XIMA rules

The goal

Bring your special block to the summit (G7) with a legal move. The first player to do so wins.

The official rules

• At the start, each player has their 10 blocks (9 common, 1 special) off the board.
• Each player moves once per turn and may enter or climb on any of the four faces of the pyramid.
• On their turn a player either enters a new block or moves one already on the board.
• Blocks move in a straight line in any direction (horizontal, vertical or diagonal), as many steps as desired or, in dice modes, the steps shown by the dice.
• When entering a block, its first and last step must be on the board: it may not start or finish on top of another block.
• Once on the board, a block may not leave it.
• On each step a block may climb to a place at most as high as itself, and may go down to any lower place.
• A block that ends its move on top of others dominates them: the blocks below can't move. It also removes the blocks of other colours that are outnumbered in that column.
• A special block may not climb onto or pass over another special block.
• If a player's special block is captured, they may bring a common block to the summit to rescue it, and may later enter the special block again whenever they wish.
• A common block may not finish on the summit except to rescue the special block, although it may pass over G7.
• A player who, on their turn, has no blocks on or off the board loses (no resources).
• A player who, on their turn, has no blocks off the board to enter and all of whose blocks on the board are dominated wins (smothered, «ahogado»).
• The same position or sequence of moves may not be repeated for a third consecutive time.
• Any drawn or stalled situation is always resolved by adding material, never by a draw.
• Adding material means three extra common blocks for each player.

The height rule, explained

This is the key to the whole game. Each floor is two block-heights above the previous one and a block can climb at most one block-height per step. That's why you can't go straight from one floor to the next: you need to pass over another block that acts as a step.

Capturing, explained

Count the blocks of each colour in the column, including the one that just arrived. If no colour has more than yours, every colour with fewer blocks than yours is captured. One against one is only domination; two against one is a capture.