Simple rules, quick rounds and rather subtle tactics, Pylos is one of the strangest yet most beautiful abstract games, and winner of several “Game of the Year” awards around the world. The object is to save your marbles so that you can be the one to place a marble at the very top of the pyramid.

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.