Pylos (, ) is a

board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a comp ...

invented by David G. Royffe and published by

Gigamic Gigamic is a French publisher and distributor of games started up by three brothers. Gigamic started in 1991 by three of six brothers named Stéphane Gires, Ludovic Gires and Jean-Christophe Gires. Since 2001, Gigamic has operated a distribution ...

. Royffe first conceived the game in 1964 using his family’s

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...

balls. He took his idea to the 1994

Essen game fair Internationale Spieltage SPIEL, often called the Essen Game Fair after the city where it is held, is an annual four-day boardgame trade fair which is also open to the public held in October (Thursday to the following Sunday) at the Messe Essen e ...

in Germany. At that time, the game was called ''Elevation'', but this was changed to Pyraos when it was published by Gigamic, and later to Pylos.

Gameplay

Each player starts off with 15 balls. Players take turns taking pieces from their reserve pile, and placing them on a 4x4 game board made up of 16 indentations. When four pieces are placed next to each other in a square, one piece can be put on top of the square. If the square is completed with all the same color, the player of that color may take one or two of their own pieces from the board (one or two that are not supporting anything) and put it back into their reserve pile. At the end of the game, the game board should have 4 levels. The first level with 16 pieces, the second level with 9 pieces, the third level with 4 pieces, and the fourth level with 1 piece. A player wins if they put the last piece on the 4th level, or if the other player runs out of pieces to play.

Variations

A children’s version of the game is played in the same way but excludes the rule where a player can recover their pieces.

Gallery

References

External links

* {{bgg, 1419, ''Pylos'' Board games introduced in 1994 Abstract strategy games Mensa Select winners