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Livewire is a two-player strategy game invented a long time ago by myself and a friend of mine called James Folkard. Maybe one day it will exist as a computer game, but for now it is played with a sheet of squared paper (0.5cm squares are best) and a couple of differently coloured pens.
It is a viciously strategic, challenging and addictive game. It looks confusing at first, but it's very simple, and it's well worth trying to learn the rules.
To that end, here are the rules! Each rule is illustrated by a short animated gif, which you should watch in order to understand. If you have a fast connection, you can download the whole tutorial (696KB). If you only want to look at the rules for moving, here's the first part of the tutorial (343KB); and if you only want to look at the rules for interaction, here's the second part (425KB).
Livewire Rules
MOVES
- The optimum playing board size is about 42 x 34 squares (one page of a maths exercise book), although the board can be any size down to the minimum of 17 x 14 squares
- Each player starts with 4 base dots (illustration)
- Players take turns to move
- There are three types of move: straight line (up, down, forward), branch (up, down, forward), diagonal line (up, down) (illustration)
- Diagonal lines can only be made from branch dots, base dots, or other diagonal lines (i.e. can't be made from straight line dots)
- You can never do a backwards move (i.e. towards your own base) (illustration)
- Once a dot has been used to make a move, it cannot be used again (illustration)
- Moves cannot go through or land on a line (illustration)
INTERACTION
- If you land on a live dot, both dots die (illustration)
- When a dot dies, everything that spawned from it dies too (illustration)
- You cannot use dead dots (illustration)
- You can never land on a dead dot, but you can go through them (as long as there is not already a line through them) (illustration)
- If you go through a live dot, it dies (illustration)
- You can kill your own dots by landing on them or going through them in the same way as you can kill your opponent's dots
- The base dots are special, as they are the only dots that can be used more than once (illustration)
- The winner is the first person to complete the Livewire connection by landing on his or her opponent's base (illustration)
REMINDERS: This is a list of four key rules that it might be worth keeping handy while you're playing, so you don't forget them:
- You can never do a backwards move (i.e. towards your own base)
- You cannot make a move that lands on or goes through a line
- You cannot make a move that lands on a dead dot
- You cannot make a diagonal line from a straight line; you must branch first
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