Stacks

This game is played on an empty 4x4 board. Each player starts with 24 pieces off board. On each turn, each player must do one of the following actions: - Drop a stack of 1, 2 or 3 stones into an empty cell. - Drop any number of stones on top of a friendly stack. - Move a stack into an adjacent (orthogonal or diagonal) empty cell. However, after the move the stack loses one stone (stacks of size 1 cannot move). - Move into and capture an adjacent enemy stack of smaller size (so stacks of size 1 cannot capture either). The attacking stack loses the number of stones equal to the captured stack plus one. All stones return to the players reserves. A player cannot make partial attacks, he must move all the stones of the attacking stack. Wins the player that makes a 4 in-a-row containing friendly stacks with the same size (like 4 stacks of size 3) or an equal, step-wise increment from start to end of the row (e.g., 1-2-3-4, 1-3-5-7, 2-5-8-11).