Martello is played on a 6x6 grid board. 36 stones in 6 different colors and 6 different patterns are shuffled and placed on the board before the game begins.
The game can be played with 1, 2 or 3 players. While the basic rules are equal for any number of players, the playing area can be different and the winning condition is always different!
Movements can be done vertically or horizontally, but a move without capturing another stone of the same color or pattern is not allowed.
Differences between the 3 versions:
1 player game: played on the whole board, trying to capture all stones and ending up with only 1 single stone on the board.
2 player game: each player plays on 4 rows (meaning that 2 rows are for both players) and tries to clean his rows better than the opponent
3 player game: played on the whole board and trying to eliminate all stones of a secretly chosen color first