LOT

About this board game

LOT is a two-player abstract game played in about 20 minutes on a 7×7 orthogonal grid. Players compete to be first to create a line of three stacks, with each stack made of two pieces in the same color.

On every turn, a player places one piece of their color on an empty space. If that placement creates at least one line of three or more of their pieces, in an orthogonal or diagonal direction, the player must transform one of those lines.

1. Choose one created line of three.
2. Remove two pieces from that line, leaving one piece in place.
3. Add another piece of your color to the remaining piece, creating a two-piece stack.

The objective is not simply to make a line of pieces. At the end of a turn, if at least one line of three or more same-color stacks has been created, that line’s owner wins. The possibility of removing pieces keeps the small playing area active while the contest develops.

LOT includes the pie rule: after the first turn, the second player may choose to swap colors. This gives both players an opportunity to respond to the opening position and adds an important choice before the main struggle unfolds.

If the board becomes full before a winning line of stacks is created, the game ends in a draw. LOT’s name refers to both “Line Of Three” and “Lots Of Turns,” reflecting its central goal and its design around a simple piece-removal mechanism intended to make loops impossible while allowing potentially long games in a very small area.