Palago

About this board game

Palago is a two-player tile-placement game played in about 15 minutes, in which White and Blue compete to form a closed, surrounded island of their colour.

The game uses a shared pool of 48 hexagonal arch tiles. Every tile contains both a white arch and a blue arch, and each tile can be oriented in three ways. Its corner colours remain the same through each rotation, giving players different placement options while preserving the tile’s colour arrangement.

White begins by placing two adjacent tiles. Players then take turns adding two adjacent tiles, matching the colours along the edges of the newly placed tiles with neighbouring tiles. Each addition develops the shared pattern and can bring one or both colours closer to a completed group.

• Players: 2
• Playing time: 15 minutes
• Release year: 2008
• Winning goal: Form a surrounded island of your colour containing at least one arch

A player wins by forming a surrounded island of their colour that contains at least one arch. The position can change quickly as both players add tiles to the same arrangement, so every placement matters.

There is also a striking twist to Palago’s victory condition: if a move creates winning groups for both White and Blue, the player who made that move loses. Players must therefore seek their own closed group while avoiding a placement that completes both sides at once.

With its shared supply, matching edges, rotating hexagonal tiles, and unusual double-win penalty, Palago presents a focused contest for two players built around forming closed colour groups.