Polymathing Studios Worth the While

A social strategy board game · Up to 4 players

escape.capture.betray.

The city's top Dons have come to a safe house for negotiations, but talks have broken down fast. Now it's every Don for themselves. The first Don to escape the city wins.

Buy now How to play
The story of Encircle
PlayersUp to 4Best with 4 players, plays from 2 to 4
Play time30 – 40 minPer round
Time to learn< 10 minEasy to learn, hard to master
Ages14+Game nights with adults and 14+

On the table

A round board. Four Dons. Twenty-four henchmen.

An Encircle game in afternoon light: four Dons in the safe house and coloured henchmen spread across the rings
Looks beautiful on the table
Henchmen of all four colours spread across the Encircle board, with the Dons in the safe house
Different board set-up every game
The Encircle box and rulebook on the board with pieces
Box, board and rulebook

Strategy meets social

Think two steps ahead. Then watch the table.

Make and break alliances on a board that changes every game. The streets are crawling with the other Dons' henchmen, and you have your own to fight for you. The social side may disrupt your strategy.

Escape or stop others escaping? Capture or avoid capture? Make alliances or betray your pacts? Act now or plan for later?

Easy to learn, rich in play

A small set of rules and familiar mechanics. An evolving board and player interaction make every game different.

New board every time

Players set the starting position by placing their own henchmen, so no two games start the same.

Cross and double cross

Escape the board while stopping others from escaping first. Alliances are short-lived and broken as often as they're made.

One wrong step

Every move reshapes the board. It's a tense game of capture and escape where positioning is everything.

The ninja move

Backup: two henchmen, anywhere.

Down to your last two henchmen? You get two more, and you can place them anywhere on the board. Just when a rival thinks they're out, backup lands right in their path.

“The henchmen replacement rule is diabolical. Just when you think you're on the brink of winning, you get thwarted.”
See the backup rule
Rulebook diagram: purple is down to 2 henchmen, and 2 more placed next turn block red

The story so far

The streets are watching.

Four Dons around a café table under a lamp

The Big Boss is no more

The four Dons have gathered in the safe house to confer. The talks go sour and they all run. The first Don to escape the board wins.

A Don surrounded by henchmen in a cobbled alley

But escape is not easy

The henchmen are crawling all over the board, blocking you and threatening to capture you. One wrong move and you lose.

Yellow and purple henchmen clashing on a city street

Cross. Double cross.

Use your henchmen, form alliances with others and plot your escape. But beware of surprise twists. And can you really trust the other Dons?

Will you be the one to make it out first?

From players

Easy to start. Hard to master.

4.8
★★★★★Amazon.in customer rating

“Encircle somehow manages to be simple to start, strategic, collaborative and a lot of fun collusion.”

Ishwar · Verified purchase

“You need to combine strategy and social dynamics to win this one and that creates interesting situations! Highly recommend.”

Amazon customer · Verified purchase

“People kept colluding, sometimes with me and then suddenly against me! The henchmen replacement rule is diabolical.”

Amazon customer · Amazon review

How to play

Be the first Don out of the city.

The first Don to safely escape the board wins: from the safe house, through the six rings, and off the edge of the board.

  • 1Set up. Dons start in the safe house. Players take turns placing their henchmen anywhere on the board.
  • 2Move. Dons go one step in any direction. Henchmen go any distance along a ring or a sector.
  • 3Capture. Take a piece one step away diagonally. Capture a Don and all its pieces go.
  • 4Scheme and escape. Make and break alliances, call in backup, and get out past ring 6.

Watch the full game explained in 2½ minutes.

1

Board and set-up

The board

  • A circular board with a safe house in the centre.
  • 6 rings outside the safe house.
  • Divided into 12 sectors (pie slices).

Player pieces

PlayersDonHenchmen
2 to 3One6 each
4One5 each

Set-up: a new board every time

  • All players place their Dons in the safe house.
  • Choose the first player randomly. Players take turns clockwise and place one henchman per turn, anywhere on the board.
  • Continue until all henchmen are placed.

