Stained Glass

How to play

2 to 4 glaziers each build a stained-glass window of 5 rows and 5 columns. Each row and each column holds the five colours once, in a fixed pattern printed on your window. The highest score at the end wins.

A round

• The round starts with crates of 4 panes drawn from the bag: 5 crates for 2 players, 7 for 3, 9 for 4.
• On your turn, take every pane of one colour from one crate: the rest of that crate goes to the table. Or take every pane of one colour from the table: the first player to do so also takes the starter token, which falls into their shards.
• Lay the panes on one of your five ledges. The first ledge holds 1 pane, the fifth holds 5, and all the panes on a ledge are the same colour. A ledge cannot take a colour already set in that row of your window. Whatever does not fit breaks into your shards; you may also break everything on purpose.
• The round ends once the crates and the table are empty.

Setting the panes

• Each full ledge sets one pane into its row of your window, in the place of its colour; the other panes of that ledge are lost. Ledges that are not full keep their panes for the next round.
• A pane alone scores 1. Otherwise it scores the panes in an unbroken line with it across, plus those in an unbroken line with it up and down.
• Your shards cost 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3 and 3 points, from the first to the seventh; more are simply lost. A score never drops below 0.
• The holder of the starter token plays first in the next round.

The end

• The game ends after the round in which a window gets a full row.
• Each full row scores 2 more, each full column 7 more, and each colour set five times 10 more.
• The highest score wins. On a tie, the most full rows wins; then the tied players share the win.