Overview

Be the first to score 7* or more pieces of your own color. (*Winning score depends on game mode.)

Setup

Pond is played by two players on a 4x4 board. Each player starts with 11 Eggs of their color in their spawn.

Turn

Each turn consists of three steps: Action, Develop, Score

• Action: As your action, you can either Place an Egg, Move a Tadpole, or Move a Frog.
  • Place an Egg: Place an Egg from your spawn on any empty space on the board. Eggs themselves cannot move while on the board.
  • Move a Tadpole: Move a Tadpole of your color to an orthogonally adjacent empty space
  • Move a Frog: Move a Frog of your color 1 or 2 spaces in an orthogonal straight line to an empty space. The Frog may hop over an adjacent piece to reach an empty space on the other side.
• Develop: Once you have completed your action, the Develop step occurs, causing some pieces to change symbols.
  • From where your moved piece now resides, every orthogonally adjacent piece develops, regardless of color.
  • To develop a piece, move it along its life cycle: An Egg becomes a Tadpole, a Tadpole becomes a Frog, and a Frog becomes an Egg.
  • Developing a piece does not change its color.
  • Development is not optional, and pieces must always develop in the same order. You can never skip development or develop backwards.
• Score: Finally, score any sets you have now created.
  • A set is a group of 3 or more matching symbols in a straight horizontal or vertical line, regardless of owner. This means that sets can consist of pieces of a single color or pieces of both colors.
  • These pieces are removed from the board and given to their owner to form their owner's scoring pile (i.e. You might not be scoring for yourself.)
  • In the instance of intersecting sets, all components score. (e.g. In a "+" configuration, all 5 would score, but the middle one does NOT double score.)

After a player has played an action, developed all necessary pieces, and scored any resulting sets, it becomes their opponent's turn.

Game End

The game ends when a player has scored 7 or more of their own pieces. Then, the player with the most scored pieces wins the game. (e.g. If one player reaches 8 points, and their opponent simultaneously reaches 7 points at the same time, 8 beats 7.) If the score is tied, then the game ends in a draw.

The game also ends if a player is unable to perform an action on their turn. If a player has no legal actions, that player loses the game. This secondary win condition is called Elimination.

Game Mode Variations

• 13 Small: The game is played on a 4x4 (small) grid. Each player begins with 13 eggs in their spawn, and the win condition is 10 points.
• 14 Small: The game is played on a 4x4 (small) grid. Each player begins with 14 eggs in their spawn, and the win condition is 10 points.
• Big Pond: The game is played on a 5x5 (big) grid. Each player begins with 15 eggs in their spawn, and the win condition is 10 points.