Placement restriction: no more than two henchmen of the same colour may be placed in the same ring. This rule is only for set-up, and ends once the moves start.

Safe houseRingSector
A Don in a hat and a henchman in a beanie
Each player has one Don and their henchmen
Rulebook example of a board after set-up, with henchmen of four colours spread across the rings
A new board every time
2

Moves and turns

Turn

  • Players take turns clockwise.
  • On a turn, move any one of your pieces (Don or henchman).
  • You can move your piece into an empty cell or capture a piece.

Don movement

  • It only moves one space per turn.
  • It can go one step in any direction: along a sector, along a ring or diagonally.

Henchman movement

  • It can move any number of steps in a turn, along its current ring (clockwise or anti-clockwise) or along its current sector (in or out).
  • No diagonal move into an empty space.
  • It cannot turn direction during a move.

Blocks: occupied cells in your path are a block. You cannot jump over a piece.

Safe house

  • The safe house borders all 12 sectors, so a Don can move out of it into any sector in a one-step straight move.
  • The safe house is only for Dons. They can go back to it any time with a one-step move.
  • Henchmen can pass through the safe house if it's unoccupied, but cannot stay there.
Don can move into any shaded cell
Henchman moves along its ring or sector, until blocked
3

Capture

How capture works

  • Capture means removing an opponent's piece from the board.
  • A piece may capture an opponent's piece in an adjacent diagonal space. Remember: diagonal and adjacent only.
  • Both Dons and henchmen can capture, and be captured by, any piece.
  • Henchmen move one space diagonally only to capture.
  • When a henchman is captured, it is removed from the board. When a Don is captured, that player is eliminated and all of their pieces are removed too.

No capture

  • Capturing is optional, not mandatory.
  • The first move of the game cannot be a capture.
  • When a Don steps out of the safe house it cannot capture. This counts as a straight move, not a diagonal one.
  • You can't capture your own piece.

Dangerous streets: rings 5 and 6, the two outermost rings, are dangerous for a Don. It can't capture while it is in them or while it is entering them. A Don can still be captured there by henchmen.

Four capture examples: one step diagonal is allowed; diagonal but two steps, one step but not diagonal, and capturing your own piece are not
Dangerous streets: a red Don in ring 5 can be captured; a green Don entering ring 5 cannot capture
4

Special plays and winning

Alliances

  • Players may form alliances and act against another player.
  • Alliances are temporary and non-binding, and can be broken at any time for any reason. Forming and breaking them is strictly voluntary.
  • There is no limit to the number of alliances you can form or break.

Tip: use just-in-time alliances to ward off an impending threat, or to stop an advancing Don in its tracks.

Backup

  • When a player is down to two henchmen (the others captured), they get 2 more henchmen back to place on the board.
  • They can place these two henchmen anywhere on the board on any later turn.
  • The player must use one of their turns to place them, and both must be placed on the same turn.

Winning the game

  • The first Don to escape out from the last ring wins.
  • The last Don remaining, when all others are captured, also wins.
  • Players can choose to play for 2nd and 3rd place too. When a Don escapes, its pieces come off and the others play on.
Backup: purple is down to two henchmen and places two more, blocking red
The Encircle box and rulebook next to the board and pieces

Buy now

Get Encircle

4.8
★★★★★Amazon.in customer rating
Buy on Amazon.in
Sold by Polymathing StudiosFulfilled by Amazon10-day replacementMade in India

What's in the box

Complete set. Play right away.

4Don pieces
24Henchmen pieces
1Circular game board
1Rulebook

Polymathing Studios is an independent board game studio from India, by Abhishek Verma. Encircle is our first and flagship game.

Our games

Social

Played across the table. Alliances, arguments and a lot of laughing.

Strategic

Few rules, real decisions. Easy to learn, hard to master.

Superfun

Rounds of 30 to 40 minutes that end with “one more game”.

Our first game · Flagship

encircle

Four Dons. One safe house. The first to escape the city wins.

Explore Encircle
Overdot artwork: coloured dots on whiteOverdot artwork: coloured dots on dark grey

Coming soon

Overdot

Our next game is on the way.