Virus Wars is a two-player board game that simulates an evolution of two colonies of viruses, which are growing and absorbing (zombifying) each other. The exact origin of the game is unknown but it was actively played as a paper-and-pencil game in Saint Petersburg State University in 80s. There were several variants of the game with slightly different rules.
|The goal of the game is to leave the opponent without legal moves.|
The game begins with an empty board.
Both players have an unlimited number of viruses of their color: Blue and Red.
Starting with Blue, players take turns making 5 steps per turn. Each step can be either generation or absorption:
A square is "accessible" in the following cases:
Below is the example of one move:
At the beginning of the game the board is empty and there are no "accessible" squares so the Blue player can put his first virus on any square on the left edge of the board and the Red player can put his first virus on any square on the right edge of the board.
A player must do all 5 steps per his turn. If a player is unable to do all 5 steps then the player loses the game.