5.2 Resolution

To make and maintain connections on each of Rim, First Tier, and Second Tier is the primary goal of a game of . The player who first achieves all three of these simultaneous connections is said to have Resolved the game.

For beginners, the suggested rules for determing if a pattern of three connections is a resolved pattern are simply these: a resolved pattern must consist of one connection on Rim, one connection on First Tier, and one connection on Second Tier. Connections on the Center Tier cannot be resolving connections.

The following discussion of Connections and Resolving Connections refers to Figure .

In Figure , most of the pieces shown are connected, except for the blue Bards. Only the blue Bards are not connected because, although there is a certain symmetry between the spaces they occupy, the line of symmetry does not pass through the center of the board. In terms of the formal definition of a connection, they are not connected because none of the line-segments which form any of their spaces' sides are, in fact, on the same line themselves. In terms of the less formal definition of connections, the blue Bards are separated by less than 180 degrees on the board.

The red pieces in Figure show a Resolving pattern: the Fools are connected on the Rim, the Bards are connected on the First Tier, and the Heralds are connected on the Second Tier. Since the blue Bards are not connected, blue cannot be Resolved. Nonetheless, the blue player could achieve resolution by establishing a connection between his or her Bards on either Rim or on First Tier, since the blue Heralds are connected on the Second Tier, and the blue Fools are connected on ambiguous spaces.²