About Building Stonehenge
Building Stonehenge is a solo dice puzzle by Ben Morayta, set in the legend that Merlin raised the stones. The board is a double ring: you draft dice into the inner circle and move them out to the 12 spaces of the outer circle, where they become the posts of Stonehenge. Each move goes through a control tile and gives you an action, such as adding or subtracting pips, flipping or rerolling a die, or swapping tiles. When two posts stand side by side, you lay a lintel on top and take its action too.
It placed 10th for Best Overall Game at the BoardGameGeek 2024 Solitaire Print and Play Contest. The designer lists 1 player, ages 7 and up and 15 to 20 minutes, and the files are a free download from his Google Drive. It is a calm puzzle for solo players and a good one to teach children who are comfortable adding and subtracting small numbers. The rules include an easier option and a harder one.
How to play in one minute
- Lay out the board, place the starting control tiles where the centre arrows point, fill the other spaces with random tiles and set the 10 lintels beside the board. Roll 6 dice into your pool and keep 9 aside.
- On your turn, either place a die from your pool on the inner space whose centre arrow matches its value, or move a die on the inner circle through an adjacent control tile whose arrow matches its value.
- Every move triggers the tile’s action on another die. A die that reaches the outer circle removes the tile it used and unlocks a new die for your pool.
- When two dice stand next to each other on the outer circle, you must place a lintel on them and use its action; those dice are then fixed.
- Fill all 12 outer spaces to win. If you ever have no legal move, you lose.
What’s in the PDF
- Rules v1.1g: 4 Letter pages in colour with diagrams and the list of actions.
- Print-and-play file: the round board and all the tiles on 5 Letter pages.
- A higher-contrast board and a tile sheet with cutting margins, each one page.
- You add 15 ordinary dice.
In the PDF
- Rules v1.1g (4 Letter pages)
- Print-and-play file: board, 18 control tiles and 10 lintel tiles (5 Letter pages)
- Higher-contrast board (1 page) and tiles with margins (1 page)
