Overview

Rise! is an abstract strategy game for two players published by Crash Games in 2012. Players race to be the first to construct three towers on a growing hex-tile game board, moving workers to surround empty spaces and build upward. The game combines tile placement, area control, and worker manipulation in a fast-playing head-to-head contest.

Components

• Hexagonal land tiles
• Worker pieces in two player colors
• Tower pieces (3 per player, each with 3 layers)
• Starting tile

Setup

1. Place the starting land tile in the center of the play area.
2. Each player takes all workers and tower pieces of their color.
3. Determine a first player.

Turn Structure

On each turn, a player takes exactly two actions. The same action may be taken twice. Available actions:

1. Place a Worker: Place one of your workers on an empty space adjacent to any of your workers already on the board.
2. Move a Worker: Move one of your workers to an adjacent empty space.
3. Jump an Opponent: Jump over an adjacent opponent’s worker, landing on the empty space beyond it. The jumped worker is removed from the game.
4. Sacrifice Workers: Remove two of your own workers from the board to either remove one opponent’s worker or place one of your workers on any empty space on the board.
5. Place a Land Tile: Add a new hex tile to the board, adjacent to any existing tile.

Actions

Tower Construction: If at any point during play you have a ring of six of your workers surrounding a single empty hex space, you immediately place the first layer of one of your towers in that surrounded space. Your ring of six workers must remain intact for two additional turns (your next two turns) for the second and third layers to be added. If the ring is broken (by opponent jumps or other disruptions), the tower stops growing; you may complete the ring later to resume construction.

Worker Placement: Workers must always be placed adjacent to at least one of your existing workers, maintaining connectivity of your force.

Jumping: Jumping removes the opponent’s worker permanently. This is the primary way to disrupt an opponent’s tower-building rings.

Sacrifice: Removing two of your workers is costly but allows strategic repositioning or targeted removal of key enemy workers.

Scoring / Victory Conditions

A player wins by either:

1. Building Three Towers: Be the first to complete all three towers (each requiring the ring of six workers to remain intact for three turns total).
2. Eliminating All Opponents: Remove all of the opponent’s workers from the board.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• Tower rings: The six surrounding workers must all be the same color (the building player’s color).
• A tower layer is only added at the start of the building player’s turn if the ring is still intact.
• If a ring is broken and later reformed, construction resumes from where it left off.
• Land tiles can only be placed adjacent to existing tiles, gradually expanding the board.
• Workers on the board edge have fewer adjacencies, making them harder to surround but also harder to maintain rings near edges.

Player Reference

Actions per turn: 2 (may repeat the same action).

Tower building: 6 workers in ring around empty hex > Layer 1 placed > Ring survives 2 more turns > Layers 2 and 3 added.

Win conditions: 3 completed towers OR eliminate all opponent workers.