Susan is an elegant game of placement and movement played on a symmetrical hex board. The game was invented by Stephen Linhart in 1991. A detailed description of the game can be found at www.stephen.com. Stephen's site offers a Macintosh computer player that learns as you play. (My advice: play badly at first!) The site also provides an answer to the question, why name a boardgame Susan? For convenience, a strategy manual available at the site has been included with the Zillions download package. The rules are as follows: The object is to surround an opponent piece on all sides with pieces of either color. A turn consists of dropping a piece onto the board or sliding a piece that is already on the board one space in any direction. If a move causes both an opponent piece and a friendly piece to be surrounded on all sides, the moving player loses. Suicide is possible and may even be compelled in the endgame. A draw is declared if each player slides a piece for three successive turns without any intervening drops. In the illustration below blue has won because the purple piece on the bottom right (position f1) is surrounded on all sides. Susan comes in two board sizes, one with five hexes to a side, the other with six. |