Ingenious

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Ingenious is an abstract strategy board game designed by Reiner Knizia and published in 2004 by Kosmos under its German title Einfach Genial. It is also published by Mensa under the title Mensa Connections. Ingenious won the 2004 Schweizer Spielepreis and placed 5th in the Deutscher Spiele Preis.

The game can be played by two, three or four players. Each player has a hand of six randomly-chosen, hidden playing pieces which are placed on the board in turns. The board is made up of hexes, and every playing piece consists of two joined hexes, either with two different colours among them, or with both exes containing the same color. There are six different colours in total. Points are claimed by placing identically coloured hexes next to each other.

When no more pieces can be added to the board, players check the colour in which they have the least points. Whoever has the highest point value in their weakest colour is the winner of the game. In case of ties, the second weakest colour is checked, and so on.

In 2006, a travel version of the game was produced by Kosmos, called "Einfach Genial - Reiseedition", for two players only.