game is obtainable under the name HYLE (with rules in German) from Franjos Spieleverlag, Zum Brinkhof 22, D-33165 Lichtenau-Henglarn, Germany. (franjos@franjos.de)

Entropy played at MSO is a different game than the Entropy created by Augustine Carreno in 1994 which is played on Richard's PBeM Server.

Forum Discuss Entropy on our Proprietary Games forum.
Links Other sites on the web featuring Proprietary Games.
Rules Take a look at our collection of mind sports' rules.