In Pylos, you want to be one who places the final ball on top of the pyramid. Sounds simple enough, right?
At the start of the game, each player has fifteen balls, either light
or dark, and they take turns placing them on a game board that has
sixteen indentations on it in a 4x4 grid. Once four balls have been
placed next to one another in a square, a ball can be placed on top of
them, forming a second level of play. Players can then place balls on
this second level, eventually allowing a ball to be placed on the third
level – and once that level is full, which requires only four balls, a
final ball can be placed on the fourth level, with that player winning
the game.
If a player forms a square of his own color – that is, four balls
placed next to one another on the same level – that player can remove
one or two of his balls (that don't support anything) from anywhere on
the board and place them in his reserve, thereby giving him more balls
to place in the future. Whenever a player forms a square that's not
entirely his own color, he can "stack" one of his pieces – that is, he
can take any ball and place it on this square, locking some pieces in
place and making a move without having to place a piece from his
reserve.
The rules include a variant for children (that removes the square
bonus) and one for experts (that allows a player to return 1-2 balls to
his reserve when he creates a line of his color).
