Rules
Wall Go is a game of moving pieces and building walls on a 7x7 board of squares. Each player tries to close off the biggest land for themselves.
Setup
The board starts empty. Players take turns placing their pieces on empty squares: with 2 players each has 4 pieces; with 3 or 4 players each has 2. The order snakes (1, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 2, 1) so nobody places twice first.
A turn
- Move one of your pieces up to 2 squares, up, down, left or right. A two-square move may turn a corner. Pieces cannot pass through walls or other pieces. You may also keep the piece where it is, if it could step out to a free square and back.
- Build a wall on one side of that piece: the wall goes on the line between its square and a neighbour. Walls cannot go on the outer edge of the board, and they never come down.
Land
Walls split the board into areas. An area with only one player’s pieces inside is that player’s land. An area with nobody’s pieces belongs to no one. An area with pieces of two or more players is still open.
End and scoring
When no area holds pieces of two players, the game ends. Each square of your land is one point; the most points wins.
Our version
- Board and pieces follow the show: a 7x7 board, 4 pieces each for 2 players and 2 each for 3 or 4.
- Placement is free on any empty square, in snake order. The first player is the room’s host (you, against the AI).
- Ties: the bigger single area wins; if that is equal too, it is a draw.
- No wall limit. The game always ends: every turn adds a wall.
- Settled players skip. In a 3 or 4 player game, a player whose pieces are all in land of their own has nothing left to do and is skipped. A player with no legal turn is skipped too.
- Timer: 60 seconds per turn. Running out places your piece near the centre during setup, or skips your turn later.
- AI: every level guesses who will get each square (whoever can reach it first). Easy is noisy and sometimes random; medium takes the best guess; hard also checks your best reply.
Sources: the show and fan write-ups of its rules.
Strategy
Spread out at the start. Each piece claims the squares it can reach first. Pieces placed next to each other claim little more than one.
Cut, then close. Use walls to cut the board between your pieces and theirs, then close the gaps. A wall right next to an opponent’s piece shrinks the area it can reach.
Count before you close. Closing an area early locks it in, but also locks you out of the rest of the board. Close it when it is at least as big as what you can still win.
Trap a piece. A rival piece walled into a tiny space owns only that space.