Gopher

Gopher is a two-player game played on an initially empty, size 6 (or 8...) hexagonal grid. The two players place their own stones on the board, one stone per turn. Players are not allowed to pass. All placements are to unoccupied cells. A friendly connection is an adjacency between the stones of the same color. An enemy connection is an adjacency between different colored stones. Player 1 begins the game by placing a stone anywhere on the board. Then, starting with Player 2, players take turns placing a stone which forms exactly one enemy connection and no friendly connections. The last player to place a stone wins. (Drew Edwards found a solution on size 5, 7, 9... boards. Red starts in the center or a corner, and whichever direction Blue branches out, Red continues the branch in the same direction.) —description from designer

Players: 2
Playing time: 20–60 min
Age: 5+
Complexity: 1.5 / 5