Rules

The board (the haunted castle) starts empty.

A Visit to the Haunted Castle

Two players, Red and Black, take turns placing one ball of their colour either on an empty board hole or on a 2×2 platform. Starting with Red the pyramid is built up until in the last turn Black places the white ball (Spooky the ghost) on top.

Then Red makes the first move of the second phase of the game.

The Getaway
(To be played in candlelight.)

On their turn a player must either

• remove a ball (of any colour) to drop Spooky or
• remove a free ball (of any colour) which is orthogonally adjacent to Spooky and move Spooky there. If possible this move may be repeated arbitrarily removing additional balls of the same colour.

Only if no move is available then

• if Spooky is isolated he must be placed orthogonally adjacent to any ball on the board or on a platform,
• otherwise one unpinned ball of the opponent must be removed (a ball drop may occur).

As usual, pinned balls (supporting more than one ball) may not be removed.

Aim

The player who has no more balls of their colour on the board wins the game.