Mutation rules and setup as it stands

First, a note on starting setups
One note that came from last night's playtest was the idea of having an initial setup of dice on the board to work from. I liked this idea so much I went out and bought a set of white die in order to have "neutral" die on the board to start.

Below are the 4 initial setup layouts for the different number of players, 2 and 4 in the first, and 3 and 5 in the second. 2 and 4 was pretty straightforward, but 3 and 5 were really tough. No matter how I arrainged the die, one of them was always closer to more enemies then the others. It is tough at the moment to decide which is an advantage and disadvantage. Being green seems disadvantagsous because it is nearer more two enemies as well as only having less open sides. however green starts with the greatest number of options for expanding, I hope this all works out in the end. Playtesting should shed some light there (in a mock 3 player game green ended up winning).




The Rules (as of now anyway)

This is intended to be a clear and concise ruleset for the next round of playtesting that I hope to have while in San Diego. There are some tweaks from our playtest last night.

1. Every player rolls a die to figure out who starts. The highest roll is the start player, reroll ties.
2. Each player takes 22 dice of their color, and then uses one of these to create the starting setup pattern that matches their number of players. All dice should be rolled before placing. If a 3 or 5 player game put the starting players die in the green position from the example pictures.
3. Whenever the term "adjacent" is used for the rest of the rules, this implies orthogonal adjacency. Diagonals are never considered adjacent. The top die on any stack is the only die that counts towards adjacency. Example: A die on top of 5 other dice is technically adjacent to a die orthogonally next to its stack but on the first level with no dice underneath it.
4. When the rules refer to a players "Strain" this is any number of adjacent die of their color on the board. A Strain can consist of one die.
5. The starting player rolls two die. They then place one of the die according to the following rules:
- Place the die on the first level, adjacent to one or multiple die of their color. The placed die's value MUST match ALL adjacent die of their color.
- Place the die on the first level, adjacent to any die which is not their color. The values do not have to match.
- Place the die on top of an existing die of a different color then the players. The covered die must be adjacent to a die of the players color as well as have the same value as the die which is placed on top. A opponents die cannot be covered if it is their last remaining top die on the board.
5. If the player rolled the same value on both dice, then they get to do a special removal action after placing their die in step 5. They may remove on opponents die permanently from the board with the following conditions:
- Opponents die must be at the top of a stack.
- Opponents die must be adjacent to one of the Player's Strains which is at least 2 dice in size.
6. The unused die from the player's roll goes back into their dice pool.
7. The next player clockwise now takes their turn starting at step 5.
8. If a player does not have 2 die to roll then they cannot take their turn and the game has ended.
9. The player with the largest Strain on the board is the winner.

In conclusion
I hope to get in a few playtest games while visiting friends in San Diego. Ideally i hope to try various numbers of players, especially 3 and 5. If you have any comments about the initial setups please let me know.

Here is the end of a mock 3 player game with the current initial startup. Green ended up winning but it didn't seem to have anything to due with it's bieng closer to more die numbers in the beginning.