The Board
Choose Ninestone or Ninestone II below, then place pieces from the reserve piles onto any empty node. Drag a piece already on the board to a different empty node to move it, or drag it off the board entirely to capture it — that's exactly the motion you'll use to show a class what happens after a capture. Captured pieces land in a holding pile below each reserve, not back in the reserve, so they can't be replayed — just like a real captured stone stays out of the game.
Black Reserve
Captured
Drag from a reserve pile → drop on an empty node to place. Drag a piece on the board → drop on another empty node to move it, or drop it outside the board to capture it. Captured pieces move to the holding pile below each reserve — they're out of play and can't be dragged back in.
White Reserve
Captured
Formed Right Now
- No Rails™ on the board yet — place three of one color in a row.
What the Rings Mean
Whenever three (or more, sharing a node) of one color line up along a valid ring edge or spoke, the simulator circles every piece involved in red and labels the group — and keeps that label up for as long as those exact nodes stay filled. Drag any one piece out of the group and the circle disappears immediately, just like a broken Rail™ in a real game.
Running a Lesson
- Start empty. Let one student place a few black pieces and another place white, with no turn order — the point is to isolate the shape of a Rail™, not to simulate a real match.
- Build toward a line on purpose. Place two pieces of one color on a ring edge or spoke, then ask the group where the third piece needs to go to complete it — drop it in and watch the ring appear.
- Break it, then re-form it. Drag one piece in the completed line to an adjacent empty node — the circle disappears — then drag it back onto its original node to re-form the Rail™. This is exactly how Oscillation works in real games: every re-formation is a new Rail™ and a new capture opportunity, without ever taking the piece fully off the board.
- Show a Double Rail™. On the outer ring, place two pieces flanking a spoke midpoint, then two more along the spoke itself, and complete both with the midpoint piece. Two red circles should appear joined at that shared node.
- Demonstrate a capture. Once a Rail™ is showing, drag any one opposing piece off the board and into its Captured holding pile — that's the physical motion a player makes after completing a Rail™ in a live game, and it shows the class why a captured stone can't just come back into play.
- Switch to Ninestone II once the basics land, to show how the four diagonal spokes open up new Rail™ paths through the corner nodes.
For a full lesson-plan writeup — including pacing for a single class period and discussion questions — see A Teacher's Guide to Ninestone in the Classroom.