Divided Loyalties — Remote

Play online. Both players enter the same Room ID — the first to connect is Blue (and picks the starting position), the second is Yellow.

Your name

Room ID (both players enter the same ID)

ParaDos Abstract Games

DIVIDED LOYALTIES

Choose starting position

Pick one of the starting positions — the board pieces will be placed accordingly on the grid.

BLUE'S TURN

BLUE

Bridges 0 · Regions 0

YELLOW

Bridges 0 · Regions 0

🎲 Game Description

Perhaps the craziest Connect Four game ever. In order to fully understand all the necessary details, please also watch the video.

Two players · 40–80 minutes. Many turns are offensive and defensive, and every single one has consequences. This is connect 3 or 4 — but with six colours. Your colour is always loyal to you, your opponent's never is. And the other four? Sometimes they are and sometimes they aren't. Tiles can even be loyal in one direction and disloyal in another.

Introduction

Before starting to play, it is important to internalize how the six colours of the colour wheel are interrelated. Neighbouring colours are referred to as "Colour +". For instance, Red + refers to red, orange and purple; Green + refers to green, blue and yellow.

One player is blue, the other yellow. Divided Loyalties is played over three or four rounds. In each round the blue player receives four blue, three purple, two green, two red and one orange stone. The yellow player receives four yellow, three orange, two green, two red and one purple stone.

The Dilemmas

The dilemmas occur on virtually every move. Principally they arise from the divided loyalties of the secondary colours. For instance, whenever you place a green tile ostensibly to create a bridge for yourself, you are simultaneously assisting your opponent, who can use that tile to create a bridge for themselves in a different direction — possibly even placing that bridge before yours, and in a worst case, which happens often enough, blocking the row you were intending to create.

Placing a Red + tile within your row is even more hazardous. Any row that has a Red + tile on the inside is vulnerable to being cut by a red bridge in another direction. All diagonal rows are particularly in danger, as a Red + diagonal row can cut them without even having any common squares. These bridges must immediately be defended, otherwise they will inevitably be cut.

Another way to explain this: in your supply of 12 stones there are 9 which you can use to create your rows, 3 which your opponent can use to create theirs, and 6 which either of you can use to create Red + rows to menace each other. All of this because a majority of the colours have divided loyalties, and each colour's loyalty is divided in a different way.

📜 The Rules (Epic Version)

1. Colour Groups (Colour +)

Each player uses a "Colour +" made up of neighbouring hues on the colour wheel:

Blue +: Blue, Purple, Green.
Yellow +: Yellow, Orange, Green.
Red + (Destruction): Red, Purple, Orange.

2. Bridge Building & Scoring

Bridge points: rows of 3 stones score 1 point (3-bridge), rows of 4 stones score 2 points (4-bridge).
Region bonus: every bridge that is your first in a region (a board like S1, G4 …) gives 1 extra point — but only if the bridge completely covers an inner cell of that board (endpoints don't count because the line only half-covers them).
Separate display: bridge and region points are shown separately — add them yourself at the end.
Important: two identical colours may not lie directly next to each other.
A bridge must be placed in the same turn as the stone that completes the row.
Bridges can't be extended later! — Walter. A new bridge cannot share two or more stones with any existing (non-cut) bridge. This blocks not only growing a 3 into a 4 later, but also overlapping 3-bridges along the same line (e.g., existing [A,B,C] + new [B,C,D] — would look like a 4 and is therefore forbidden). Single shared stones are allowed only as a junction — the shared stone must be the end of at least one of the two bridges (a fan-out, an L or T, or two 3-bridges end-to-end down a line sharing only the middle stone). A bridge running straight through another (a +/× with the shared stone in the middle of both) is not allowed — see rule 3: nobody covers or crosses another bridge. If you instead only add a fourth stone to a row (without a prior 3-bridge), the option of a direct 4-bridge stays open — but then you risk the opponent cutting in between.
How to place a bridge: double-click (or double-tap) the first stone of the row, then double-click the last stone. If the row is valid (3 or 4 stones, all in your colour group or all red, no two identical colours in a row), the bridge is drawn. A second double-click on the same stone clears the selection again.
If you place on a dot (off-board cell), the stone is only placed — no bridge is drawn automatically. You form the bridge you want yourself by double-click, exactly like any other bridge. This keeps you in full control of which bridge is made (e.g. a shorter 3 instead of a 4 that would cross an existing bridge). A dot only lights up — and only accepts a tile — where at least one valid bridge is possible. Off-board rule: a stone on a dot is legal only if a bridge actually runs through it that turn; if you end your turn without bridging it, the stone is taken back and the tile returned to your supply.

3. Red Bridges & Cutting ("Cut")

Red bridges are used for defence.
When a red bridge crosses blue/yellow bridges, every one it crosses loses its value — red cuts all of them in that placement, not just the first.
Nobody crosses an existing bridge: blue or yellow bridges cannot retroactively cross a red (or any other) bridge — they must route around it. A red bridge can only cut a scoring one at the moment red is placed; once on the board, red locks its line for everyone (Walter, 2026-05-27).
Red can't cut red: a new red bridge is rejected if it would cross an existing red bridge — otherwise no defensive structures would be possible (Walter).
Geometry: bridges can only be cut at their inner cells; the endpoints are immune.
A crossing only happens at an inner cell or between cells — never at an endpoint (there bridges merely meet: an allowed junction). Only red may cross like this, and it cuts; a red bridge is also refused if its path would cross another red or an already-cut bridge.
Cut bridges stay on the board: a cut bridge is drawn grey and dashed — it loses both its bridge and its region points, but stays physically in play and still blocks anything you'd want to build across it (whether scoring or red).

4. Off-board Cells & Boards

Dots (•): the small dots mark cells outside the boards. Stones may only be placed on such dot cells if they complete a bridge in the same turn.
Several stones of a row may lie off-board — as long as each was placed by completing a bridge of its own. A later row may therefore run through two or three "dotted" stones.
Andres Kuusk (world champion of abstract games) calls this rule „an excellent rule":-)

5. Three Sets (Stock)

Each player doesn't get all 36 stones at once, but in three sets of 12.
Blue: 4 Blue, 3 Purple, 2 Green, 2 Red, 1 Orange — per set.
Yellow: 4 Yellow, 3 Orange, 2 Green, 2 Red, 1 Purple — per set.
As soon as a player has placed all 12 stones, they automatically receive the next set. The number of sets depends on the position: the "4-Round Games" run over 4 sets (display shows „Set 1/4 … 4/4"), the "3-Round Games" over 3. The current count is shown on the player's turn.
End-game tip: every set transition (after move 12, 24, …) noticeably shifts tactics — what's still in stock after the last set often decides the game.

6. End of Game

When all the tiles have been placed, the game is over. Occasionally, if each player has one or two remaining tiles and there does not seem to be a possibility for either player to place or cut a bridge, it may be decided to end the game at that point.
Bridge and region points are shown separately for each player, beneath the available stones. Merely add them together to determine who has won the game.

7. Undo & Save

↶ Undo move: each click on this button undoes one action — stone back into inventory, bridge removed, player's turn restored. Press it as many times as you like, all the way back to the start of the game.
Auto-save: the current game is automatically saved in the browser. When you close the page and reopen it later, „▶ Resume last game" appears at the top of the start menu.
💾 Save / 📂 Load: download the game state as a JSON file or load a previously saved file.
Share on WhatsApp (top): sends a link to the current position. With the option „Include position as CSV", the starting position is also attached as a CSV file so the recipient can load the same position.