word games: switchword

Switchword is a two player strategy word game. The aim of the game is have more of your colored letter pieces on the board (to own more squares of the board) than your opponent by the time the game ends. The game ends when the last empty square is filled with a piece.

Players take turns to place one of their letter pieces on the board. Green plays first. A player can choose any letter to place.

Players may place a piece either on an empty square or on top of one of their own pieces - i.e. on a square that is occupied by one of their pieces. Note that only one extra piece can be placed on top of another piece and that second piece must be a different letter.

As well as placing letters, players can capture squares owned by the opposing player. When a letter piece is placed such that it creates a word – in a line, either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally – all the letters of that word are switched to the color of the player who placed that final letter.

Any English language word of 4 letters or greater is valid.

There is a restriction on this, however: in order to switch the color of the letters of a word, a player must own two or more of the letters in that word, inclusive of that last letter that was placed.

In other words, for instance, a player cannot just add a letter to the end of a word that is entirely composed of an opposing player’s pieces – they must first capture at least one other letter of that word. Players can switch multiple words at the same time by creating words in several directions with the same letter.