Make Muster (2019)

This race to mutual connection / sudden death cut-off game, is based on an unusual forced-to-place vs free-to-move mechanism: - If you can place an unconnected piece, you must. Otherwise you move a piece toward achieving your goal.

You must balance finding ways to place enough pieces by opening up spaces, quickly making diagonal connections, and slowing down or cutting-off the opponent at the edges with tight connections; all the while not getting cut-off yourself.

Play is optimised for the jagged-edged Muster boards, in a choice of sizes:
#2 short filler / bar game, 3-12 min
#3 tactical filler game, 8 - 25 min
#4 tactical strategy game, 15 - 45 min
#5 abstract strategy game suitable for competitions, 25-90 min
#6 hard core 40 min++

There will be other games in this series using the Muster board, including Muster Up which is a simpler connection game with jumping moves.