BILOBA(6)

📦
version 0.9.3 · 4 versions
, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu noble

🎀 BILOBA(6) 🎀

okay bestie, so biloba is the whole main character here — this is her manual page, and she lives in section 6 of the manual (that's the games corner, iykyk). everything you need is down below. no skips, no summaries, we're doing the whole thing. 💖

💫 NAME 💫

biloba — multiplayer strategy board game. that's the name. slay. ✨

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

biloba [server]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So this manual page documents, briefly, the biloba command. 💅

And real talk: this manual page was written for the Debian™ distribution because the original program does not have a manual page. like, upstream just... didn't write one. so Debian said fine, I'll do it myself. iconic behavior, honestly.

biloba is an abstract strategy board game which allows up to four players. FOUR. a whole squad. 👑

It allows single player gaming against its own AI engine — yes she comes with her own AI engine, self-sufficient queen 💅 — and multiplayer gaming through the network. 🌈

🎮 GAME RULES 🎮

ok so the game has a help facility included — it's the question mark icon in the top right corner. click it and the rules are fully explained with graphic diagrams. and to advance through the help screens you just click anywhere on the screen. literally anywhere. go wild bestie.

For completeness, a summary of the rules extracted from the game homepage is included below. 🫶

🎯 Goal

The goal of the game is to remove all opponent's pawns from the board. that's it. that's the goal. no mercy. 💀

🚶 Moving

A pawn can move to the next free tile in any direction (a). A pawn can also jump over any other pawn, one at a time, but never backwards (b). never backwards!! read it again!! 😭

         · | · | ·       · |   | · |   | ·
        ---+---+---     ---+---+---+---+---
         · | O | ·         | X | X | X |
        ---+---+---     ---+---+---+---+---
         · | · | ·       · | X | O | X | ·

        (a) Movement    (b) Jumping

💥 Taking and replacing

An enemy pawn is taking by placing two pawns on each side of one of its horizontal, vertical or diagonal axis.

           |   |         | X |         |   | X
        ---+---+---   ---+---+---   ---+---+---
         X | O | X       | O |         | O |
        ---+---+---   ---+---+---   ---+---+---
           |   |         | X |       X |   |

The pawn is then removed from the board, and replaced by one of the two pawns that took it out.

           |   |         | X |         |   | 🡗
        ---+---+---   ---+---+---   ---+---+---
         X | X | ←       | X |         | X |
        ---+---+---   ---+---+---   ---+---+---
           |   |         | ↑ |       X |   |

If more than one enemy pawns are taken in a same move, they will be all taken out of the board before doing the replacement. all of them. first. periodt.

           | X | X       | X | X       | X | 🡗
        ---+---+---   ---+---+---   ---+---+---
         X | O |       X |   |       X | X |
        ---+---+---   ---+---+---   ---+---+---
           | O | X     X |   | X     X | X | ←

If replacing a pawn lets you take out other ones, they must be removed first, and followed by more replacements.

Taking pawns is mandatory when possible, and unlimited. mandatory!! you don't get to just... not. 🙈

If a player is forced to take pawns at the beginning of the turn then take movements are made, replacements are made and turn is over.

If a player can take a pawn while not in turn (in 3 or 4 players games), will wait for the turn, and make take if it is still possible.

The turn is over when the player which started it has done all the possible takes and replacements.

✨ Special tile ✨

The tile at the center of the board is special. When a pawn enters it it's required to move again to any of the seven adjacent tiles. SEVEN. count them. 🧚

Pawns can't stop on the special tile. no loitering, no camping, keep it moving. 🚫

The special tile is not accessible by jumping over a pawn. nope, not even then.

🏁 End of game

The winner is the last player to have at least three pawns on the board.

As soon as a player only has two pawns left, and can't take an opponent's pawn out just after, that player loses and the two pawns left are removed from the board.

If, after having lost a pawn, player can take another pawn by doing a move, it's a draw.

⚙️ OPTIONS ⚙️

  • server — the optional machine name or address where a peer biloba is listening for a network game. Port used is 8000. 📡

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

💜 AUTHORS 💜

biloba was created and coded by Guillaume Demougeot <mailto:dmgt@wanadoo.fr> and Colin Leroy <mailto:colin@colino.net>. legends, truly.

This manual page was written by Ricardo Mones <mailto:mones@debian.org> for the Debian™ system (but may be used by others). sharing is caring 🫶

Copyright © 2005-2019 Ricardo Mones

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Version 2 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.

On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public License can be found in /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2.

and that's the whole page, bestie 💖 this one's from biloba version 0.9.3-11, dated 2023-01-13, straight out of section 6 of the manual. now go take some pawns. 🌸👑

📦 where this page comes from