I'm very glad you've chosen to learn more about Ingenious. The game, designed by Reiner Knizia is an abstract tile laying game for 1-4 players. This implementation supports one human player against 1-3 computer/bot opponents. Sit back and enjoy the game and I highly recommend you visit your local game store or shop online and buy a copy for your game collection. This implementation may work when you cannot find suitable opponents but sitting down and playing face to face with friends is how the fun starts. If you already know how to play and you wish to know how to make this implementation work, jump to the bottom of the rules for a quick explanation.
The Ingenious board is a large hexagon of hexagons suitable for playing with four players. If you only have three players the outter ring of hexes is not used and if you only have two players, the last two outter rings of hexes remain unused.
Each player holds 6 of the 120 tiles (each tile is composed of two connected hexes). On your turn you place a tile on the board in any location you desire such that the tile does not overlap any other tiles or the pre-printed symbols on the board and the entire tile remains within the confines of the board hexes allowed for the number of players you have. The tile is neither required to touch other tiles nor match in color. The only caveat is that during your first play, your tile must be placed against one of the preprinted symbols on the board and each player must play on a different symbol.
Each player also holds a scoreboard depicting 6 cubes in the available colors depicted on the tiles. When you place a tile you score the number of points in the colors depicted on your tile equal to the number of matching colors emanating in the five directions from each end of the hex (the sixth direction is where the two parts of the tile are joined). You simply follow, in a straight line, outwards from the ends of your tile counting matching colors (you don't count the tile itself) until you find a non-matching color.
After determining your score you advance the appropriate cubes along your scoring track. When any of your cubes reach 18 points (the maximum score for any one color)you've scored an Ingenious and you recieve an optional bonus move that you must take immediately or skip entirely. You can continue to score points in that color but you no longer mark the points on your track.
After placing all of the tiles allowed on your turn (usually only one tile unless you've scored one or more Ingenious), you refill your hand from the supply up to the allowed six tiles and the next player takes their turn. Immediately before you refill your hand and when conditions are right, you can optionally choose to set all of your tiles to the side and refill your entire hand from the supply. The tiles you set aside are then placed back in the supply. The swap conditions are met if the color of your lowest score (or colors of your lowest scores in the event of ties) cannot be found on any of the tiles that remain in your hand. For example, if blue and red are tied at five on your score board, then you are allowed to swap all of your tiles if neither blue nor red can be found on any of the tiles in your hand. During a face to face game, your tiles must be shown to the other players before you are allowed to draw new tiles.
The game ends immediately when a player scores 18 in all colors (an extreme rarity) or when there are no valid tile locations on the board. In the latter case, each player calculates their score by starting at the left end of their scoreboard and by locating the first cube. The position of this cube determines your score. The winner is the player with the highest...lowest score in any color. Ties are resolved by removing the same number of cubes that are tied and recalculating your score.
Again, for complete details of the game rules, just go buy the game and enjoy it with your friends and family. Now, how does this implementation work. When you launch the game you will be asked for the number of players and the skill level you wish your opponents to possess.
How To Place Tiles
Your scoreboard and hand of tiles is on the lower right hand side of the game. On your turn you simple click and drag the tile of your choice to the board and drop it in place. Remember your first placement must be against one of the 'unoccupied' preprinted tiles. The tile can be rotated while you are dragging it by striking any key on your keyboard. To end your turn, drop the tile where you want to place it and strike the 'd' or the 'k' key (welcome left-handers!). To indicate you wish to swap your tiles, you select the 's' or the 'l' key.
After you drag and drop a tile onto the board, it will snap into place if it's a valid placement. The adjacent scorable tiles will be lit up to help you determine your best move.
Comments on the game are welcome and appreciate any feedback you'd like to give. Visit the Ingenious Topic for more information.