Two holdings, one empty border. The first piece on the board is your castle — everything you hold hangs off it. Every turn you lay one tile against your own land; it must touch something you already hold.
Tiles come in ten shapes, seen from above: pairs, corners, squares, bars, tees, ells, esses and zeds. They notch into each other — the hole one shape leaves is the hole another shape fills, so the ground you leave behind matters as much as the ground you take. R turns the tile; it hangs off the cursor, so the four turns reach in four directions.
Each tile carries one or two slots, the only ground you can build on. Big tiles bring land, small tiles bring slots.
The next queue shows you the shape of what is coming and nothing else. Where the slots fall is hidden until the tile is in your hand.
You cannot see the other holding until you have joined to it — enemy land you have not reached shows as a blank grey block.
Buildings never move; they muster a soldier every few turns. Each soldier has 2 steps a turn and may move or strike. Land is the only road — soldiers walk on laid tiles, yours or theirs.
Equal types trade — both fall. A Claimer beside an enemy tile with no building on it and nobody standing on it can take the whole tile: it comes off the board and into your hand to lay again anywhere you like. The Claimer settles there and is spent.
Every tile a player holds must trace back to their castle across their own land. Cut the neck and the whole limb comes away — take the one tile joining a stretch of their land to their castle, and every tile behind it is severed and drops into your hand too, buildings and all. Anyone standing on severed ground is lost with it, yours as well as theirs.
So the tile worth taking is rarely the nearest one. Look for the neck.
Take the enemy castle tile. Throwing the castle down is not enough — a Ram breaks the building (6 health), and that only opens the ground. A Claimer still has to walk in and take the bare tile. So it needs both, and a Blade to clear the guard off it.
Failing that, hold the most land when round 20 ends.